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Passes the Bechdel test

Suspiria

2018. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, written by Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi and David Kajganich.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

  1. Yes 1. At least two women
    28 women characters. 25 of them speak.
  2. Yes 2. Who talk to each other
    In 33 scenes out of 160.
  3. 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.

Poster for Suspiria

The film

Susie Bannion is a young American ballerina who travels to Berlin to study dancing at Madame Blanc's Markos Tanz Company, one of the world's most renowned schools. On her first day, one of the students who had been recently expelled from the school is murdered. As this appalling happening does not seem to be an isolated occurrence, the brilliant new student soon begins to suspect that the school might be involved in the homicide. Her mistrust heightens when Sarah, one of the girls at the school, tells her that before she was killed, Pat confided to her that she knew and guarded a terrifying secret.

Released
02 Nov 2018
Genres
Drama, Fantasy, Horror
Rated
R
IMDb
6.7 / 10
Metascore
64 / 100
Awards
28 wins & 75 nominations total
Elsewhere
View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

  • Women
  • Men
  • Not in the cast list
  • Bigger name, more lines
  1. Blanc 109 lines, woman
  2. Susie 107 lines, woman
  3. Sara 68 lines, woman
  4. Klemperer 39 lines, woman
  5. Miss Tanner 36 lines, woman
  6. Patricia 22 lines, woman
  7. Helena Markos 11 lines, woman
  8. Olga 11 lines, woman
  9. Susie/Mother Suspiriorum 11 lines, woman
  10. Miss Vendegast 8 lines, woman
Full cast, 41 people
  • Dakota Johnson as Susie
  • Tilda Swinton as Madame Blanc / Dr. Klemperer / Helena Markos
  • Mia Goth as Sara
  • Angela Winkler as Miss Tanner
  • Ingrid Caven as Miss Vendegast
  • Chloë Grace Moretz as Patricia
  • Elena Fokina as Olga
  • Sylvie Testud as Miss Griffith
  • Renée Soutendijk as Miss Huller
  • Christine Leboutte as Miss Balfour
  • Małgorzata Bela as Susie's Mother / Death
  • Fabrizia Sacchi as Pavla
  • Jessica Harper as Anke
  • Jessica Batut as Miss Mandel
  • Alek Wek as Miss Millius
  • Vincenza Modica as Miss Marks
  • Vanda Capriolo as Alberta
  • Brigitte Cuvelier as Miss Kaplitt
  • Gala Moody as Caroline
  • Anne-Lise Brevers as Sonia
  • Sara Sguotti as Doll
  • Halla Thordardottir as Mascia
  • Olivia Ancona as Marketa
  • Marjolaine Uscotti as Miss Daniels
  • Sharon Campbell as Miss Martincin
  • Elfriede Hock as Miss Mauceri
  • Iaia Ferri as Judith
  • Clémentine Houdart as Miss Boutaher
  • Charo Calvo as Miss Killen
  • Stephanie McMann as Siobhan
  • Majon van der Schot as Janine
  • Maria Bregianni as Sadie
  • Josepha Madoki as Liza Jane
  • Navala Chaudhari as Marianne
  • Karina El Amrani as Hermione
  • Doris Hick as Frau Sesame
  • Mikael Olsson as Agent Glockner
  • Fred Kelemen as Agent Albrecht
  • Greta Bohacek as Young Susie
  • Joel-Dennis Bienstock as Mennonite Priest
  • Toby Ashraf as Student at Backyard (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 5% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 160

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers
ScenesWomen's linesMen's lines
1 to 4280
5 to 8200
9 to 1200
13 to 1660
17 to 2080
21 to 24140
25 to 28320
29 to 3220
33 to 3680
37 to 40360
41 to 44140
45 to 48110
49 to 5260
53 to 5650
57 to 60540
61 to 6480
65 to 68310
69 to 7290
73 to 76110
77 to 80227
81 to 84130
85 to 88200
89 to 9210
93 to 9600
97 to 10020
101 to 104120
105 to 108141
109 to 112102
113 to 116100
117 to 12020
121 to 12420
125 to 12810
129 to 132110
133 to 136120
137 to 14020
141 to 14420
145 to 14850
149 to 152360
153 to 15690
157 to 160100

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.
MISS TANNER: Markos. MISS MANDEL: Markos.
MISS DANIELS: Markos! MISS BOUTAHER: Blanc.
MISS MARTINCIN: Blanc. MISS HULLER: Markos! MISS HOLZMANN: Blanc! MADAME BLANC: Good morning, everyone.
MISS MARKS: Markos! MISS BOUTAHER: Were you able to sleep in a lit- tle? It was a long night. MADAME BLANC: Yes, thank you. MISS BOUTAHER: I’m glad.
PAVLA: Markos. MISS KAPLITT: Blanc.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 98 are women's.

499 lines from women, 10 from men.

  • Women
  • Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

28 women and 3 men in the cast. 25 women and 3 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 3 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

  • First line by a woman
  • Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 98% of the words (6,618), men 2% (142).

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 1 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 17 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 30% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by
Luca Guadagnino (man)
Written by
David Kajganich (man)
Produced by
Luca Guadagnino (man), William Sherak (man), Silvia Venturini Fendi (gender not listed), David Kajganich (man), Gabriele Moratti (man), Bradley J. Fischer (man) and 2 more
Shot by
Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (man)
Edited by
Walter Fasano (man)
Music by
Thom Yorke (man)
Production design by
Inbal Weinberg (woman)
Costumes by
Giulia Piersanti (gender not listed)
Cast by
Stella Savino (gender not listed), Avy Kaufman (woman)

The crew, department by department

  • Costume & Make-Up

    6 women, 4 men, 28 not listed

  • Production

    1 women, 12 men, 11 not listed

  • Art

    4 women, 4 men, 8 not listed

  • Sound

    1 women, 12 men, 2 not listed

  • Other crew

    4 women, 3 men, 7 not listed

  • Directing

    1 women, 4 men, 8 not listed

  • Writing

    2 women, 3 men

  • Visual Effects

    0 women, 0 men, 4 not listed

  • Women
  • Men
  • Gender not listed on TMDB

Exhibit G: how old the stars were

Women: 48 on average. The top-billed cast, at the film's release.

Women

Chloë Grace Moretz 21, Mia Goth 25, Dakota Johnson 29, Elena Fokina 41, Sylvie Testud 47, Tilda Swinton 57, Renée Soutendijk 61, Angela Winkler 74, Ingrid Caven 80

Exhibit H: the money

It made 40% of what it cost.

Budget
$20 million
Box office
$8 million

From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.

About this analysis

Our parser read the script: 160 scenes and 535 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works

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