Page 31 - ATD 27MAY2017

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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 27 May 2017

Coppola, Kidman put

Cannes spotlight on gen-

der imbalance

JAKE COYLE Kidman used the film’s
AP Film Writer premiere to call attention
CANNES, France (AP) — to statistics that show the
The imagery was stark, if mammoth gap between
inevitable: 12 Palme d’Or male and female directors
winners, one of them fe- — a disparity that prompt-
male. ed a federal investigation
When the Cannes Film Fes- into Hollywood hiring prac-
tival celebrated its 70th tices by the Equal Employ-
anniversary on Tuesday, it ment Opportunity Commis-
assembled luminaries from sion. A study by San Diego
across cinema as well as State’s Center for the Study
many of the recent win- of Women in Film released
ners of its top prize. Jane earlier this year found that
Campion was the only just 7 percent of 2016’s 250
woman director among top-grossing films were di-
the honored group, which rected by women — 2 per-
included Roman Polanski, cent less than in 2015.
David Lynch and Michael “We as women have to
Haneke. support female directors,
But that Campion, who that’s a given now,” said
won for “The Piano” in Kidman. “Everyone is say-
1993, would stand out was ing it’s so different now —
a foregone conclusion. but it isn’t. Listen to the sta-
She’s not just the only fe- tistics.”
male filmmaker to win the The selections of the
Palme who was there Tues- Cannes Film Festival
day, she’s also the only fe- couldn’t be further apart
male filmmaker to win the from Hollywood’s block-
Palme, ever. buster business. But the
“Seventy years of Cannes, festival’s inclusiveness to Director Sofia Coppola poses for photographers during the photo call for the 70th Anniversary of
76 Palme d’Or (winners), female filmmakers has long the international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 23, 2017.
only one of them has gone been criticized. An all-male Associated Press
to a woman,” said French lineup in Cannes’ Palme
actress Isabelle Huppert d’Or competition in 2012
in her opening remarks at sparked protests.
the ceremony. “No com- Cannes organizers have
ment.” (Actresses Adele consistently argued that
Exarchopoulos and Lea they simply program the
Seydoux shared in the 2013 best films they can, regard-
win for “Blue is the Warmest less of the filmmaker’s gen-
Color.”) der. The festival’s rundown
The next morning, gender of Tuesday’s evening, in
inequality in Cannes and response to Huppert’s zing-
behind the camera re- er, noted that Cannes has
mained at the forefront. So- “year in and year out high-
fia Coppola, one of three lighted the profiles, stories
female filmmakers out of and views of women.”
19 in competition for the There are quibbles with
Palme this year, premiered Cannes’ selections every
her latest, “The Beguiled.” year. This year’s festival
It’s a remake of Don Sie- represents an uptick, with
gel’s 1971 film but told with 12 projects from female
a more female point of filmmakers (including the
view. It’s a Civil War thrill- episodes of Campion’s se-
er starring Nicole Kidman ries “Top of the Lake”).
and Kirsten Dunst in which “I guess there’s three
a wounded Union soldier instead of two this
(Colin Farrell) is taken in year,” Coppola said in an
by an all-girls school in Vir- earlier interview, referring
ginia. Siegel’s film, starring to the competition lineup.
Clint Eastwood, had an “I think they have more
undeniably male point of there than we do (in the
view. Some have called it U.S.). There’s always been
misogynistic, whereas Cop- more of a tradition of fe-
pola’s film was hailed as male filmmakers in France
her most feminist work yet. and internationally.”q