Why are there so few female film directors?

Series of silent films made by women playing this summer in Brooklyn and LA, Kino Lorber box coming in fall.

https://www.bam.org/film/2018/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers

http://americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers

btw someone on Letterboxd made a list of 3806 female-directed films. I've seen 204 of them.

Barbara Loden’s son Marco Joachim shared this picture from the tour his mother did to screen her 1970 independent film WANDA. She is not only the star, but she also wrote and directed the film. Marco will share stories 8/10 at the WANDA show at Egyptian. Screens August 10-12. pic.twitter.com/QHA9guqvYr

— AmericanCinematheque (@SidGrauman) August 9, 2018

I hear there's talk of a Criterion edition of Wanda coming some time soonish.

huh - never heard of this! sounds interesting

you can bet on it, Ward, per the Janus Films copy re the NY revival.

http://metrograph.com/film/film/790/wanda

Shakey, there's a serviceable print of Wanda on YouTube, last time I looked. It's not a film where visual pleasure is paramount, but it would still be good to have a dece physical copy out there.

I'll rent the criterion when it comes out

The guy who put out a "Directed by Elaine May" T-shirt a couple of years ago has moved on to "Directed by Barbara Loden" T-shirts.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/loden.jpg

been hearing a lot about Wanda in the last month, trailer looked good. "an American Jeanne Dielman" sounds great

it's a lot shorter...

Watched Wanda around the time of the road movie poll, it's fucking great.

Btw Morbs I can't remember which thread you posted it in, but that female cinematographers season looked really good.

Also, Wanda can't stand the heat, so she gets out of the kitchen.

it was NY film snobs! series just ended at Lincoln Center

xp

Caught a screening of Wanda yesterday, preceded by two 1975 shorts which are apparently the only other films directed by Barbara Loden. The Frontier Experience was quite excellent (she also plays the lead in it).

But... The Boy Who Liked Deer, just 18 minutes long, is perhaps the saddest film I've ever seen. If this was actually shown to school kids, that's incredible.

would love to see that, has the recent Wanda restoration gotten a home video release? I saw it about a month ago, really great, a movie made by its final shot.

The Boy Who Liked Deer is on youtube, I see

Wanda is under the Janus Films umbrella, that means a CC eventually

I watched The Boy Who Liked Deer tonight. It would make a good double bill with Cipher in the Snow.

xp crossing fingers for Kanopy access

I'm in no rush to revisit Wanda, but I'd love to see those shorts on a loaded Criterion (or other label) blu-ray disc.

re Wanda, Elia Kazan and...

Mel Brooks LEGEND pic.twitter.com/IZvkI4mvzp

— Peter Labuza (@labuzamovies) January 9, 2019

btw Criterion of Wanda drops March 19

https://www.criterion.com/films/29450-wanda

Olivia Wilde's Booksmart beats you senseless for an hour--appropriate that "You Oughta Know" figures prominently (first time I've ever not hated it)--but I found the last 20 minutes or so (everything post-party) rather sweet, and I'd guardedly recommend it.

I agree it's an often fraught movie but this is a strange thread in which to post the criticism. It would work in the x movie thread.

I liked booksmart enough that I was bummed it didn’t make me laugh much. It was an 11am showing on a Sunday and the rest of the audience weren’t laughing either so the circumstances were tough. idk it was pretty much exactly this tho

these are the only jokes in like 90% of movies now pic.twitter.com/Qap6VJIK6O

— Nicole Silverberg (@nsilverberg) June 16, 2019

(xpost) I sometimes post thoughts in the last-x thread, but I usually try to find something a bit more specific...not that this is all that specific, but it's the best I could do without starting a new thread (which the film may warrant--as much as Eighth Grade, I'd say).

In retrospect, you're right to keep it here; like you, I think it's not as solid as Eighth Grade.

What I liked best: that the film ends up aligning itself with the time-honored tradition of high school movies that argue there's-more-uniting-us-than-separating-us (which, in the here and now, when you're actually in high school, is a complete fantasy; it's only credible with some time and perspective--and maybe not even then, but it's a nice thought).

One thing that leaves me at a complete loss: where the line of acceptability is for over-the-top caricature. The two gay students...If Chris Rock (or fill-in-the-blank) tried something like that, he'd be run out of town. It doesn't outrage me or anything--I basically never get outraged at the movies, just bored--I'm just curious. If there's controversy over these two characters, it hasn't reached me.

You misread that sentence; it's less polished than Eight Grade (in that it's like a bulldozer), but I think it's a more interesting film.

(I'm talking about the two guys--maybe the gay lead is seen as a fair trade-off.)

A rewatch of Wandayesterday, and that educational short by Barbara Loden about the frontier mentioned above. It's halfway into her interview w/ Dick Cavett from 1970 before the other guests chime in with questions -- Jimmy Breslin and Howard Cosell.

The loser thief Wanda hooks up with is treated with surprising depth, I think, w/out letting him off the hook or painting him as anything but damaged and cruel.

I hadn't realized Loden stayed married to Elia Kazan from '67 til her death; I thought they split up at some point.

Also, I've been to the religious theme park that Wanda and Mr Dennis visit. It's in Waterbury CT, and is essentially in ruins as it closed in 1984.

XP According to the You Must Remember This about Loden, they had agreed to divorce when she got her cancer diagnosis.

They were more or less separated for a lot of the '70s.

pauline kael was so mean to barbara loden in her review

cavett is sort of a prick to her too in that interview

sort of in the way of the era

for sure, tho unusual for Cavett

Not really, bcz he's *trying* to be 1970-woke ("It must be harder to raise money for a film when you're a woman") but then puts his foot in it anyway. Similar Cavett moment in the trailer for the recent Toni Morrison doc. He was nailed by Rick Moranis' namedropping impression on SCTV.

on the history of women editors

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6582-hidden-histories-the-story-of-women-film-editors

S.C. centennial

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6616-celebrating-shirley-clarke

new Lupino set

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/09/ida-lupino-box-set

A woman I grew up with on Fire Island is making quite the name for herself as a director right now and it’s so awesome. Can’t wait to see what she ends up doing. This is her latest project: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.indiewire.com/2019/09/the-rhythm-section-trailer-blake-lively-reed-morano-1202174816/amp/

That Lupino set was announced maaaaybe a day or two after I bought The Hitch-Hiker. Which was pretty annoying. But the set doesn't contain Outrage which is a bit of an outrage unto itself.

Went to see Hustlers the other night, good stuff

I recommend the pre-Code alcoholic romance Merrily We Go to Hell, directed by Dorothy Arzner (who quit directing features in the mid '40s, but later taught F Coppola at UCLA). Fredric March is a newspaperman turned playwright (a warmup lush for his Star Is Born role), Sylvia Sidney is his 'doormat' heiress wife, and when they end up in an open marriage she takes revenge with Cary Grant (one scene). Recently issued on a Universal disc.

https://www.screenslate.com/features/172

^^^ watching this afternoon on Criterion Channel (recently added).

Just watched Working Girls, which the Criterion Channel just put up as a companion to MWGtH. The screenwriters and director must have worked hard to get a happy ending for foolish sister May and wise sister June, in the big city and surrounded by men of varying morals. But they achieved it.

Related topic: Why do discussions of women in film rarely discuss female screenwriters?