But the really big news, of course, is Kathryn Bigelow. I'm not sure to what extent people not in the biz grasp how big a deal it is that a woman won best director for a war movie is. It's still conventional wisdom in many, if not most, big movie-making circles that a woman just doesn't have the force of will to direct a film. And when film's go haywire (see Across the Universe) when female directors are at the helm, people will whisper that it's about her, and not the studio. People will talk about female hormones and whether she can be calm on the set (like the men are?) and about how there's no crying in baseball. If you're a woman and you want to be a big league director, you have a big, hard fucking wall staring at you, especially if you don't want to be making women's pictures. I won't say Bigelow just changed all of that, because she hasn't, not quite. But she makes it much easier for all the women I know and love in this business to say "fuck you, shut up" when the bullshit starts and have people shut up now.
But the really big news, of course, is Kathryn Bigelow. I'm not sure to what extent people not in the biz grasp how big a deal it is that a woman won best director for a war movie is. It's still conventional wisdom in many, if not most, big movie-making circles that a woman just doesn't have the force of will to direct a film. And when film's go haywire (see Across the Universe) when female directors are at the helm, people will whisper that it's about her, and not the studio. People will talk about female hormones and whether she can be calm on the set (like the men are?) and about how there's no crying in baseball. If you're a woman and you want to be a big league director, you have a big, hard fucking wall staring at you, especially if you don't want to be making women's pictures. I won't say Bigelow just changed all of that, because she hasn't, not quite. But she makes it much easier for all the women I know and love in this business to say "fuck you, shut up" when the bullshit starts and have people shut up now.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 12:52 am (UTC)Oh, good, I'm not the only one who's just completely Not Getting It -- I'm also catching up to the show for the first time (just mainlined s3 last Saturday because the cable was out, that was... um, probably not the best way to do it), and what I come away from it with is that the entire Buffy/Angel "relationship" is Tell, not Show. But then, overall the show seems to have a distressing tendency to substitute wittiness for actual character -- not necessarily a dealbreaker, if that's the show one wants to watch, but stylistically not so much My Thing. Meh, the vids are borrowed, anyway, I'll watch the rest because... um, I can borrow the vids, but... I've seen shows that worked better for me, let's just say. {sigh}
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 10:55 am (UTC)