The monthly list at The Film Experience this time around was a lot of fun to think about, but somewhat depressing in execution: the women most in need of an honorary Oscar. Depressing not because the list isn't a sold consensus - it very much is - but because merely working on the longlist made it unpleasantly clear that there aren't nearly as many below-the-line women given the opportunity to build themselves an impressive career. The top 11 is dominated by actresses not because they're the most visible and we're lazy, but because there are so few other candidates.
And part of that was the list's eligibility rules (editor Sarah Flack and cinematographer Ellen Kuras are, unfortunately, under 55 years old, while editors Dede Allen and Sally Menke both died in 2010, but all four were people I'd have dearly loved to include), but still, it's as solid a wake-up call as you could need: there need to be more women in the movie industry.
Here, then, is my top 10
1. Liv Ullmann (actress, director, writer) [#1 on the TFE list]
2. Agnès Varda (director, writer) [on the TFE list]
3. Kathleen Kennedy (producer) [on the TFE list]
4. Gena Rowlands (actress) [on the TFE list]
5. Claire Denis (director, writer)
6. Doris Day (actress) [on the TFE list]
7. Setsuko Hara (actress)
8. Catherine Deneuve (actress) [on the TFE list]
9. Chantal Akerman (director, writer)
10. Elaine May (writer, director, actress)
03 July 2013
3 comments:
Just a few rules so that everybody can have fun: ad hominem attacks on the blogger are fair; ad hominem attacks on other commenters will be deleted. And I will absolutely not stand for anything that is, in my judgment, demeaning, insulting or hateful to any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion. And though I won't insist on keeping politics out, let's think long and hard before we say anything particularly inflammatory.
Also, sorry about the whole "must be a registered user" thing, but I do deeply hate to get spam, and I refuse to take on the totalitarian mantle of moderating comments, and I am much too lazy to try to migrate over to a better comments system than the one that comes pre-loaded with Blogger.
Since I gave props to The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, I am going to continue with another universally reviled movie which is hilarious.
ReplyDeleteIshtar.
Yes, Ishtar is hilarious. Not the "you have to be in the spirit" hilarious. Not "it isn't bad". No, this movie is funnier than hell.
It was on Hulu in 2010. I had never seen it, but oh I knew it sucked.
Wrong. I not only laughed, I laughed through the whole thing. Also, the movie is very prescient with its Middle Eastern politics.
Charles Grodin will floor you.
The movie is impossible to find in the US.
So to Elaine May: I know the movie blackballed you but 1) kudos for not putting up with Warren Beatty and 2) kudos for sticking to your guns. They knew about Mikey and Nicky they knew she'd go through reels of film. But they threw her under the bus anyway.
I have specific plans to write a defense of Ishtar, about which I agree with every single word you've said here. The good news is that I think the tide of history agrees with us.
ReplyDeleteAnd it says something really depressing about access and opportunity that all of the women in the TFE Top 20 are white.
ReplyDelete