Passes the Bechdel test
Carnage
2011. Directed by Roman Polanski, written by Yasmina Reza and Michael Katims and Roman Polanski.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 3 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 9 scenes out of 22. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.
The film
In New York's Brooklyn Bridge park, 11-year-old Zachary strikes his 11-year-old classmate Ethan. The boys' parents learn of the fight and meet to deal with the incident. Although the meeting starts civilized, it rapidly disintegrates after an unfortunate incident. Their meeting is now not only about their boys' fight, but also the couples' fitness as parents.
- Released
- 18 Nov 2011
- Genres
- Comedy, Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 61 / 100
- Awards
- 7 wins & 20 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Penelope 289 lines, woman
- Alan 285 lines, man
- Michael 263 lines, man
- Nancy 215 lines, woman
- Walter 33 lines, man
- Dennis 29 lines, man
- Michael'S Mother 25 lines, woman
- Female Associate 3 lines
- Michael’S Mother 3 lines, woman
Full cast, 12 people
- Jodie Foster as Penelope Longstreet
- Kate Winslet as Nancy Cowan
- Christoph Waltz as Alan Cowan
- John C. Reilly as Michael Longstreet
- Elvis Polanski as Zachary Cowan
- Eliot Berger as Ethan Longstreet
- Joseph Rezwin as Walter (voice)
- Nathan Rippy as Dennis (voice)
- Tanya Lopert as Michael's Mother (voice)
- Julie Adams as Secretary (voice)
- Lexie Kendrick as Jogger (voice) (uncredited)
- Roman Polanski as Neighbor
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 1 scene, start to finish. Women above the line, men below.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 22
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 to 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 to 3 | 8 | 6 |
| 4 to 4 | 43 | 37 |
| 5 to 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 6 to 6 | 46 | 74 |
| 7 to 7 | 2 | 2 |
| 8 to 8 | 19 | 19 |
| 9 to 9 | 58 | 88 |
| 10 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 11 | 25 | 30 |
| 12 to 12 | 1 | 0 |
| 13 to 13 | 4 | 3 |
| 14 to 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 to 15 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 to 16 | 11 | 9 |
| 17 to 17 | 0 | 0 |
| 18 to 18 | 7 | 2 |
| 19 to 19 | 1 | 0 |
| 20 to 20 | 4 | 6 |
| 21 to 21 | 301 | 330 |
| 22 to 22 | 0 | 0 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
PENELOPE: Only goes to show you. But hey, thank you for coming. It's so much better than getting caught up in that adversarial mindset. NANCY: Well we thank you. Really. PENELOPE: I don't think we have to thank each other. At least some of us still have a sense of community, right?
NANCY: Those tulips are gorgeous. PENELOPE: It's that little florist way up on Henry, you know? The one all the way up. NANCY: Oh right. PENELOPE: They fly the bulbs in straight from Holland, twenty dollars a load.
PENELOPE: We would so like to avoid root canal. NANCY: Of course. PENELOPE: So there's an observation period while they give the nerve a chance to heal.
PENELOPE: Apple and pear. NANCY: Apple and pear? PENELOPE: Yeah, it’s my own little recipe. It's too cold. Shame. NANCY: Apple and pear, that's new to me.
PENELOPE: She has to have an operation, poor thing. NANCY: Yeah? What for? PENELOPE: The knee.
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 47 are women's.
532 lines from women, 610 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
5 women and 6 men in the cast. 3 women and 4 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 21 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 46% of the words (5,083), men 54% (5,910). Women have 47% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
86
Two men
64
Exhibit F: behind the camera
3 of the 10 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 33% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Roman Polanski (man)
- Written by
- Roman Polanski (man), Yasmina Reza (woman)
- Produced by
- Saïd Ben Saïd (man)
- Shot by
- Paweł Edelman (man)
- Edited by
- Hervé de Luze (man)
- Music by
- Alexandre Desplat (man)
- Production design by
- Dean Tavoularis (man)
- Costumes by
- Milena Canonero (woman)
- Cast by
- Fiona Weir (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
4 women, 7 men, 3 not listed
-
Sound
2 women, 8 men
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Camera
0 women, 3 men, 2 not listed
-
Directing
2 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
-
Art
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
-
Visual Effects
0 women, 1 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 59 on average. Men: 38 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Kate Winslet 35, Jodie Foster 48, Tanya Lopert 69, Julie Adams 84
Men
Elvis Polanski 13, John C. Reilly 46, Christoph Waltz 54
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.2 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $25 million
- Box office
- $30.7 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 22 scenes and 1,145 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
