Fails the Bechdel test

Rosetta

Name: Rosetta
Released: 1999

1999. Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, written by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

1 / 3

Fails

Yes 1. At least two women
3 women characters. 1 of them speak.
No 2. Who talk to each other
Our parser found no scene where two women talk to each other.
No 3. About something besides a man
Not reached: the film fails an earlier rule.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

The first scene, like almost all others, is a fighting scene. A girl, about 18, is sacked from her factory work because her trial period is over. The girl, Rosetta, is quite upset and the cops will have to arrive to get her out. She has her reasons: she lives in a caravan, with her alcoholic mother. She goes looking for work as some go to the war. Treasons, murders are in her mind, if not in her acts.

Released: 22 Sep 1999
Genres: Drama
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.4 / 10
Metascore: 76 / 100
Awards: 10 wins & 7 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Rosetta 164 lines, woman
Riquet 97 lines, man
Boss 67 lines, man
Mother 19 lines, woman
Man 11 lines, man
Young Woman 11 lines, woman
Customer 10 lines
Owner 10 lines
Manager 4 lines, man
Stoic Man 4 lines, man

Full cast, 19 people

Émilie Dequenne as Rosetta
Olivier Gourmet as Patron
Fabrizio Rongione as Riquet
Anne Yernaux as Mother
Bernard Marbaix as Campground Manager
Frédéric Bodson as Head of Personnel
Florian Delain as The Boss's Son
Christiane Dorval as First Saleswoman
Mireille Bailly as Second Saleswoman
Thomas Gollas as Mother's Boyfriend
Leon Michaux as First Policeman
Victor Marit as Second Policeman
Colette Regibeau as Madame Riga
Claire Tefnin as Girl in Locker Room
Sophia Leboutte as Fired Woman
Gaetano Ventura as Store Manager
Christian Neys as First Paramedic
Valentin Traversi as Second Paramedic
Jean-Francois Noville as Hospital Worker

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 6% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 65

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 2	13	13
3 to 4	0	0
5 to 6	15	1
7 to 8	10	0
9 to 10	0	0
11 to 12	2	0
13 to 14	2	4
15 to 16	5	0
17 to 18	17	7
19 to 20	7	5
21 to 22	3	15
23 to 24	3	4
25 to 26	4	0
27 to 28	10	2
29 to 30	10	0
31 to 32	4	8
33 to 34	23	34
35 to 36	2	1
37 to 38	8	13
39 to 40	2	3
41 to 42	0	0
43 to 44	7	11
45 to 46	3	3
47 to 48	7	18
49 to 50	4	12
51 to 52	10	10
53 to 54	1	16
55 to 56	7	3
57 to 58	16	2
59 to 60	0	0
61 to 62	2	0
63 to 64	2	0
65 to 65	1	0

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, 52 are women's.

200 lines from women, 185 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit B: who's in it

3 women and 5 men in the cast. 1 women and 2 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 3 of 410. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 13 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 51% of the words (969), men 49% (941). Women have 52% 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

Two men

Exhibit E: behind the camera

2 of the 13 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 17% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne (man), Luc Dardenne (man)
Written by: Jean-Pierre Dardenne (man), Luc Dardenne (man)
Produced by: Luc Dardenne (man), Michèle Pétin (woman), Jean-Pierre Dardenne (man), Laurent Pétin (man)
Shot by: Alain Marcoen (man)
Edited by: Marie-Hélène Dozo (woman)
Music by: Jean-Pierre Cocco (gender not listed)
Production design by: Igor Gabriel (man)
Costumes by: Monic Parelle (gender not listed)