Vera Chytilova

Vera Chytilová was born on February 2, 1929, in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic). She studied philosophy and architecture in Brno for two years, then worked as a technical draftsman, a designer, a fashion model, a photo re-toucher, then worked as a clapper girl for Barrandov Film Studios in Prague. There she continued as a writer, actress, and assistant director.

She was denied a scholarship, or even a recommendation from Barrandov, but she took the admissions tests at FAMU and was accepted. From 1957-1962 she studied film directing under Otakar Vávra, who also taught Jirí Menzel, Milos Forman, Jan Nemec, and Ivan Passer. In 1962 she graduated as director from Film Academy (FAMU) in Prague. Her graduation film ‘Strop’ (Ceiling 1962) and the following film ‘Pytel blech’ (A Bagful of Fleas 1963) were “staged” improvisations with non-actors. In 1966 Chytilova and her husband, ‘Jaroslav Kucera’, made a witty surrealist comedy Daisies (1966), which was immediately banned, but then was released in 1967, and won the Grand Prix at the Bergamo Film Festival. She remained in Czechoslovakia after the events of 1968, when her colleagues Milos Forman, Jan Nemec, and Ivan Passer emigrated. Her films were often “shelved” for reasons of political censorship. For six years Chytilova was banned from making films. In 1976 she wrote a letter of complaint to President Gustav Husak, describing her artistic position. After some behind-the-scenes influence by her supporters, Chytilova was allowed to make a low-budget Hra o jablko (1977), which won a Silver Hugo at Chicago Film Festival.

Chytilova belongs among the foremost directors of the 1960′s Czech New Wave, which was influenced by both the French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realism. Her films were acclaimed for visual experimentation and for bold unmasking of the moral problems of contemporary society. Her art belongs to what Sergei M. Eisenstein described as “intellectual cinema”, that embraces the mix of “avant-garde”, “cinema verite”, “formalism”, “feminism”, or “happening” and, with a good deal of humor, it spreads beyond definitions. Chytilova’s films often present a multi-layered plethora of visual associations that encourages the viewer to make active interpretations. She survived through the political turbulences in Czechoslovakia and has been a highly original and uncompromising filmmaker.

via IMDB

Trailer for Daisies

Interview with Vera Chytilova

Kathryn Bigelow

If women are going to continue to break down barriers and keep the fight of feminism alive, we have got to lay off the girl on girl crime. This is something that affects women of all ages. Several weeks ago in Salon Magazine I read an article by  Martha P. Nochimson, an established former NYU professor and author, take down Katheryn Bigelow simply because she didn’t like her movie. Okay, The Hurt Locker wasn’t her cup of tea, but Ms. Nochimson took it to an extremely unacceptable and unprofessional place by not just criticizing Kathryn Bigelow’s work but Kathryn Bigelow herself. Sadly, the go-to put down of name calling was present, but for me, she also employed a much more damaging approach when she pitted two women (also successful filmmakers) against Kathryn Bigelow in order to prove her point. (A point, mind you, grounded in personal taste) Why take three accomplished women and cheapen their work with these immature tactics?  Do we really need to tear one woman down to build another up? Where is this getting us?

Society would have us believe it’s nature not nurture that makes woman jealous and competitive with each other. I do not believe, not for a split second, that it is inherently in women to be more jealous, competitive (or that deplorable term, “catty”) than men. Not when I’m bombarded with a constant stream of divisive images targeted at women and the blatant undermining of our self confidence from a culture obsessed with female beauty.  It makes me sick when I hear women tell me that they don’t have female friends because they can’t handle the “drama” or the “politics”. It just won’t due and  I keep coming back to that old adage- “United we conquer, divided we fall.”

I feel sorry for Ms. Nochimson, to me, a sign of personal growth and maturity in becoming a woman is in realizing that taking another woman down doesn’t get you any farther. In fact, it takes us as a collective whole an immeasurable number of steps back.

Although the world might make T.V. shows out of our harmful actions and exploit that pain to sell us more products, we as women really do have to stand together and say enough is enough. We’re only as strong as our weakest link and it frightens me that right now a respected and successful women like Ms. Martha P. Nochismson, writing for a credited website such as Salon might just be it.

Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Bigelow made history on March 7th when she became the first woman to win the award for Best Director. And to be honest, up until that point I knew very little about her. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one, since she hasn’t exactly been the most prevalent director of our time.

I haven’t seen the Hurt Locker because, frankly, it is my junior year of high school and when I emerge, blinking at the unexpected brightness of the sun after hours of light generated by my computer screen I usually take shelter at a friend’s house so that they might remember I still exist.

So, instead, I did what I do best and took to Google. Apparently, Kathryn Bigelow has directed Point Break – a bank robbery type movie – and The Weight of Water, about a journalist researching a historical murder that parallels her own life, along with a few other movies. So…not exactly chick flicks. Which could mean nothing but at the same time is it really a coincidence that a woman who makes movies that are very much male-oriented was the first woman to win an Oscar? Of course that’s not to say women don’t enjoy/appreciate movies about war, murder and bank robbery – sure they do, let’s not generalize – but at the same time, these are traditionally considered “guy flicks” and therefore more important. A chick flick isn’t about to get the kind of appreciation that movies about war do.

And honestly I’m sick of the argument that war movies are “more important” than chick flicks. Not that I’m defending chick flicks, necessarily, because honest to god they are some of the worst representations of women out there. But at the same time why have we deemed war, masculine driven slaughter, more important than the lives of women?

But that is a different rant.

Another point about Kathryn Bigelow: like I said before, I basically knew nothing about her. And yet the few things that I did know were 1) she used to be married to James Cameron (you know, the guy that should have won) and 2) she looks fabulous for her age!

Here is a woman who has apparently accomplished Oscar level work – a brilliant filmmaker – and all we can talk about is her love life and how hot she is. All this while at the same time we’re congratulating our society for progressing so much that we now, after 81 short years, have admitted that women can direct as well as men. Faaaaantastic.

And what about that? Our self congratulation for allowing a woman to finally win. On some level, it’s kind of embarrassing that it has taken us 81 YEARS to get here.

But, all that aside, it’s undeniable awesome that Kathryn Bigelow won that Oscar. So here’s a look at the woman who accomplished this.

Coen Brothers: where are the women?

In discussing the decline of quality in contemporary film, the conversation often focuses on easy targets such as remakes, sequels, and poor public taste.  Yet these complaints are by no means unique to the current cinematic climate.  The near complete lack of films featuring female protagonists by male directors in recent years indicates a far more disconcerting trend. Though excellent work this year from Jane Campion and Kathryn Bigelow proves that the fairer sex retains a strong voice in modern cinema, women are virtually absent from the recent opuses of The Coen Brothers, P.T. Anderson, and the other auteurs du jour.  While talented in crafting their female characters, Quentin Tarantino and Lars von Trier too often toe the line of misogyny, no matter how much either denies it.

It’s telling that the only two active male directors arguably committed to incorporating feminist ideology in their work, Todd Haynes and Pedro Almodovar, both acknowledge a direct influence from the master of the Technicolor melodrama, Douglas Sirk.  While the term has been gradually denigrated to the realm of Gossip Girl and the teeth-grindingly prolific output of Tyler Perry, melodrama was, in Sirk’s hands, a vehicle for exploring the insular concerns of women in the domestic realm.

Douglas Sirk

Often framing his heroines through windows and mirrors and painting their worlds with a bracingly artificial palette, Sirk exposed the inner turmoil of his repressed characters by amplifying the Hollywood Artifice of the 1950s.  Unsurprisingly he attracted some of the greatest talent of the era: Barbara Stanwyck, Lauren Bacall, and Lana Turner, among others.  Sirk’s commitment to defining his characters not by their relationships to men, but by through psychological desires and deficiencies represents a clean break from the cinematic conventions of the past.  His films All That Heaven Allows, Written on the Wind, and Imitation of Life are revered for their progressive takes on sexuality and race.  Meanwhile the reactionary mindlessness of films like Confessions of a Shopaholic* and He’s Just Not That Into You continues to be the bread and butter of the female targeted film audience.

The regression from Sirk’s depiction of women is troubling for a number of reasons.  It demonstrates a lack of interest in male filmmakers to present female protagonists in terms that are not broadly drawn or purely sexual.  Even more detrimental is the growing sense that feminist theory is unapproachable for male directors due to a perceived lack of experience.  The themes of alienation and dissatisfaction in Sirk’s films were as palpable and relevant in 1956 as they are today.  As the decade reaches its tentative conclusion, it seems as if a feminine re-examination of the “serious” subjects that have dominated the public consciousness is seriously overdue.

*I was hoping this film would be an eye-opening expose on the horrors of Shopahol addiction.  Not the case.