Monthly Archive for May, 2009

Opening This Week

Pressure Cooker- directed by Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker (at the IFC in NY)
Here’s the description from the press materials: Three seniors at Philadelphia’s Frankford High School find an unlikely champion in the kitchen of Wilma Stephenson. A legend in the school system, Mrs. Stephenson’s hilariously blunt boot-camp method of teaching Culinary Arts is validated by years of scholarship success. Against the backdrop of the row homes of working-class Philadelphia, she has helped countless students reach the top culinary schools in the country. And under her fierce direction, the usual distractions of high school are swept aside as Erica, Dudley and Fatoumata prepare to achieve beyond what anyone else expects from them.

Next week we will have some wider releases including the return of Nia Vardalos to Greek culture in My Life in Ruins, Seraphine based on the life of French artist Séraphine de Senlis and the Sam Mendes film Away We Go which features a great performance from Maya Rudolph.

This weekend I think I’m going to settle for watching Janet McTeer as Clementine Churchill in Into the Storm on HBO Sunday night.  Here’s an interview with McTeer.

Here are some other movies still on my list to be seen: Summer Hours and Every Little Step.

Films Currently in Theatres:
Easy Virtue
Julia
American Violet- screening info
Sunshine Cleaning
Pray the Devil Back to Hell- screening info

Women Directed Films
Sugar- directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Sally Hawkins

Every time I read about this film I get so excited.  We Want Sex is the true story about women from the Dagenham Ford plant who struck for pay equity in 1968 England.  It was announced at Cannes with some fanfare.

The film stars Sally Hawkins and Rosamunde Pike.  Bob Hoskins plays a union Steward who advises the women and Miranda Richardson (not Imelda Staunton as initially reported) will play cabinet minister Barbara Castle who negotiated with the women. (I would imagine there were not too many female cabinet members in 1968 and I bet the pressure was on Castle from all sides.)

Miranda Richardson

The result of these 300 women’s action was the 1970 Equal Pay Act.  A big moment in British feminist history.

Here’s what Sally Hawkins said about the film:

I am quite passionate about equal pay…It is still such a fight and it is still relevant.

Film will be release in the UK next summer.  I really hope it makes it to the US.  Can’t wait.

British film adds glamour to 60s equality struggle (The Guardian)

Veteran producer Teri Schwartz (Sister Act, Beaches) has been named Dean of the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television.  She succeeds Robert Rosen who has been there for 13 years.  Schwartz comes to the job from running the film and TV school at Loyola Marymount.

This is significant because UCLA is one of the premiere training institutes for film directors.  Anecdotal evidence says that women get 50% of the degrees in directing, but we all know that women do not make up 50% of Hollywood’s film directors.

Maybe Ms. Schwartz can help think about how we can see more women have successful careers in mainstream Hollywood films.

No pressure.

I’m a big fan of the folks who run the Bird’s Eye View film festival in London.  They attended Cannes again this year and held a panel on women filmmakers.  Here’s the write-up.

Fresh from a screening of Fish Tank, directed by long-time friend of BEV, Andrea Arnold, we got the chance to bring together some of the best female filmmakers at Cannes 2009 for a panel discussion at the UK Film Council Pavilion. Now an annual BEV tradition, the event featured women from all over the world, and a mix of upcoming and established talent. It was chaired by BEV’s founder Rachel Millward.

Christine Langan

Christine Langan, Creative Director of BBC films – and exec producer of two of the hottest films competing for this year’s Palme D’Or, Jane Campion’s Bright Star and Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank – spoke of her bemusement at the statistics, and noted that breakthrough women directors are often characterized by an unique, “bulls-eye” visions – they very rarely get the jobs for more mainstream, generic films in the way that male directors do. Current female-directing stars, she observed, including Isabel Coixet (whose film, Map Of  The Sounds Of Tokyo, is also screening at Cannes) Lynn Ramsay, as well Campion and Arnold, tend to write as well as direct their own films. They’re auteurs – and it’s the uniqueness of their vision that brings them success.

French-American Anne Aghion, former newspaper journalist turned Emmy Award-winning documentary maker, is screening her film My Neighbor My Killer in Cannes’ Special Screening category – a documentary about the 1994 Rwandan genocide and subsequent reconciliation efforts between Hutus and their Tutsi victims. Anne spoke about the overriding necessity for diverse perspective in filmmaking and the press, not just in terms of gender: the need for different people to have a voice and to tell their stories.

Yaelle Kayam, Diploma and Dara Van Dusen, Malzonkowie (Significant Others), who both have their graduation films in Cannes’ short film programme Cinefondation, aired their frustrations on finding at film school that suddenly there were six men between them and the camera. Yaelle, though, thinks it best not to be intimidated by technical bravado which male crew often display. Her advice: “just learn it yourself – it’s all in the manual!”.

Anne Aghione

Anne chipped in that she thinks because filmmaking is such a difficult process, men can have a tendency to hide behind technical language. Yaelle also noted that she now is quick to get rid of any crew that are not on board with the project or do not take her seriously as a director, especially since there are so many supportive male production workers out there. At this, Christine spoke of an instance when she had to fire a BAFTA-winning cinematographer from a project (who, incredulous, received her call while he was on the golf-course) because he wasn’t taking the director seriously.

On the question of women and genre filmmaking, NFTS graduate Analise Davis (whose film After Tomorrow is screening in the Cannes shorts competition), has recently completed a thriller with a female producer, and really enjoyed working within a genre. She stressed the importance of seeing women’s perspective more in genre films, and Christine offered Susanna White as a success in this respect, who has gone from directing episodes of HBO series Generation Kill to the upcoming sequel to Nanny McPhee.

As ever, the baby question arose (!), to which the panel all had very different responses. Anne, who has no children – while by no means discouraging other women filmmakers from motherhood – explained how it would have been impossible to combine the career that she has had (and the accompanying years of 16 hour working days) with a family life; while Christina Gallego (producer of The Wind Journeys, screening in Un Certain Regard), has a young son and made a case for the compatibility between producing a film and bringing up children: both require a huge amount of nurturing to help them grow!

Christine, who recently returned to work from maternity leave, loved her early experiences as a director but observed that directing is, inevitably, an obsessive and all-consuming practice, and therefore one which will always be hugely difficult to combine with becoming a parent.

All in all, the panel provided frank food for thought, inspiration and a chance to hear mixed perspectives and experiences from women currently making waves in what remains a hugely male-dominated sphere.

Sounds like it was a great panel.  These discussions need to keep happening.  Check out the Bird’s Eye View blog.

HBO will premiere the documentary Kick Like a Girl directed by Jenny Mackenzie today at 6pm EST.  It is part of an evening of docs about girls that will air tonight.  It starts at 5:30 with Beginning Filmmaking and ends with Hard Times for an American Girl.  I am setting the TIVO right now.  (H/T to Cynthia Fuchs at Pop Matters.)

Here’s the description of Kick Like a Girl:

After two undefeated seasons against girls’ soccer teams their age and older, Utah’s Mighty Cheetahs are about to take on a new challenge: boys. Cheetahs coach Jenny Mackenzie chronicles the adventures of these third-grade underdogs as they set out to prove their game skills and overcome the skepticism of opponents and parents in the inspiring family documentary KICK LIKE A GIRL.

Here is Cynthia Fuchs’ full write up on all three docs from Pop Matters.

Here is HBO’s doc home page to find out when else these films are playing.

Update: Here’s Broadsheet’s take on the film.

Thought this quote was interesting from Ben Stiller in an interview for his new film Night at the Museum Two that appeared in Time Out Dubai (yes, I guess there is a Time Out Dubai)

Question: Most of the comedy in this film and most others comes from men. Why do think that is? Is there some kind of prejudice that women comedians face, perhaps?

Ben Stiller: I do think there is and I think it comes from men. I’m surrounded by funny women in my life: my mother (Anne Meara), my sister and my wife. My wife Christine is hilarious. I don’t think it’s true that men are funnier than women. There have been funny women for years like Gilda Radner and Catherine O’Hara. There is no one as funny as Tina Fey just now, male or female.

I think that in general, though, there’s a certain ‘men’s club’ sort of attitude about comedy in terms of how men see women. But it goes deeper than that. I think men want to see women in a certain light, it’s subconscious and they’re not even aware of it. It has to do with men’s outlook on women. Hopefully that will change.

Major points for Ben.   Now he needs to use his clout to get some more women leads in comedies.

Ben Stiller Interview (Time Out Dubai)

Hello to all Women in Hollywood readers! This is the first time I have written for the blog, and I’m very grateful to Melissa for the opportunity.

Today I returned from the beautiful French Riviera. I am an actress from England, and have been at Cannes Film Festival promoting two films, Philip Pullman’s The Butterfly Tattoo, which screened on the first day of the festival, and Schrodinger’s Girl, which was in the Film Market. Schrodinger’s Girl is a sci-fi action adventure and, you’ll be happy to know, features three strong, pro-active lead characters, all of whom are women.

With this in mind I was excited to see what else was available in the Market and in Competition by and starring women. With the hustle bustle, hard work and constant partying that is Cannes, there is often little chance to catch screenings(!), but here is the rundown of my favourites from the festival:

Ones To Watch Out For

Le Pere de Mes Enfants directed by talented young director/writer/actress Mia Hansen-Love, and joint recipient of the ‘Prix Special Un Certain Regard’ award this year at Cannes. The story centres around Gregoire Canvel, whose seemingly perfect life is …well, not perfect. I’m not going to give it away – go see it for yourself. It is a subtly beautiful, touching, and human film, about a film producer, his passion, and his family.  Hansen-Love both wrote the screenplay and directs, so watch it as an entrée to the rest of her small but perfectly formed collection, which includes Tout Est Pardonné, and Apres Mure Réflexion.

Pedro Almodovar’s beautiful and passionate Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) starring Oscar-winner Penelope Cruz. This film was one of the twenty films selected for Cannes’ Official Selection this year and comes from the director who brought us BAFTA-wining Volver, a film in which the only two male characters who appeared either died or disappeared again very quickly. Cruz has been rated as ‘tragic, beautiful and enchanting’, and whilst some may wonder if the edge in Almodovar’s films is disappearing as they continue to become more and more commercial, in ways he only gets better: superb production values; tight and passionate storytelling.  And yes, increased popularity – for what good is art and its message if it is communicated only to a few?

Bright Star by Jane Campion, one of only three women ever nominated for an Academy Award. This film was in the Official Selection also, and is being hotly tipped as the Palme D’Or winner, which would give Campion a pair of trophies, having taken home the prestigious award in 1993 for The Piano. This film has lots to offer, being a very interesting biopic of the young Keats; a romance (between Keats and neighbour Fanny Brawn); and, most importantly, a sounding board for young talents Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw. It is important to watch Cornish’s entire collection to see what an excellent chameleon she can be, because this film, although excellent, does not showcase her talents completely. However, I’m extremely pleased for Whishaw. I first saw him in 2004 playing Hamlet onstage in London, and he was obviously an extraordinary talent. I’m sad that it has taken this long for people at large to really hear about him, but this film should do the trick, so to speak, and it is a testament to Campion that she cast the film so intelligently, with real talents, as opposed to names.

Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold, winner of the Best Newcomer BAFTA for her first feature film Red Road, was also in the Official Selection this year. A simple but riveting film about 15 year old Mia, whose life is turned upside down when her Mum brings home a new boyfriend. This is a very British film in setting and characters and makes no apologies for this. It is set in a council flat, where Mia lives with her alcoholic mother and irritating little sister, and follows this trio of women very literally, Arnold utilizes hand held techniques reminiscent of Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke’s first film Thirteen.
Continue reading ‘Guest Post: Yes We Cannes by Abigail Tarttelin’

Beating out lots of talented, towering literary figures including Mario Vargas Llosa, VS Naipaul, and Peter Carey, Munro was named the third recipeint of the Man Booker International Prize.

This is what judge Jane Smiley said about Munro:

“Her work is practically perfect. Any writer has to gawk when reading her because her work is very subtle and precise,” said Smiley. “Her thoughtfulness about every subject is so concentrated.”

The 77 year old author will receive her honor in Dublin on June 25th.  Congrats on a well deserved honor.

Alice Munro wins Man Booker International prize (The Guardian)

The prizes at the Cannes Film Festival were announced over the weekend and none of the women made it to the top spot, but then again neither of the egomanics did either so that’s a plus.  Andrea Arnold shared the jury prize for Fish Tank which I hear has amazing performances from Katie Jarvis and Michael Fassbender who was amazing in Hunger.  It’s about a teen whose life gets turned upside down by her mom’s new boyfriend.  I haven’t hear anything about it being picked up yet for release in the US.  I really liked Arnold’s last film Red Road which you should rent if you haven’t seen.

Here’s the trailer for Fish Tank:

Jane Campion’s Bright Star seems to have fared best in the long run with a US release

Bright Star Trailer:

Here’s some interesting tidbits from an Anne Thompson interview with Campion for More.com:

With three female directors in the main competition for the Palme d’Or, another festival first, “it’s a good year for women in Cannes,” says Campion, an unabashed feminist at 55. “Do the math! It’s not possible to be a woman without caring about other women.” She credits the Australian government’s insistence on equality for women in its film industry—which doesn’t have a big-studio old boys’ network like Hollywood’s—for giving female directors a leg up. “The macho flamboyance you see in American cinema, where they get excited about Spiderman—I just can’t go there,” she says.

Jane Campion’s Cannes Triumph (More.com)

Here’s another Cannes piece: Cannes: Poor Girls (Time)

Earlier this spring I wrote how excited I was to see so many amazing women appearing on the NY stage this season.  New Yorkers are lucky to get all the indie films as well as the opportunity to see such great theatre if you can afford it.

I’ve gotten to see a few of these performances: Jane Fonda in 33 Variations, Allison Janney in 9 to 5 (I will have an interview with Janney later this week); and Janet McTeer and Harriet Walters in Mary Stuart.  I also saw Tovah Feldshuh in Irena’s Vow when it was off-Broadway.  All gave great performances and except for Feldshuh all are nominated for a Tony.

Female actors have been flocking to the theatre for years.  It’s where they can work. In the theatre, it’s actually a plus to have experience unlike in films where they always want the new young thing.  Also, theatre audiences are older (cause it’s more expensive) and women make most of the theatre ticket buying decisions.

But this season is clearly special and it’s about time we acknowledged this exciting season for women’s roles.  But let’s keep in mind that most of these women are appearing in plays by MEN.  Just because there are women onstage does not take away from the fact that there are hardly any women who get their plays to Broadway.  We need more women playwrights on Broadway.  Of the four nominees for the Tony Award for Best Play, only one – Yasmina Reza- is a woman and she’s French.  Where are the female American playwrights?  It’s great that we have women onstage, now we just needs more women’s voices and visions.

Here are some comments from the piece and I have to say I love the picture so I had to post it:

But the current number and quality of roles for actresses on the New York stage is especially noticeable at a time when Hollywood is more obsessed than ever with youth and is providing so few meaningful parts for women, no matter what their age.

In film “women’s roles on the whole are defined in terms of their family relationship to the hero,” Ms. Walter said from her basement dressing room at the Broadhurst Theater, not far from a tank that collects the 400 gallons of water it takes to produce an onstage thunderstorm. “They are the wife, the girlfriend, the mother, the daughter. Rather than being the center of their own story, they’re usually a planet revolving around a male figure.”

Forget the Ingénues; Cue the Grown-Ups (NY Times)

Opening This Week
It’s a good thing the weather will be nice in the east cause there are slim pickings at the movies this weekend.  I have no interest in the new Terminator and if I see Night at the Museum 2, and that’s a big if, it will be to see Amy Adams as Amelia Earhart.  Personally, I can wait to get my Amelia fix until this fall when Mira Nair’s Amelia starring Hillary Swank opens.

Easy Virtue opens opens on the art house circuit starring Jessica Biel, Colin Firth and Kristin Scott Thomas.  I didn’t see a preview but with Firth and Scott Thomas in it, I could be convinced to plunk down some money.

Here’s the description from the press materials: The twenties have roared…the thirties have yet to swing. John Whittaker, a young Englishman, falls madly in love with Larita, a sexy and glamorous American woman, and they marry impetuously. However when the couple returns to the family home, his mother Mrs. Whittaker has an instant allergic reaction to her new daughter-in-law.  Larita tries her best to fit in but fails to tiptoe through the minefield laid by her mother-in-law.  Larita quickly realizes Mrs. Whittaker’s game and sees that she must fight back if she’s not going to lose John.   A battle of wits ensues and sparks soon fly.  Mrs. Whittaker manipulates every situation to undermine her, while Larita remains frustratingly calm and engineers sassy counter attacks.  Before long, Mrs. Whittaker’s manipulation starts to work on John and Larita feels their love is in danger of slipping away.  In a grand finale, where the secrets from Larita’s past are revealed, she finally makes a break for freedom from the suffocating house…..

Also opening- Kabei: Our Mother: The latest film from Yôji Yamada depicts the strong bond between a mother and her family during WWII. Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru’s sister Hisako and Shigeru’s ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustains the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.  (NY- Quad cinemas)

Films Currently in Theatres
Julia
American Violet
The Lemon Tree
Sunshine Cleaning
Duplicity
Pray the Devil Back to Hell- various screenings check website

Women Directed Films
Milton Glaser, directed by Wendy Keys (NY)
Sugar- directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Dr. Martha Lauzen at San Diego State University has for the first time drilled deeper into women’s representation on films looking into the numbers of women production designers, production managers/production supervisors, sound designers, supervising sound editors, key grips, and gaffers

Here are the numbers for of women working on the top grossing 250 movies of 2008:

Women accounted for 25% of production managers working on the top 250 films of 2008. Eighty five percent (85%) of the films had no female production managers.

Women comprised 44% of production supervisors.  Seventy-two percent (72%) of films had no female production supervisors.

Women accounted for 20% of all production designers working on the top 250 films.  Eighty one percent (81%) of films had no female production designers.

Women comprised 5% of sound designers.  Ninety seven percent (97%) of films had no female sound designers.

Women accounted for 5% of supervising sound editors working on the top 250 films of 2008.  Ninety six percent (96%) of films had no female supervising sound editors.

Women comprised 1% of key grips.  Ninety nine percent (99%) of films had no female key grips.

Women accounted for 1% of gaffers working on the top 250 films of 2008.  Ninety nine percent (99%) of films had no female gaffers.

Sigh.  It’s amazing what statistics can show.

Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film

Two beloved films — Bridget Jones’ Diary and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown are being made into musicals.

Helen Fielding who write the book of Bridget Jones’ Diary has been working on the musical which held a recent reading in London attended by Stephen Daldry who brought his film Billy Elliot to the stage.

An aside: Stephen Daldry is incredibly talented and he directed the film Billy Elliot and then recently directed the stage musical which is a big hit in London and is now up for 15 Tonys on Broadway.  Sharon Maguire directed the film of Bridget Jones’ Diary yet I am betting that her name never came up as the potential director of the musical.  She might not be appropriate at all, but Stephen Daldry’s name came up when his film was being translated to the stage.  All I’m saying is that women just don’t get talked about in the same way.

Working Title who produced the film are looking to opening in London in 2011,

Pedro Almodovar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is getting the Lincoln Center treatment here in the US.  It  will be directed by Barlett Sher who is developing the show with writers David Yasbeck Yazbek and Jeffrey Lane.

Now it’s Bridget Jones the musical (Daily Mail)

Musical in the works for Almodovar pic (Variety)

There’s a special place in my heart for Gurinder Chadha the writer and director of one of my favorite films, Bend it Like Beckham.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you must put it at the top of your netflix list.  That movie minted money all across the world.

I love how she takes the British Asian world and makes it accessible to all of us.  She is able to make us feel like these people could be our family, and that’s my friends is how you make a a big fat hit.  She writes the films with her partner and husband, Paul Mayeda Berges.

I enjoyed Bride and Prejudice and would love to see her tween film Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging which looks like a girl power movie if I’ve ever seen one.  It opened in London last summer and is still awaiting a US release.  After Beckham the studios came calling and she was signed up to do the film of Dallas with John Travolta and I am really glad that didn’t work out cause from the moment I read about it it sounded like a bad idea.

She is now in production of It’s a Wonderful Afterlife about “a British Indian mother whose obsession to marry off her daughter comically leads to serial murder.”

Here’s what Chadha said about the film to the BBC when they visited her on the set:

“It’s about how girls are treated in the Asian community especially when it comes to marriage and engagements and broken engagements,” she says.

“There’s definitely a feminist line going through it as always”.

Feminists infuse their work and lives with feminism even if it’s not explicit.  That’s what makes us feminists.  I love that she said this so overtly.

The film stars US TV actor  Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) and Bollywood star Shabana Azmi, and Sally Hawkins.

Should be released in early 2010.

On Set With Gurinder Chadha (BBC)

Mary Louise Parker’s cannon include some great favorites such as:  Fried Green Tomatoes, The West Wing, Angels in America.  She has also been in tons of theatre, most recently in Hedda Gabler where she got slammed by the critics which she said felt like a “physical assault.”

As the new season of Weeds kicks off, Parker talked to More about on screen nudity, airbrushing and her reaction to the reviews of her Hedda.

I am impressed with her honesty. Even in comfortable interviews most actresses are reserved.  She’s not.  I’m thinking that I might give Weeds another chance.  New season begins on June 8.  Here are some quotes.

On the nude scene:

She’d been fine with the series’ wildly erotic sex scenes, she says, but the shot in the bathtub in which the camera lingered on her breasts seemed intended to titillate.  “I didn’t think I needed to be naked, and I fought with the director about it, and now I’m bitter…I knew it was going to be on the Internet: ‘Mary Louise shows off her big nipples.’  I wish I hadn’t done that.  I was goaded into it.”

On aging:

To actually want to look your age on camera is a violation of Hollywood’s youth-at-all-costs handbook, but Parker says she has urged the producers not to digitally enhance her features, telling them, “Don’t take out my wrinkles. I’m happy that I look a little tired.” She hasn’t had Botox or plastic surgery, she insists, contorting her face into a seriesof hilarious expressions to prove it.  “Somebody told me that they’d read that I had all this work done and showed me a picture, and it was totally airbrushed,” she says in outrage. “It made me so mad. I don’t like what that says to other women. I’m 44, and I look OK for 44. I’m not trying to look 34.”

Here’s a comment from co-star Elizabeth Perkins on Parker:

She adds that there is a double standard for actors—that a man is seen as being in charge of his craft if he complains about lines or scenes, whereas a woman is branded a “huge bitch.” Parker, she says, “is frighteningly intelligent, and she’ll call a spade a spade. I suppose it could come across as prickly, but it’s not meant that way. She’s just smarter than anyone else in the room.”

I’ve been reading the dispatches from Cannes.  Two of the three female directors  with films in competition have already screened, Fish Tank directed by Andrea Arnold and Bright Star directed by Jane Campion.  Isabel Coixet’s film Map of the Sounds of Tokyo still needs to screen.

The reviews for Arnold’s film seemed good but there was very little news about it except for the comments on the breakout performance from non actor Katie Jarvis.  Maybe it didn’t get the attention because it was about a teenage girl, and maybe Arnold is just not a big enough name to generate the press that other directors can.

Jane Campion got some great attention for her “comeback” film since she hasn’t made one in six years. (Her own choice.  She wanted to spend time with her daughter.)  One of the criticisms of the film is that it is not “sexy” enough.  At her press conference Campion used the opportunity to talk about the lack of women directors and challenged women to have a tougher skin.  Good buzz but nothing over the top.

Then something happened.  The guys arrived and took over.  What I find so interesting is how some of the male directors are making news about themselves as directors, and as people.  The egos on these guys are gargantuan.

Here’s what I mean, Lars Von Trier made a great movie Breaking the Waves and another one that I found unwatcheable Dogville among others, arrived at Cannes with his controverisal film Antichrist.  At the press conference for the film he declared himself “the best film director in the world.”

Quentin Tarantino has also had some hits and misses followed and declared himself god in this statement about his film Inglourious Basterds: “I love [my characters] from this god perspective because I am god as far as the characters are concerned, because I created them.”

I just find these comments so bizarre and laughable and don’t think any woman director would ever declare herself the best film director or god.  I hope that both Von Trier and Tarantino comments were greeted with chuckles.  I wonder what would happen if a woman director said either one of those comments.  I bet that it wouldn’t be all over the web in the same way both these guys comments are.

What do you think?

Tarantino: “I am God…” (Indiewire)

Lars Von Trier: “I am the best filmmaker in the world.” (Spout)

Women in Film will honor Jennifer Aniston, Holly Hunter, Catherine Hardwicke, Elizabeth Banks and Petra Korner at the 2009 Crystal + Lucy Awards in LA on June 12th.  The event will be hosted by Chelsea Handler.

Aniston will receive the Crystal Awards for excellence in film, and Hunter will receive the Lucy Award for excellence in TV.  Elizabeth Banks will receive the Face of the Future Award.  Catherine Hardwicke, the Dorothy Arzner directing award and cinematographer Korner will receive the Kodak Vision Award.

From Jane Fleming, president of Women in Film/LA

“Women in Film is thrilled to honor these extraordinarily versatile women who truly represent the new paradigm of Hollywood,” WIF/LA president Jane Fleming said. “Each of them has succeeded wildly by having the courage to work in all areas of the entertainment industry, transitioning between film and television, comedy and drama, studio and independent projects, both in front of and behind the camera.”

Details on tickets here.

Jennifer Ansison, Holly Hunter to be Honored (HR)

Alison Pill

Loved this NY Times piece this weekend about actress Alison Pill and writer Sarah Treem.  Smart, self-sufficient and in sync, these two women who not coincidentally spend a lot of time in the theatre are making a big difference working together on the HBO series In Treatment.  I for one love Pill and have been awed by her work on stage.  She always comes off much older and more mature than she is.

“Alison kept reading the scripts, saying, ‘You’re writing my life,’ and I was like, ‘No, actually, I’m writing my life,’ ” Ms. Treem said during a recent joint interview with Ms. Pill. “We just hit a perfect storm of personality and art. It will probably never happen again.”

Sarah Treem

In a rapid-fire back and forth the two women discussed how anger in “so-called perfect women” (to use Ms. Pill’s phrase) makes people uncomfortable. And not just anger: emotions in general. “Emotions are irrational and illegitimate, and you’re not supposed to have them or show them,” Ms. Pill said heatedly — and then laughed at herself.

The perfect storm of personality and art.  Great comment.

I am so glad these young women found each other and are working together.  I can’t wait to see what they do next.  I’m sorry I missed Sarah’s play A Feminine Ending directed by Blair Brown last year.   I also will now probably take a look at In Treatment.

Jane Lynch is one of those actresses who has been EVERYWHERE for years.  She is an amazing supporting player (Best in Show) and usually plays funny but also can do drama as she does on Criminal Minds as the mentally ill mother of brainiac Spender Reid.  She’s also one of the most visible and vocal lesbian actors.

She’s one of the people that if she is in something I will go out of my way to see it because I know she’s that good.

Tonight after the season finale of American Idol she co-stars in the preview of the highly anticipated series Glee.  She’s also in Julie & Julia out August 7th playing Julia Child’s sister.

Check out the trailer for Glee.  Here’s a NY Times interview with Lynch.

Fox

Is moving Fringe to Thursdays at 9 opposite Grey’s Anatomy, The Office and CSI making that hour a serious problem for us TV addicts.

Dollhouse will be back on Friday nights.

CBS

The Good Wife will star Julianna Margulies as a politician’s wife who starts a career as a defense attorney. (LA Times)

Accidentally on Purpose is a half hour comedy starring  Jenna Elfman who plays a movie critic who gets pregnant after a dalliance with a younger man. (LA Times)

Lifetime

Lifetime has ordered 12 episodes of Sherri starring The View’s Sherri Shepard as single mom, paralegal and actress.  (Variety)