Women in biopics, or: A Tale of Frustration

[selenak]

Another film I've recently watched in the cinema was Coco avant Chanel - "Coco before Chanel" - starring Audrey Tautou as Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. Tautou was great, but the film itself reminded me of the ongoing frustration dodging many a biopic (or film based on a true story, if you like) centred on a woman, as opposed to films portraying a male

Comments

[violaswamp]

such clunkers like the "my queen rules with her heart, not with her head" line

That line was an abomination. And there's no reason for it save sheer sexism.

Okay, maybe you could say that movie-makers know that "heart" types are more popular with Hollywood audiences than "head" types, whether male or female. So maybe they would have done the same to a famous young king. But I find it unlikely.

Now I was all set to rant about the patriarchy, but the director of Artemisia and the director of Coco before Chanel are both women.

Oh, you can still rant about the patriarchy! "Patriarchy" doesn't mean "men," after all, and movie directors of both sexes make assumptions about what their audiences want to see. Whether the movie-makers are sexist, or the audiences are, or the movie-makers overestimate the sexism of the audiences and therefore make sexist movies, is an interesting question.

[selenak]

I'm trying to think of a famous young king who gets described by a supporter in a similar fashion in a film, and am failing.

Mind you: there is a famous contemporary description of the old Elizabeth - by Robert Cecil - which is just as sexist: "She was more than a man, and sometimes, truly, less than a woman." But contemporary sexism aside, this at least doesn't imply she didn't use her mind for rulership.

Whether the movie-makers are sexist, or the audiences are, or the movie-makers overestimate the sexism of the audiences and therefore make sexist movies, is an interesting question.

And one I can't answer, either. But I do wonder, I tell you.

[shezan]

... and the Camille Claudel self-indulgent pap was commissioned and produced by a woman - Adjani herself, in typical luvvie mode - and written by another woman (the nearly unreadable Anne Delbée.)

[raincitygirl]

I don't have anything meaningful to say, but this was a really interesting piece.

P.S. About ten years ago saw a really quite good play about Artemisia Gentilesci at my university, which did not shy away from the rape aspect. I was vaguely aware that there was also a movie about her, and (probably naively) assumed the movie was based on the play. I wish I could remember the name of the damn play now, because it sounds like it was a hell of a lot better than the movie.

[selenak]

Wikipedia tells me there is a play by Sally Clark called Life without Instruction - could it have been this one?

Also, your icon amuses. *g*

[shobogan]

Well, clearly romance is the most important aspects of any woman's life! And if we're making a movie about a woman, only women will want to see it, and they only like romance.

Yes, it's incredibly frustrating, and incredibly prevalent. There's also the tendency to stick in an awkward romance subplot where it isn't needed to attract the female audience, as clearly we wouldn't be interested otherwise.

"my queen rules with her heart, not with her head"

And that is exactly why I've never seen that movie.

[selenak]

You didn't miss anything. I mean, Cate Blanchett was good as always, but she had an excruciating script to work with. And if one knows even the slightest bit of history, one flinches all the time. Behold William Cecil, then in his late 30s, being presented as an old man who gets complimented out of office at the end of the film. Behold Francis Walsingham get basically Cecil's position in Elizabeth's goverment and life, and before making it in politics, having a random gay affair and knifing Catholics. Oh, and killing Marie de Guise. And behold Elizabeth basically having sex with Dudley in front her ladies-in-waiting. Oh yes, and everyone Catholic is uniformly evil and set on burning and killing people. (I'm told this gets even worse in The Golden Age where Philipp II's daughter is putting pins in people.)

[kangeiko]

The Golden Age is hilarious with Rhys Ifans playing a bow-legged Philip of Spain. The ainfanta gets no lines and carries a doll of Elizabeth around, and stares menacingly like someone out of The Omen. But. There is Cate Blanchett in armour with a long Boudicea wig before the battle, which is so, so pretty to look at. (although my history-loving heart flinched its way through everything else. shouldn't she have been hideously scarred a la lead make-up by that point?)

[zahrawithaz]

Thank you for reminding me of the reasons I hated Elizabeth. That film really was an atrocity. I hated the way they treated the Dudley affair, too--like it needed to be sexual so she could be a real woman, never mind the way she used the politics of virginity, except for that ridiculous ending.

And thanks much for your piece, here--it's a great point and has set me thinking about biopics about women artists. You can definitely add Iris (about Iris Murdoch) to the list--it's based on her husband's memoir, and is much more about their marriage and how it was affected by her Alzheimer's disease than about her. And Frida puts an awful lot of emphasis on her relationship with Diego Rivera, too.

What did you think of Julie and Julia? I have other criticisms, but it did seem to avoid this trap.

[kangeiko]

Coco Avant Chanel struck me as almost identical in flow and plot and staging as La Vie En Rose, down to the fate of her married lover and the way she was informed. I also felt that the most interesting parts for me were the last five minutes, when she establishes herself and produces her first collection. Ok, the film was expressely her life before Chanel, but I found the way she was defined by all the male characters grating. Maybe because it was semi/almost prostitution? She very clearly exchanged material comfort for sex, which made her pretense at independence rather sad in my eyes.

I remember Artemisia, I hated that movie too. Probably because of the way it glorified rape. Maybe I'm now remembering it clearly as it's been a while, but I remember her being held down? I don't recall it being a passionate live affair, I always felt it was coercion and rape.

That said, I'm struggling to recall any film about an artist or poet or musician that focused on their work rather than their love life...

[selenak]

That said, I'm struggling to recall any film about an artist or poet or musician that focused on their work rather than their love life...

Capote. Which is all about him writing a book. *g* Also the film with Liev Schreiber as Orson Welles and James Cromwell as W. H. Hearst which focuses on the development of Citizen Kane. It invents some stuff - like Welles meeting Heart pre-Kane - but not about Welles' love life, which is totally ignored (and not missed).