Features, Films, News, Women Directors

Quote of the Day: Julie Delpy on Why There Is No Female Counterpart to Kubrick

Julie Delpy in “Lolo”: FilmRise

Opportunity is everything, to paraphrase Viola Davis’ 2015 Emmy speech. Based on MovieMaker’s interview with Julie Delpy, we’d say the “Lolo” director agrees.

Speaking about her admiration for filmmaker Jane Campion (“The Piano,” “Top of the Lake”), Delpy admitted that she “like[s] every single thing [Campion’s] done.”

Delpy continued, “I can’t say I like every film by any male director, which is actually a paradox because no one in Hollywood — no producer in Hollywood — is looking into a woman to be the next [Stanley] Kubrick , because no one believes a woman is a genius. They believe that any young guy that comes up with one OK film can be the next Kubrick, but not a woman. It’s ridiculous, because Jane Campion has only made great films all her life.”

Delpy expressed similar sentiments in Caroline Suh’s “The 4%: Film’s Gender Problem.” The EPIX docuseries explores gender bias through commentary with women and men directors and other public personalities. Its title is a reference to the 1,300 top-grossing films between 2002 and 2014: only 4.1 percent of their directors were female.

There’s plenty of evidence to back up Delpy’s assertion. “Iron Man 3” screenwriter Drew Pearce is set to helm the big budget “Hotel Artemis” — even though his only other directorial efforts were Funny or Die videos and the 14-minute “Marvel One-Shot: All Hail the King.” “Mozart in the Jungle” co-creator Alex Timbers will direct “Cruella” starring Emma Stone. He has experience directing theater, but hasn’t taken the reins on any films or TV episodes besides an onstage production of “The Pee Wee Herman Show,” which aired on HBO. David Ayer — director of “Suicide Squad,” one of the most universally reviled pics of 2016 — was apparently granted the benefit of the doubt from Warner Bros.: He will helm the Harley Quinn spinoff movie starring Margot Robbie.

So Delpy knows what she’s talking about. There is no female equivalent of Stanley Kubrick because she and other female directors are constantly being passed over for dudes with a spotty record or no experience at all. Filmmakers like Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Ang Lee, or Francis Ford Coppola aren’t inherently more talented than women; they’ve just had the chance to prove themselves. And most women directors haven’t.

Delpy has directed five feature films, including “2 Days in Paris,” “2 Days in New York,” and “The Countess.” She is currently working on her next directorial effort, “My Zoe,” which she will also star in. According to the synopsis, “‘My Zoe’ is the fascinating and confrontational story about the lengths to which a mother’s love goes for her child.”


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