It's not the gender, stupid—it's the stupid

My bud Sharon Waxman, whose job as a movie biz correspondent at the Times does not, I should point out right away, necessarily entail making aesthetic judgements, has a rather extraordinary piece in today's paper headlined "Hollywood's Shortage of Female Power." It begins with an anecdote related by producer Cathy Schulman, who, as devotees of my bud Dave Kehr's blog will recall, recently said one of the dumbest things any sentient being has ever said ever, by way of rationalizing/justifying/whattheferckevershewasdoing her in-the-works remake of Hitchcock's The Birds. (In case you don't feel like clicking over to Dave's place right this minute, this is what she says: "We think we have a very contemporary take...In the original, the birds just showed up, and it was kind of like, why are the birds here? This time, there’s a reason why they’re here and [people] have had something to do with it. There’s an environmental slant to what could create nature fighting back.”)

Schulman, who recounts getting a call from a studio exec asking her to pretty much concoct a "women's picture" out of thin air, doesn't bring the idiocy to this particular piece, but soon enough, more famous female moviemakers are taking up her slack...

"I feel that it's a different time; it's not the time it was," says producer Lynda Obst, sounding for all the world as if she's going to launch into song. The at-least co-producer of Flashdance, Bad Girls, One Fine Day, Sleepless in Seattle and (how did this happen?) The Fisher King then says "she recently had to fight Disney from cancelling one of her productions..."

That ellipsis and close quote isn't in the original article. I just want you to, you know. Wait for it.

"...a remake of Adventures in Babysitting."

Oh curse this abominable, male-dominated American movie industry that tries to squelch remakes of Adventures in Babysitting!

The piece goes on in that vein, albeit somewhat less overtly offensively, until indie producer Lindsay Doran despairs that the success of My Big Fat Greek Wedding did not bankroll more movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Back when I was a kid in the '60s, I looked at the feminist movement and, with my idealistic child's eyes, imagined that it might bring about a world that was not only sexism-free, but more humane in general, not to mention more intelligent. And while I certainly wouldn't think of disparaging the real advances that feminism has brought to the world, I have to say that as it pertains to the particular portion of this business we call show that I both revere and consider myself privileged to be able to sound off about...well let's just say sometimes it looks as if all it's broughten to this particular table are a few different shades of stupid.
[We now pause for an O'Neillesque interior monologue.]

That's a deplorable generalization, I know. But hell, Jeffrey Wells gets away with deplorable generalizations all the time. It's kind of his brand, even...still, I should be better than that. All I can say is please, please, please Allison Anders, finish your next movie soon.

Holy smoke! What was that that just flew out the window?!?! Oh, my invitation to the next Women in Hollywood lunch.

Comments

[Tram]

Lol on the Adventures in Babysitting remake. How ambitious. (That Elisabeth Shue film is quite enjoyable, to be honest. With that being said, let's get some perspective here: It's one of those guilty pleasures you watched on the Disney Channel, with your sisters, when nothing else was on TV.)

Re: Allison Anders

I slept during Gas, Food Lodging. D'oh!

Re: women directors in the U.S.

While there are a few American female directors that I am quite fond of, I think Europe - France, in particular (Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, et al.) - has some of the world's most talented women filmmakers. Hollywood just doesn't pack 'em like Europe does, I guess.

[Aaron Aradillas]

You know, to a certain group of people Adventures in Babysitting will trump GoodFellas in that it used The Chrystals' "Then He Kissed Me" to memorable effect. It is used for the Girl-Getting-Ready-For-A-Date-And-Dances-Around-Her-Bedroom title sequence. I wonder if on that early Fall day in September of 1990 if Chris Columbus went to see Scorsese's pop gangster masterpiece and thought, "What a hack."

I kid the Shue-maker's second most memorable performance. (Her first is, of course, The Karate Kid's California girlfriend, Ali.)

It seems like only yesterday I was sneaking into Adventures in Babysitting and discovering the power of surburban white kids being able to talk their way out of a tight spot by singing the Blues in what looked like the last speakeasy in Chcago. (For the record I snuck into Babysitting after paying to see Dragnet. Does anyone else have love for the Summer of '87?)

Seriously, I think the worst thing to happen to Women in Hollywood is Nora Ephron. I mean, has she written anything constrctive since When Harry Met Sally...? She still brings up her marriage to Carl Bernstein any chance she gets. Her downgrading of cultural moments like Sex and the City says more about her disconnect from modern women than it does about being a witty feminist.

I still have hope. I eagerly await the next movie from Kasi Lemmons, Kimberly Pierce, Antonia Bird, Julie Taymor, and Kathryn Bigelow.

[Kiko]

Re; Nora Ephron

I agree with your statements about Ephron but, c'mon, even When Harry Met Sally was a sad attempt by Ephron and Reiner at what Woody Allen had already done...and better...much better.

[Aaron Aradillas]

It's Woody Allen lite. When Harry Met Sally... works on its own modest terms. Remember, it was released in the summer of '89. It had been a whole three years since Hannah and her Sisters. Allen had gotten lost in nostalgia (Radio Days) or being Igmar Bergman (September, Another Woman, Crimes and Misdemeanors).

[crazysummerswithbrigitte]

Regarding Cathy Schulman's original (in more than one sense) comment about the remake of The Birds, which I did not have the good fortune to see in the fabuleux Monsieur Kehr's blog: Isn't about time there was a remake of The Stranger that explained *why* Meursault pulled the trigger?

It was always such a flaw in the original, don't you think? For instance, it *could* be M.'s revenge on the murder of his mother.

[J. Goard]

That remake can't be much worse than "City of Angels" laying out for us that life has Good Things like fireside love-making at a lakeside cabin or eating all the fatty foods you want, as well as Bad Things like having your job involve watching children die every day, getting beat up, or

*spoiler alert*

nah, never mind.

Just in case the emotional pallette of "Wings of Desire" would have left you scratching your head...

[jenni]

Between Nicolas Cage's performances in remakes of two of my favorite movies, Wings of Desire and the Wickerman... well, really, this kinda says it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo

(or at least nostalgically favorite, which is sometimes different than actual favorites ifyaknowwhatimean)

[J. Goard]

Haha, yeah. Thankfully, the critics a) spared me the crappy remake, and b) eventually led me to check out the original while staying with a friend who owned it.

Let's call it the "Leaving Las Vegas" curse. Promising but angry author and songwriter check out early, with singer, actor, and director paying slowly with their souls.