I didn’t think I could love Manohla Dargis anymore after her awesome piece in the NY Times this weekend, but this honest and angry interview with Jezebel made me swoon with excitement.
We never, ever see a person of Dargis’ stature standing up for women in the film business in this public manner. I really hope that she is the first to speak out, not the last. But more importantly, we need to figure out how to get things to change so we have more good women’s films and opportunities for women directors.
But this is an awesome start.
Kudos to the women from Jezebel, in particular Irin Camron for getting this interview. It totally rocks!
Some choice quotes:
On why women in Hollywood aren’t faring any better: This business is really about clubby relationships. If you buy Variety or go online and look at the deals, you see one guy after another smiling in a baseball cap. It’s all guys making deals with other guys. I had a female studio chief a couple of years ago tell me point blank that she wasn’t hiring a woman to do an action movie because women are good at certain things and not others. If you have women buying that bullshit how can we expect men to be better?
Working within the system has not worked. It has not helped women filmmakers or, even more important, you and me, women audiences, to have women in the studio system. … I think the studio system as it exists now is a no-win situation for women filmmakers.
You can be a male filmmaker and if you’re perceived as a genius – a boy genius or a fully-formed adult genius – that you are allowed to fail in a way that a woman is not allowed to fail.
On women being taken seriously as moviegoers: It’s a vicious cycle. We’re not going to movies because there aren’t movies for us. Therefore we’re not seen as a loyal moviegoing audience. My point is that if there are stories about women, women will come out for that…
That’s why [women] go to a movie like The Devil Wears Prada and make huge hits. They want to see women in movies. People in the trade press constantly frame that as a surprise. This, gee whiz, Sex and the City’s a hit, Twilight, hmm, wonder what’s going on here. Maybe they should not be so surprised. In the trade press, women audiences are considered a niche. How is that even possible? We’re 51 percent of the audience.
I don’t want to be the woman critic. I don’t want to be the feminist critic. I don’t want to be the shrew. What I want to do is talk about the art that I love and point out, every so often, inequities….It’s a weird balancing act and I’m not saying there aren’t contradictions.
Re-reading the piece again this morning is actually making me cry with relief. Finally. It’s like the rose color glasses are off and the boxing gloves are on.
Game on Hollywood!
You must read the whole piece: “Fuck Them”: Times Critic On Hollywood, Women, & Why Romantic Comedies Suck (Jezebel)
Just a quick update on how Julie & Julia did this weekend.
While The Proposal with Sandra Bullock has exceeded expectations, we all know the one movie that women have been waiting for all summer is now only one week away — Julie and Julia. I have a sense that women are going to come out and see this in droves and in groups with many leaving the hubby or partner at home. The competition at the national level is pretty slim on opening weekend (GI Joe) so it will pretty much get every woman and hopefully men interested in an alternative.
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