On Gender Discrimination, Women Directors and "Carol"
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara in "Carol"There's a big article in the New York Times Magazine today about women filmmakers and the barriers they face in an industry that favors any young, unproven male director over a far more seasoned female director--because, you know, that's what makes guys comfortable. This is true in all areas filmmaking--writers, editors, producers and cinematographers are overwhelmingly male. But for women directors, the gender bias is so overt that any other traditionally male workplace--the Army, police and fire departments, Congress--is a comparative bastion of equality.
Now that it's been shown that only 1.9 percent of the directors of the 100 top-grossing films in 2013 and 2014 were women, the ACLU is investigating. Still, nothing has really changed, or is about to. Maureen Dowd, who wrote the article, says that male executives she interviewed called the issue of gender bias "bogus" and "a tempest in a teapot"--in other words, not even a problem. I'd say "read and weep," except that the article says there's no weeping allowed if you're a woman director:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/22/magazine/the-women-of-hollywood-speak-out.html?hpw&rref=movies&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
Last night I saw the beautiful "Carol," one of the year's best films. Set in the 1950s and based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, "Carol" is an honest-to-God woman's picture, the kind we haven't seen much of since the days when Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford's names were on the marquee. "Carol" stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara and was written by Phyllis Nagy. All the male roles are supporting ones. With that in mind, you'd think that "Carol" represents an advance for women in Hollywood, but no: it took thirteen years to reach the screen. Whose attachment gave it the green light? Not Blanchett's, despite her star power and two Oscars. Not Nagy's, though she is a well-regarded screenwriter and director ("Mrs. Harris"). In the end it was Todd Haynes who got "Carol" greenlit--a male director as usual, albeit one who specializes in films about women.