Waste of elegance on the red carpet of 'La Verdad' in Venice with Juliette Binoche and Catherine Deneuve as protagonists
The Island of Lido, which celebrates Venice's Mostra these days , shines in all its splendor. On the red carpet the actresses squander glamor with their jewels of high rhinestones and iconic models. The bulbs go straight to them. They are the real protagonists in this spectacular parade towards the oldest film festival in the world. However, its flash languishes inside the projection rooms. Of the 21 Golden Lion candidate films, only two are made by women, that of Saudi Haifaa Al Mansour and that of Australian Shannon Murphy. And the rest? Un déjà vu. Once again, the film industry highlights the gender disparity.
The public and feminist groups miss their presence and the director of the Mostra, Alberto Barbera , has excused himself by ensuring that in the selection of titles there are no prejudices and that introducing quotas would mean violating the quality criterion. But nobody is demanding quotas, just balance, sensitivity and respect.
This is the second year that the festival opens the debate about sexist bias in the film industry. In the last edition, only one woman-directed film , Jennifer Kent's 'The Nightingale', was able to compete for the Golden Lion. To top it off, she suffered the macho cries of a journalist whose accreditation was withdrawn. The feminist reprimand was of little use. Women are still missing in Venice, much more than in other competitions. Although parity is far from any of them, Cannes and Berlin were represented by four and seven filmmakers, respectively, in the Official Selection of their latest editions. The Toronto has achieved that 35% of the candidates are female after a protest in which public and stars demanded equal pay and respect to those who work in this sector.
Barbera is content to say that, in addition to the two directors present in Venice, there are a couple of films dedicated to the female world: 'Emma', by Pablo Larraín, and a documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Anastasia Mikova, which will be screened out of competition "These portraits of women, even when directed by men, reveal a new sensibility oriented towards the feminine universe, as it had rarely happened in the past," he tries to justify.
Not even for the president of the jury, the Argentine director Lucrecia Martel, her words sound convincing. In addition to criticizing the poor representation of women, he condemns the participation of Roman Polanski and Nate Parker, with accusations of rape, when one would only expect zero tolerance for harassment, abuse or any form of gender-based violence.
Martel has given up attending the projection gala of the Polanski movie, in solidarity with the victims of harassment. "I represent many women who are fighting in Argentina for issues like this, I do not want to stand up and applaud," he announced at the inaugural press conference. The Polish filmmaker is searching and capturing in the US for the rape of a minor in 1977. If he set foot in Italy, he would be immediately arrested and extradited. However, his production on the Dreyfuss case, 'The officer and the spy', is one of the events that has awakened the most expectation. Barbera insists that we must distinguish between man and artist. Nor has the candidacy of director Nate Parker been welcomed , which in the past was involved in another turbulent episode of sexist violence.
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These events have provoked the critical reaction of several feminist groups that accuse those responsible for the event of ignoring inclusion and lament the candidacy of the Polish director. They take the opportunity to denounce the imbalance that is felt even in the leading roles, especially from an age in which actresses begin to fall into oblivion or waiting for roles as mother courage.
It was not always like that. Silent cinema opened the doors to women who owned their studios and directors and producers of their own films. Until Hollywood became a millionaire business and the men snatched it from their hands. The equality they are asking for today from Italy is being claimed for many decades. They claim creative positions, executive positions and powerful roles.
A study from the University of Southern California, which analyzed 900 films released between 2007 and 2016, betrayed the lack of inclusion. In the US, despite the fact that 50.8% of the population is female, their voice is only heard in 31.4% of the films. Only one in ten characters are matched. Among the 1,438 directors, scriptwriters and producers of the observed films, there are only 5 directors and 38 scriptwriters. In production they are gaining ground, although they only represent a quarter of the industry.
Despite the data, in this historically unequal battle there is some improvement and we will see it at the San Sebastian film festival, which will be held at the end of September. Of the 17 films of the Official Section that compete for the Golden Shell, six have a female seal . Among them, the Spanish 'The daughter of a thief', the debut of Belén Funes.
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