Is there such a thing as a 'female' cinema?

After reading the research supplied and looking up certain names given I have begun the long road to success. I've decided to lean more towards the idea of a 'female' cinema as it's much more interesting than picking apart a specific genre and representation.

For example:

As it's been said, plenty of women enjoy the male dominated industry and the products made in it, so why do we need a female representation in cinema? Is there such a thing as a female gaze and identity? To do this, one would have to research what women want from a film. Are they offended by stereotypes or women who are objectified? Is the entire audience pressured into adopting a male perspective of what they are watching? What is meant by a 'masculine' and 'feminine' cinema?

There are certainly opposing styles of films that are made by different sexes but what of those that are similar? A group of French feminists who wanted to portray independence and empowerment went a very masculine way about it by making a film called "Baise-moi" (Rape Me) - full of sex, rape and murder all by women done to men (I haven't seen it but we're learning about contraversial cinema and the BBFC hated this one). Perhaps this would be common in a male orientated thriller or horror but the subject matter and characters are very alternative for the conventional female representations (yes, that is sexist). And what happens women do work behind the camera? They do not all make the same films but they do hold certain ideologies and when we see a female producer, writer and director we do expect a certain style of storytelling.

Film text ideas; Lost In Translation (Francis Ford Coppola: the modern representation ), The Piano (Jane Campion: traditional female ideology), Brokeback Mountain (Ang lee: the male love story) and ??? I'm now going to look at: www.aber.ac.uk/media/sections/film01.html, Matt Hall's Towards a Female Cinema and E. Ann Kaplan's Women and Film - Both sides of the camera.

P.S. If you have time Sean, ask the Mrs (Jill) what she thinks about all this. She's a feminist and could be of paramount importance, so I hope she watches plenty of films (not just Hamlet). Also, any book ideas? I'd like more time to choose my film texts after this re-think, please.