Today's filmmaker for Female Filmmakers knows what she is doing when it comes to filming nude scenes. Unlike other directors, she included MORE nudity as her films got more attention. Let's check out Małgorzata Szumowska!
Małgorzata Szumowska is one of the most famous and hardworking directors in Poland - and around the world. She was born in Krakow in 1973. She started making short films and short documentaries at the beginning of her career. Two of her short films received acclaim early on and her first feature Happy Man was nominated for several European film awards in 2000. That was "in" that she needed to really start working in the European film market.
She followed that feature film up with 2004's Strangers which was shown at Sundance. That film did not have any nudity in it, but nearly every one of her feature films that followed did. It seems like she certainly learned that sex sells! In 2008's 33 Scenes from Life, Julia Jentsch goes nude a few times, showing off her puffy nipples as well as her trimmed bush in different nude scenes. In those 33 nude scenes, two show her going nude!
She directed 2011's Elles with Juliette Binoche, Anaïs Demoustier, and Joanna Kulig to great acclaim - and great nudity. This film follows Juliette as an investigative writer who is working on an article about students who work as call girls in order to support themselves through school. Juliette winds up spending time with these girls and interviewing them, but it gives her a personal look at their sex lives.
The film is fascinating because she starts to feel like a voyeur and wonders how much of these young women's lives should be kept private. Boundaries and private lives are questioned as the student hookers go nude again and again.
One of the hottest scenes is certainly when Joanna Kulig gets pissed on after also getting banged from behind and masturbating in front of her client. She does ALL of that in this one scene. The girls in Elle will make you swell!
In 2013, she followed that film up with her tamer film In the Name Of which was a drama about a young priest working with rural teens who have behavioral issues. He works with a young lady played by Maja Ostaszewska who develops a crush on the priest. He doesn't entertain her crush because he simply is not interested...but he is interested in a man! The film's theme is clearly temptation and we even get tempted by Maja's mams in her white lace bra.
Her latest masterpieces were also her most international. 2019's The Other Lamb was her very first English language film! The thriller focuses on a cult leader played by Michiel Huisman who has a cult of women who all follow him on his compound in the woods. One of his devout followers played by Raffey Cassidy starts questioning her loyalty when she gets older and realizes she might soon be made one of her leader's wives.
Raffey confides in her cult sister, played by Denise Gough, as the two of them start feeling uneasy about their leader - just as he becomes more unhinged. Denise is particularly sexy when she stands naked in front of a waterfall. Other women in the movie get baptized in their white dresses which get wet and nipply!
She followed that film up with 2022's Infinite Storm which got us all wet when viewing the one and only Naomi Watts in the bath. This film takes place right before a blizzard, but this scene is HOT.
Małgorzata Szumowska clearly knows what she is doing. Her films deal with taboos and controversial themes like temptation, cults, devotion, and so much more. She is not afraid to go there to make her audience think!
Małgorzata Szumowska has two features coming up. Because of the success of her last two films - which were decidedly not Polish - I have a feeling that her next films are also going to reach global audiences. One thing seems certain: she loves to include nudity!
