Jane Campion is one of the few female directors who commands attention. She won the Palme d’Or back in 1993 for The Piano and returns to Cannes as one of three women out of 17 in competition for the big prize again.
Her new film Bright Star starring Abbie Cornish screened earlier and the reviews are great. The film has been picked up and will be released here in the US in the fall.
Campion has been vocal on the lack of women directors and in an interview surrounding the debut of her film she talked about some reasons she thought women were not as successful.
I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population and gave birth to the whole world. Without them the rest are not getting to know the whole story.
She added some comments about women are needing to be less sensitive and needing to have a thicker skin in order to be a successful directors.
I think women don’t grow up with the kind of criticism that men grow up with. We are more sensitively treated. It is quite harsh when you first experience the world of film-making — you have to have a tough skin. My suspicion is that women are not used to that. We must put on our coats of armour and get going because we need them [female directors].
Thankfully, she acknowledges that the boys rule:
I think the studio system is kind of an old boys’ system. It’s difficult for them to trust women to be capable.
I’m torn about the statement. I think that women directors do have a thick skin. Every woman director I have met has had to endure so much just in the process of writing, pitching, financing, directing, editing and everything else that goes with it that they all seem to have really thick skins. Rejection is a part of this business and anyone who wants to make it knows that.
So the question of the day is: do you think that women are treated more sensitively than men in general and does that translate over into directing?
Jane Campion Presents Another Resilient Heroine (NY Times)
Cannes Call for Women Directors (BBC)
Cannes winner Jane Campion: women not tough enough for films (Times Online)
Day-to-day, I don’t think they’re treated more sensitively than men. I’ve worked with two female directors and five male directors and during production have not noticed a much of a difference.
During the writing and development process, however, I’ve witnessed a pretty even split. Sometimes I think women have thicker skin because they hear more flat out rejections, the whole “we’re not making romantic comedies/women’s movies/etc.” But other times there’s a tip-toe process seen more with women then men, especially within the studio system. It really does depend on several factors, including: the studio you’re pitching at, the executive you’re pitching to, and the material being pitched.
I love her but, she is wrong, or maybe it’s true about women where she is from?
I don’t know any thinned skin women.
What men experience that women do not is a greater sense of entitlement. They have the tendency to expect people to do things for them more than women do. It goes further than that as women very often feel more comfortable helping men than helping other women.
I’ve experienced this first hand.
2 different writer/producer women, one who went to school for film writing back east and the other went to school in L.A. for producing/writing, told me they were gung ho about producing and writing. I’m gung ho about directing, so you’d think this would be a perfect match.
Both women suddenly realized they wanted to direct too, after getting into the process and watching me identify as a director.
Now, here is the ultra sad aspect of that, it’s 3 & 4 years later and neither of them has pursued directing. Instead, they found men in the business to pin their hopes and dreams on and support.
One is working in support of a man and his projects as producer/writer, even thought he isn’t paying her and the projects are boy flicks. The other got hired by a man who specifically only likes to hire women to help produce because, “no one works harder to please, than women”.
Then there are the women who support their husbands and boyfriends because, frankly, it’s still a better bet than supporting their own career. It’s also a good bet that once the man has gotten where he needs, he’ll shed his 1st support team and find a 2nd wife.
I have learned producing skills so that I could produce for myself and make a living as well as screen writing skills. That is not thin skinned. That is generations of surviving gender discrimination with a DIY survive and hopefully thrive attitude.
AVB, I don’t think she’s saying women are treated more sensitively in film, but rather in general life. When a girl comes inside after playing and she’s fallen down, she’s comforted and taken care of. When a boy does, they tell him to get back up and “take it like a man”. I think she’s simply making the point that the way boys and girls are typically treated in society is different—people think that women are more vulnerable than men, so we treat them as such.
That’s not to say that there aren’t plenty of tough women, all the women I know are tough as nails. But I do see her point.
In Times Online, Jane Campion says
“I have been very, very lucky because some of our cinema [in Australia, where the New Zealand-born Campion’s career took off in the mid 1980s] is state sponsored so they have to be fair to both men and women. It’s part of the expectation.”
My research found that in New Zealand the expectation of fairness was there, and taken for granted, but the statistics told another story. Very recent evidence shows that the state film agency has begun to address the “gender question”: see http://tinyurl.com/pkhgq8 and earlier posts in my Wellywoodwoman blog.
And @ ThomaiinLA, women in NZ are tough —and funny— as I hope you’ll all see when our latest hit movie Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls gets to the States. Check out their YouTube channel for a great intro to NZ women!
Vulnerable and special treatment my big butt.
Oh Chris if only that were true there would be NO Dead Beat Dads….
and we’d be paid equally for equal work, because as a vulnerable population, of course we need more money, right?
And when we are raped, Police would not have taken decades to learn not to abuse us further – (some still do, judges too)
and Rape kits would be analyzed faster than car thieves are imprisoned…
I could go on for days about how we are not treated as vulnerable and in need of help-
Instead, I’ll leave you with this quote, “Aint I a Woman?”
Thomai, you’re arguing against a point I’m not making. I’m not saying that women are given special treatment–the exact opposite in fact. We’ve been sold this idea that men are strong and women are weak, and the media reinforces these gender roles/stereotypes with the whole damsel in distress/male hero cliche that’s been around forever. My point is that there’s an expectation that women are weaker, and thus there’s a conditioning that happens that I think makes women more vulnerable to harsh criticism.
I’m reminded of an article from the New York Times about this new trend of inner city schools segregating classes by gender to try to improve academic performance. They also have teachers of the same gender of the class teaching. One of the male teachers said it was great that he could teach only boys because he could be a better disciplinarian–he could get into their faces and yell at them. He said he couldn’t do that with the girls because they would start crying. Now obviously that brings up a whole nother slew of issues about masculinity and binary thinking about gender, etc. but my point is, generally I think people think boys can take more emotionally than girls can, and treat them accordingly.
Here’s the first trailer that was just released for Jane Campion’s Bright Star. I love Abbie Cornish, and I’m glad the film was well-received at Cannes. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810011941/trailer
Definitely look forward to checking it out when it opens in theaters Sept. 18th