Fails the Bechdel test
Mute Witness
1995. Directed by Anthony Waller, written by Anthony Waller.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
4 women characters. 2 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
Billy Hughes, a mute make-up artist working on a slasher movie being shot in Moscow, is locked in the studio after hours. While there, she witnesses a brutal murder, and must first escape capture at that time, then keep from being killed before convincing authorities of what she's seen. Plot twists galore follow as Billy tries to stay alive.
- Released
- 15 Sep 1995
- Genres
- Crime, Horror, Thriller
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.7 / 10
- Awards
- 3 wins & 3 nominations
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Karen 148 lines, woman
- Andy 145 lines, man
- Larsen 62 lines, man
- Lyosha 31 lines, man
- Digital Voice 21 lines
- First Policeman 17 lines, man
- Arkadi 13 lines, man
- The Reaper 9 lines, man
- Natasha 6 lines, woman
- Telephone Operator 6 lines
Full cast, 17 people
- Marina Zudina as Billy Hughes
- Fay Ripley as Karen Hughes
- Evan Richards as Andy Clarke
- Igor Volkov as Arkadi
- Sergei Karlenkov as Lyosha
- Alec Guinness as The Reaper (credited as Mystery Guest Star)
- Aleksandr Pyatkov as Wartschuk
- Nikolai Pastukhov as Janitor
- Aleksandr Bureyev as Strohbecker
- Yuriy Sherstnyov as Angry Neighbour
- Denis Karasyov as Fake Policeman
- Olga Tolstetskaya as Actress
- Oleg Yankovsky as Larsen
- Nikolay Chindyaykin as Inspector Pekar
- Igor Ilin as Fake Policeman
- Konstantin Sitnikov as Angry Props Manager
- Larisa Khusnullina as Victim
Who talks, scene by scene
We couldn't read who says what in this film's script, so there's no dialogue chart for it yet.
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 36 are women's.
162 lines from women, 294 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
4 women and 13 men in the cast. 2 women and 7 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 4 of 496.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 35 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 31% of the words (1,045), men 69% (2,371). Women have 36% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: 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
3
Two men
20
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 14 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 23% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Anthony Waller (man)
- Written by
- Anthony Waller (man)
- Produced by
- Alexander Buchman (man), Norbert Soentgen (gender not listed), Anthony Waller (man)
- Shot by
- Egon Werdin (man)
- Edited by
- Peter R. Adam (man)
- Music by
- Wilbert Hirsch (man)
- Production design by
- Matthias Kammermeier (gender not listed), Vladimir Posternak (man)
- Costumes by
- Svetlana Luzanova (woman)
- Cast by
- Noel Davis (gender not listed), Elena Denisova (gender not listed), Nina Sokol-Matsuk (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
3 women, 5 men, 5 not listed
-
Sound
0 women, 9 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 2 men, 4 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
3 women, 0 men, 1 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 2 men, 1 not listed
-
Editing
0 women, 2 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 30 on average. Men: 48 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Fay Ripley 29, Marina Zudina 30
Men
Evan Richards 17, Sergei Karlenkov 28, Igor Volkov 36, Aleksandr Pyatkov 45, Aleksandr Bureyev 48, Yuriy Sherstnyov 54, Nikolai Pastukhov 72, Alec Guinness 81
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 1 scenes and 496 lines of dialogue. How the test works
