Jessica Chastain was ‘disturbed’ by how Cannes filmmakers viewed women

70th Cannes Film Festival - Closing Ceremony

Jessica Chastain was on the jury of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. That’s why we had so many pretty photos of her attending all of the premieres. Cannes generally includes one or two Americans on their jury every year, and I always wonder what kind of influence jury members have on one another. I say that because it really felt like a lot of people (critics, Cannes jury members) came into the film festival wanting to praise female filmmakers especially, and that’s one of Chastain’s big talking points. Female representation on screen and behind the camera has been the big topic for several years, and Jane Campion even spoke out during the film festival about how disappointed she is to be the only female director to ever win the Palme D’Or, Cannes’ version of Best Picture. Which is why I suggested that Sofia Coppola won Best Director this year: it was at least partially because the moment had come to give a female filmmaker a significant award (especially since critics were split about whether The Beguiled is actually all that and a bag of chips).

So, did Chastain do that? Did she use her influence on the jury to ensure that at least one female filmmaker was recognized with a significant award? Perhaps. After the Cannes awards ceremony, the jury did a press conference and Chastain said some interesting stuff about what she learned from watching 20 films in 10 days.

“I do believe that if you have female storytelling you also have more authentic female characters. This is the first time I’ve watched 20 films in 10 days, and I love movies, and the one thing I really took away from this experience is how the world views women from the female characters that I saw represented. It was quite disturbing to me, to be honest. There are some exceptions, I will say. But, for the most part, I was surprised by the representation of female characters on screen in these films. I do hope that when we include more female storytellers, we will have more of the women that I recognize in my day-to-day life: ones that are proactive, have their own agencies, don’t just don’t react to the men around them. They have their own point-of-view.”

[From E! News]

I’m including the clip below, which Ava DuVernay tweeted out and many celebrity women and female filmmakers tweeted about. You can see Chastain is somewhat nervous to be saying what she’s saying. I didn’t follow all of the gossip about all of the in-competition films, but I bet seeing 20 films in that condensed time frame was probably pretty enlightening to Chastain regarding how much work still needs to be done to create multifaceted female characters and more opportunities for women behind-the-scenes.

70th Cannes Film Festival - Closing Ceremony

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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21 Responses to “Jessica Chastain was ‘disturbed’ by how Cannes filmmakers viewed women”

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  1. laulau says:

    That must have been so, so nerve-wracking for her to say.
    Is that Pedro Almodovar sitting next to her? He’s a rare story-teller who can write anyone believably, he should offer classes to male colleges. Or they could just bank on women more to help them and to tell their own stories.

    so much respect.

    • Ellie says:

      Almodovar? I will always remember that movie of his where a male character stalks a woman in a coma, rapes her because he has access to her as her nurse, gets her pregnant, and then when she regains consciousness he is treated like a hero by the film. Disgusting.

      • HedWig says:

        I hear yah! That´s what I always thought. Almodovar uses women in a different way, he wants them to suffer, their suffering makes interesting footage. His female characters are over the top and sometimes even cartoonish.

      • DystopianDance says:

        Right- Pedro Almodovar films are traumatic. He seems Woody Allenish for me in that he glorifies some of the worst vulnerabilities of women and turns then into a freak show.

      • Ana says:

        You mean the guy that’s sent to prison for the rape and is so mentally disturbed that he overdoses? How is he treated as a hero?

  2. Miss Grace Jones says:

    Well France is horrible when it comes to women(ESPECIALLY WOC), black people, Arabs, Muslims and Jews and has been for hundreds of years. It’s got a long colonial history and these ideas permeate the media. Looking at French films you’d think France was full of nothing but thin whites.

    It’s why Girlhood/Bande de filles was sort of groundbreaking for having an all black and DARK SKINNED female cast.

    I was just reading about Luc Besson getting a 15 year old pregnant and leaving her for a 20 year old Milla Jovovich and he’s still making movies so to me that isn’t just a French cultural process but a global MAN problem.

    • rachel says:

      I’m french black woman and I agree. I love our cinema but I’m always perplexed by how those industry people who think themselves as progressist still are incapable of inventing stories for anyone that isn’t white.

    • Slowsnow says:

      Bande de filles is such a good film. It’s funny isn’t it that French cinema has been going downhill and then boom, one of the only good films in years is made by a woman about black girls.

    • DystopianDance says:

      Thank God the new election saw a turnover of the French style xenophobia.

  3. Dtab says:

    As a straight white male….I am so tired of looking at straight white males in Movies. Its time for a change, a new perspective and expansion of others on film. Enough with all the remakes of old movies, there are so many interesting stories out there that will make amazing films so lets give them their time now.

  4. Lena says:

    The Cannes film festival is the same one that refused women entry if they weren’t wearing high heels- I think including one disabled woman was turned away maybe one or two years ago, so not surprised.

    • LAK says:

      Not quite. It was an informal rule that they tried to formalise regarding the red carpet infront of the Palais des Festival. The main RC of the festival from which the above pictures are taken.

      The festival is so big that not stepping on that particulr red carpet is not a loss plus there are other ways to enter the Palais without using the red carpet.

    • manta says:

      One or a couple of idiot overzealous hosts/security guards enforcing a NON existing rule doesn’t equate “the festival refuses entry to women not in heels”. On the top of my head, Inès de la Fressange (it’s basiclly her trademark), Isabella Rossellini,Claudia Cardinale, Jane Birkin, Susan Sarandon, Agnès Varda all wore flats in recent years on the red carpet without anyone fainting over it.

      • Shiba says:

        All prominent women, no?

        Shouldn’t have to be “somebody” to earn the privilege of choosing what shoes you wear…

    • SM says:

      Watching the Cannes festival unfold, I had a strange feeling that the festival has a very stranve relationship with women. This post about high heels only confirms that. Ot looks like at the festival in addition to the films they fly in an army of models what flash their almost naked bodies all around the festival. I am quite sure this is specific to this festival. I understand there are make up and styling companies like Loreal that support the festival but it got too much. There are too many models who overshadow the films. Hearing Chastain say what she said it seems like Cannes have a very specific priblem with how they view and treat women.

  5. Lucy says:

    This is because (male) filmmakers see women as secondary, stories predominantly revolve around male character(s) and, as JC said, the women are fillers who react around and to the men. This says a lot about how women are still viewed in the world really, it’s a mans world and women just cater/live around them NOT beside them.

  6. Ellie says:

    Cannes is the film festival I would least like to attend. TIFF always seems to have the most interesting films.

  7. zan says:

    Woaw, Props Jessica! I’m really proud of her.

  8. Lillian says:

    So proud of Jessica, we need more people like her in the entertainment industry

  9. Ana says:

    I’m a bit disappointed by the angle of this conversation. It shouldn’t be about rewarding female filmmakers for being women as this post suggests. It’s about women being able to “compete” at the same level as a male filmmaker, and then the one who truly deserves it should win. The issue isn’t that women don’t get awards, but that there’s still not enough space for them to make movies. But we need to stop with the misguided gender bias, male filmmakers don’t win awards because they are male (which isn’t to say that sometimes they get them for reasons other than their talent).