Little (?) Women

It is sad to realize we still need something called Women’s Day in the year 2016. 

But this is the reality of things: the macho mentality is always around the corner, everywhere, with no exception, not to mention places (and there are many of them in this world) where women’s freedom simply doesn’t exist. 

It sucks. It greatly sucks. 

The other day I was reading an article about the female presence in cinema and television in the United States and in France and it was extremely depressing. The percentage of female film-makers, producers and screen writers is ridiculous, and when it comes to fields like cinematography or editing, simply forget about them! 

Ida Lupino (courtesy of BFI)

Maggie Gyllenhaal, 38 years old, one of the best actresses in Hollywood, told the press she has recently been refused for a part in a movie since she was considered too old to be the love interest of her male counterpart, 50 years old!!! 
You gotta be kidding me, guys. 

Some actresses, desperate about the too stupid and secondary roles they are constantly offered, have started to create their own production companies. 
It is of few days ago the news that Juliette Binoche and Jessica Chastain are creating one of those together. 

And we don’t even mention the difference in salaries, of course! 

J. Chastain&J.Binoche (courtesy of Madame Figaro)

If this is what happens in the so-called advanced world, of course the situation is much worse and often desperate in other parts of the world. 

Last November, the Moroccan actress Loubna Abidar, who played the role of a prostitute in a film called Much Loved (by Nabil Ayouch), has been attacked outside a club in Casablanca by a group of men only because she played that part. She posted a video talking about this episode and about what happened to her when she went to the hospital and then to see the police: instead of being helped, she was basically told she deserved what she had.
She is now living in France to avoid death threats:

There are many movies talking about women’s conditions in difficult places: recent stories set in Iran, various parts of Africa, Middle East countries and even less suspicious countries. 

I was personally shocked by the vision of a recent movie set in Israel, where a woman tries to get a divorce (yes, a simple divorce): in that country it could be granted just by rabbis and, useless to say, they are men who tend to give right to other men and not to listen to what women have to say (if you have the guts to see it, the movie is Gett - The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, and Zazie already wrote a post about it):

Viviane Amsalem (magnificent Ronit Elkabetz)

Possibly the worst country on this planet where a woman could live is Saudi Arabia, where apparently cinema don’t exist (my idea of hell on earth) and where, in any case, women are not allowed to enter into theatres. In 2012, the female film-maker Haifaa Al-Mansour wrote and directed a wonderful movie called Wadjda (La bicicletta verde): it was the first feature length made by a female Saudi director (in 2012!!!) and the first feature film entirely shot in Saudi Arabia (I told you it was hell!). Because of the ridiculous restrictions placed on women in that country, the film-maker could not interact with her mostly male crew, and so she was obliged to direct the streets scenes from a van near the shooting locations, watching in a monitor and giving directing instructions via walkie-talkie. Unbelievable! 
But, hey, she made it (the shooting of The Revenant looks like a stroll in the countryside compared to this, don’t you think?). 

When I saw Suffragette (by Sarah Gavron) few months ago, I was so impressed by what our sisters from the past had to endure to give us the right to vote, but I was even more disconcerted when I read that the so-considered very civilized Switzerland gave to women the right to vote in… 1971. WTF!!!

The other depressing aspect, it is the way female characters are often portrayed in movies made by men. 

For one Jane Campion, there are hundreds David Fincher. 

It is still so, so, so rare to see modern, complex, interesting, independent women portrayed in movies. 

Things are changing, it is true, but fuck they are changing too slowly for my taste. 

This is why I salute and I often writes about Stella Gibson, the main character of the TV series The Fall (series created by a men, Allan Cubitt, you see… there’s hope!) who is a beautiful, sexy, feminine, smart, badass, bi-sexual, single woman who doesn’t need any help from men but who, at the same time, doesn’t hide her fears and, best thing of all, doesn’t need to justify herself for being what she is. 

I hope there will be more and more Stella Gibson on screen in the future.

Stella Gibson (Gillian Anderson)

I sometimes think about the scene in Zero Dark Thirty (by Kathryn Bigelow) when Maya is in a room full of men and they are saying to their boss where Bin Laden is hiding. 
And the moment she starts talking, the boss asks: who are you? 
And Maya answers back to him: I am the motherfucker that found this place, sir.

In case you still didn't get it...

Obvious Child

As you know, I like writing in this blog about great movies made by women (and you don’t come across them every day, because - let’s face it - cinema is a very male profession). 
The other night, I finally watched in DVD a movie that I was sorry to have missed in cinemas: Obvious Child by Gillian Robespierre. 
The movie's plot intrigued me a lot, as well as the actress playing the main character (Jenny Slate) and, well, I have to say my cinematographic sixth sense was right.
What a brilliant movie is this! 

Donna Stern is a twenty-something living in Brooklyn.
She has kind of a job (she works in a local bookstore that is about to close) but her real passion is being a stand-up comedian in a Williamsburg club. Freshly dumped by her boyfriend (the fact that she is making jokes in public about their sex-life maybe didn’t help!), Donna has a one night stand with a complete (even if cute) stranger and she incidentally got pregnant (put the blame on the booze). 
No job, no boyfriend, no money: she knows this is not exactly the best moment in her life to have a baby, and so she decided to have an abortion. Unexpectedly, the stranger comes back looking for her. He quite liked her and he would like to have a proper date. Confused by the events in her life, Donna tries her best to be the independent woman she always claimed to be. It won’t be easy but she will manage!

It is SO refreshing to see movies with complex, funny, smart, weird, real female characters. 
What a relief to realize that they exist, they’re out there, not only in the world but also on the screen. Donna is not one of those stereotyped women the cinema is plenty of: she is not perfect, she is so far away from being perfect, she is messy, she's funny in a very particular way (her monologues at the club are hilarious as much as sacrilegious) and this is exactly why we like her so much. Donna is one of us. She is not stunningly gorgeous but she has a lot of personality and she sees the world in her own way. 

But by far, the most interesting thing of this movie, is the way the theme of the abortion is treated. 
I sincerely don't remember to have seen something like this before on screen.
Donna is of course devastated by the idea of making an abortion, but she goes through the whole experience simply being herself (read: with a lot of humour). She knows she got pregnant in a very stupid way (but, hey, shit happens in life) and she also knows that to keep the child is not an option for her, so she does what she thinks is the right thing to do for her, without being apologetically about it. And I have appreciated that immensely, because there is always a moment when a moral judgment pops up in movies, but not in this one.
To give you an idea of the "tone", the day before the abortion Donna is about to go on stage and her best friend (the great "Transparent" Gaby Hoffman) tells her: 
I'm sure you're going to kill it out there! 
And Donna replies: I actually have an appointment to do that tomorrow morning.
Wow! 
After Stella Gibson from The Fall, Donna Stern is my new idol.
I hope there will be an army of this kind of women ready to invade our screens.
It would be about time, don't you agree?

Top 5 TV Series of 2014

As you probably imagine, not only Zazie spends much of her time in the dark of cinema theatres, but also when she’s home, she can’t help herself but spending time watching TV series.
TV Series are the new Movies, let’s admit it. 

Sometimes it’s hard to find in cinema the same level of originality, boldness and amazement that you can find in television products.
There are so many jewels out there, that it’s basically impossible to see them all, but Zazie tried her best. So, starting from 2015, besides the usual TOP 10 of Best Pictures (wait, it will be published soon!), Zazie will share with you her TOP 5 of Best TV series!
Aren't you excited??!
One word before I start, for the TV series freaks like me: yes, I have seen True Detective and Fargo but for some reasons they didn't excite me as much as I thought. I liked them, I enjoyed to see them very much, but I forgot about them too soon. And this is not a good sign, as far as I'm concerned. 

Also, I would like to mention a couple of TV mini-series that really made my day:

Olive Kitteridge by Jane Anderson & Elizabeth Strout

Because I can't stop thinking about the incredible performances of Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins:

Quirke by John Banville, Andrew Davies and Conor McPherson

Because I can't stop thinking about Gabriel Byrne... (hey, I'm a blogger, not a saint!):

And here's my list:

5 - Transparent by Jill Soloway
From one of the scenarists of Six Feet Under (yes, she can!), the story of a dysfunctional but irresistible modern family in contemporary Los Angeles: the son is loosing his job and his mind over too many women, one of the two daughters doesn't know what to do with her life and the other one is leaving her family for another woman. The mother, divorced, is fed up of taking care of her second and very ill husband and the father, well, the father is a trans. Too over-the-top not to be irresistible, and Jeffrey Tambor yesterday night won the Golden Globe for this part. 
Well done, Maura!

4 – Mad Men/Season 7 (1st part) by Matthew Weiner
Waiting for the End of an Era, we witness Don Draper and his kind entering a new time in history: the ‘70s. Set between a cold and dark New York and a warm and sunny Los Angeles, the adventures of this bunch of advertising men and women is slowly but inexorably going towards the abyss. Nobody is doing the right thing, here. Lost in a changing and unrecognizable world, our heroes keep making mistakes and turning in circles. 

Where all this is going? To hell, most probably.
And I personally can’t wait to see it (even if, I know, I’ll feel like an orphan, afterwards).

3 - The Affair by Hagai Levi & Sarah Treem
From the creators of In Treatment (Santi Subito!), the story of a love affair that would torture anybody’s heart. Noah and Alison are both married but they can’t help themselves: they become lovers during a summer in the Hamptons. Questioned months later by a NY detective about the death of somebody they both knew, they talk about the same episodes but in a completely different way. 
Divided in two parts of 30 minutes each, reporting first Noah and then Alison’s version, this modern Rashomon is one of the finest things you can come across. Besides the great screenplay, the two (British, of course!) main actors raise the bar at the highest levels. 
Dominic West and Ruth Wilson (she just won a Golden Globe for this role) are so amazing that you want to fiercely believe in both their versions.

2 - The Knick by Jack Amiel & Michael Begley
Once we were butchers. 
In a Manhattan hospital at the beginning of last century, a group of brave (and a bit crazy) surgeons try their best to save peoples’ lives using new techniques.
Forget about ER, Grey’s Anatomy and Dr. House: things are much worse here. There’s blood everywhere, inside and outside the hospital, surgeons are under drugs or fighting for their (black) rights. It’s a mess, but it’s a great one. Steven Soderbergh is the magician behind the camera of each episode. The dark sepia light in which this world is living is intoxicating: you can’t get enough of it.
And Episode 7 is possibly the best thing I’ve seen this year.

1 – The Fall/Season 2 by Allan Cubitt
Yes, I know, the first season of The Fall was just a very good and intriguing new series.
The story of a serial killer in Belfast who’s attacking and viciously killing young women and of the Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson, called from London to investigate and solve the case.
This second series, well, this second one is something else.
The serial killer is not killing anymore, the policemen hating bad men finds out to have one inside of him (great John Lynch) and Stella (magnificent Gillian Anderson) is shining like a rising star, as her name promises: a single and very sexy woman obliged to live in a men’s world, not afraid of being afraid, not justifying herself for her commitment-free (and possibly bi-sexual) love life, not worried of being smarter and stronger than any other man around her.
As you’ve probably understood: this was love at first sight.

Sister Act

Gillian Anderson as Stella Gibson in The Fall (BBC 2)

I have always been accused to be too straightforward with men.
And I can’t deny it.
I sincerely don’t understand why, if I like someone, I should wait ages before announcing it to him.
I basically live following Don Drapers’s principle: I’m living like there is no tomorrow, because there isn’t one. 

In a couple of occasions, I made love declarations and/or indecent proposals after few hours I met the object of my desire.

This approach isn’t always working, I admit it.
As per the First Rule of the non-written Law of Seduction, men prefer hunting instead of being hunted. And as boring as this could sound (at least to my ears), and regardless of the fact that we are now in 2013, it looks like this is still - and quite sadly will always be - the case.
Most women are horrified too by this approach. I envy them. I wish I could feel the same way. I wish I could be like them.
In movies too, it is not that frequent to come across female characters who clearly express their desires.
In this sense, TV series have always been ahead: I mean, even if it is not one of my favourite series, it is a fact that, before Sex and the City, nobody had the guts of talking in such realistic way of what sex/love/relationship really mean for women.
Last week-end, I’ve seen a new TV series (5 episodes in total, the last episode still to be broadcast) called The Fall. 

Set in contemporary Belfast, The Fall follows in parallel the life of a serial killer, Paul Spector, and the one of the Detective Superintendent who’s trying to track him down, Stella Gibson. Played by American actress Gillian Anderson, Stella is one of the most refreshing characters I’ve ever seen on screen. Stella is forty-something, independent, self-confident, ironic, single, a bit tough and diffident (almost glacial, sometimes), and more than straightforward towards men.

In one scene, she did something that really thrilled me, and made me feel like a novice compared to her: at a crime scene on the street, at night, Stella noticed a good looking police-man, detective sergeant James Olson. Stella asks the colleague who’s in the car with her, to be introduced to the man. A second afterwards the presentation, she said to Olson, who looks at her in disbelief: "I’m staying in this hotel, room n° 203". 

The following scene shows, of course, the door of room n° 203. 
Somebody is knocking at it. Useless to say, it is James Olson. The door opens, Stella looks at him. 

"I wasn’t sure what you meant when you gave me your room number", the man begins.
Stella moves the sign Do not disturb from the inside handle to the outside handle.
"This is what I meant", she answers, bringing the man into the room.
Wow! I was so admired. And what a relief!
At least on screen, I have a sister who acts like me.