Here are some photos from last night’s BFI London Film Festival premiere of Suffragette. Meryl Streep looked really amazing, and she really stood out in this bold cobalt blue gown. Just on looks, she’s like the American version of Helen Mirren: a great example of aging naturally and beautifully. I’m also including photos of Romola Garai, Helena Bonham Carter (I think she wore Vivienne Westwood), Anne Marie Duff and Carey Mulligan, who wore Chanel. This is like the most I’ve ever enjoyed Chanel on the red carpet too – it’s whimsical and frilly, but the look is pulled-together.
The premiere was disrupted by women’s rights protesters who – surprisingly! – weren’t protesting Meryl’s humanism. No, the protesters were drawing attention to the British government’s move to drastically cut funding for domestic violence services. To raise awareness for their cause, the protesters set off smoke bombs in bright colors. The photos are kind of amazing – you can see some here.
Meanwhile, Meryl was still saying words about many things involving women’s rights and feminism and equality at the LFF press conference. Some highlights:
Gender inequality in film criticism, Rotten Tomatoes: “The word isn’t ‘disheartening,’ it’s ‘infuriating. I submit to you that men and women are not the same. They like different things. Sometimes they like the same things, but their tastes diverge. If the Tomatometer is slided so completely to one set of tastes, that drives box office in the U.S., absolutely. Because people accept this as received wisdom. It isn’t fair. We need inclusion. It has to be equal.”
When asked about her refusal to call herself a feminist: “There’s a phrase in this film that says ‘deeds not words’ and that’s sort of where I stand on that. I let the actions of my life stand for what I am as a human being. Contend with that, not the words.”
Meryl apparently went on at length about the New York Film Critics’ Circle and Rotten Tomatoes, citing statistics (that turned out to be note quite correct, but she got the gist) about how few women are writing about films these days and how the lack of professional female criticism skews perceptions of films.
Also: the screenwriter, Abi Morgan, was the one to address the “I’d rather be a rebel than a slave” t-shirt controversy. Morgan said at the press conference: “It would be a pity if the negative connotations of that conversation – and it is an important conversation – overshadowed the true and sincere intentions of the film, which is to empower all women, globally, to look for equality for all women. That to me is the really important narrative. But the discourse is really important, and it is vital we keep talking about it.” Yeah, how many times in the history of the women’s rights struggle have white feminists told women of color that “we’ll talk about that later, right now we’re talking about this”? Even Patricia Arquette did it in her Oscar speech.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
The negative press around this film are killing its chances at the box office and award season.
And Meryl isn’t helping with her ‘infuriation’ over nothing.
Agreed. Someone on the PR team needs to sit everyone involved down and explain that once you find yourself in a hole, it’s time to stop digging.
Why is it infuriation over nothing? I don’t really understand.
Nor does she care to explain how her ‘fury’ is related to her previously cited ‘easy balance’ she’d like to see happen between men and women… as a ‘humanist,’ of course. And zero acknowledgement of how you might have to direct one to achieve the other. But that would also be close to that pesky ‘feminist’ word again.
Little wonder that she does not like words. Words are so hard when they need to say or mean something!
She is saying that she would like balance in film criticism- how can you argue with that? If more females were covering movies, the movies written by and directed by woman would, in theory, get better reviews because they are being created with women’s perspective in mind and more reviewers would connect with them. If they get better reviews more people will see them, they’ll make more money, it will be easier for more of those movies to get funded, etc…When we see women represented more realistically more often we will start being more accepting of multi-faceted, and flawed women in real life, and so on. I think she’s right on with this criticism! The same goes for racial diversity.
That’s a big assumption that because a movie is written by and directed by woman a female critic would atomically favor it.
@Neah23
It’s an assumption but I don’t think a big one. If you took 10 men and had them review a film written by and/or directed by a woman and then had 10 woman watch the same film I am of the opinion that it would get a higher score (more thumbs up, whatever) by the female group. I think the same thing would happen for a film written and/or directed by a black man or woman and viewed by a black audience. I’m not saying every woman would like the movie by the woman/women but I think they would probably find more things that they would understand and relate to. It’s why people make a big deal about jury selection in a trial. Again, I’m not saying this would happen with every reviewer but I think it would make a noticeable difference and that difference is important.
It’s a very clever tactic
WORD.
This is one of your best posts.
Completely agree.
…said the self-proclaimed “humanist”.
Eh. She’s right but after the last few Meryl posts around here, I don’t care much for what she has to say. Still love her as an actress, though, even if she comes across as a privileged white lady in interviews.
She IS a privileged white lady.
Why, yes.
She is.
But it’s her job to pretend she isn’t. It’s why these people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to PR reps.
But wouldn’t it be refreshing if she was aware of being a privileged white actress and used her power for good? So to speak.
Humanist must be her new favorite word. She used it in praising a great Irish playwright who passed away recently not long after she had called herself a humanist.
If women aren’t writing about film, it’s because they don’t want to. And film critics really aren’t influential any more. Movies they pan make hundreds of millions of dollars while a lot of movies they love barely make a dent at the box office.
Do people really use Rotten Tomatoes or MetaCritic to tell them what movie to see? Jeesh.
Personally, I think it’s helpful having websites like rotten tomatoes because it’s expensive to go to the movies so if I’m spending my money on the rare occasion I’m going to see a film it’s nice to have a website that gives me an idea of what might be good. Any movie I feel iffy about I wait until it’s streaming on Netflix or prime.
me too. i always check rotten tomatoes- just like i always check pitchfork for music reviews.
“There’s a phrase in this film that says ‘deeds not words’ and that’s sort of where I stand on that. I let the actions of my life stand for what I am as a human being. Contend with that, not the words.”
This 100%
i kind of agree with her, especially because as i’ve said before, women who refuse to call themselves feminist seem to be just thrown by the word itself (which is a shame, we should reclaim it) rather than the notion of feminism. in fact, i would argue that most people ARE feminist nowadays even if they don’t necessarily cal themselves that.
and again, i get the controversy, but the writer/director has a point, too. this is one of the few films written, directed by women with a cast of mostly women about a story that has never really been told. let’s make it the beginning, to tell better stories about ALL sorts of women. my fear is that if this film flops some white, fat arse in charge would simply say “well no more stories of women told by women then”. we don’t want that, let’s move forward.
But is she though? Walking the talk? Or walking the act?
Or to put it another way, the word “feminist”, which she once had no problem being labeled with, is now to be avoided like the plague, even as she bitches about the “gender inequality” of Rotten Tomatoes. It’s a stupid argument anyway.
Exactly. One or the other not both, she was the one who claimed she wanted an easy balance and for men and women to not to constrained by quotas. Now it suddenly not working out in her favor she’s pouting.
Predictable.
So she’s infuriated about women not being included equally in the film industry, but still too afraid to call herself a feminist. Got it.
Not even! She said that there wasn’t a dearth of roles for older women in Hollywood. She’s just complaining about the lack of female critics.
which is super important- and racially diverse critics. she’s right.
I like what she says, though I’m nor sure I agree. It’s like the Black Widow lack-of-movie controversy. According to the studio, girls can apparently watch the other Avenger movies but there will be no market for Black Widow because boys supposedly won’t want to see it. That’s such bullshit.
Both my Dad and my FIL love romcoms. My FIL watches Lifetime. I don’t think there is a Sandra Bullock movie my Dad hasn’t seen.
Re Marvel, it may not be bullshit entirely. Look at IMDB, and read the posts by so-called movie buffs and their rampant misogyny. Discrimination against female-led movies is a real thing. Studios do focus groups, analyse demographics and such; at the end of the day they care about the bottomline. If something makes money, you can bet they would jump on it and repeat the formula to death (e.g. franchise movies). If they doubt its box office appeal, they may not take the risk and greenlight it.
That’s why it’s nice to see female-led movies do well – if studios can see the commercial potential and they hear the cash registers ringing, they will follow with more of such fare. But it’s gonna take the audience support to initiate the change and not vice versa, I fear.
On the Cate Blanchett post, Killalustre says: “God, grant me the confidence of a mediocre white man.” Criticism is tough that way, you need to sell yourself as an expert, the omniscient voice, and in my (limited) experience, men generally have a better ability to sell themselves as such (even when the criticism itself is less nuanced). As the power base shifts from a handful of editors and many more voices are heard, here’s hoping that shifts.
it’s not that men have a better ability to sell themselves as such, it’s that unfortunately we’re still wired to think that. but it’s just not true.
I hope you’re right. my own experience as an editor (of arts critics) would tell me otherwise. my sample size is small, two publications, 100ish writers/critics.
Is professional film criticism even that relevant anymore? That’s a genuine question. There are a couple of reviewers that I like, but I don’t really let that sway me much anymore. It is a male-dominated industry, but I don’t like the argument that men and women are different. I cannot bear romcoms – would that make me an ineffective movie critic for women?
Getting low scores on Rotten Tomatoes can affect a movie. I go look on it all the time. If it’s a movie I really want to see, I still go, but if on the fence, it does.
I don’t think getting a low score on Rotten Tomatoes really affect a movie. I think its other factors that affect movie box office numbers. Look at the first PoTC it got horrible reviews and low score at RT and it went on to make a billion dollars. You get other film that get high scores at RT and flop at the box office.
i know LOTS of women who don’t care for rom-coms. the whole idea that men and women are different might have been true once, but it isn’t so nowadays. we need to move on from these notions. But then again, meryl is from an older generation…
I know what you’re saying about men and women being equal in terms of movies that appeal to them but did you ever read Rex Reed’s review of “Identity Theft”?
Dude skewered Melissa McCarthy calling her a “tractor-sized,” a “screeching, humongous creep” and a “female hippo.”
I’m not convinced a female movie critic would say the same nor am I convinced that Reed would say as much about an overweight male comedian. Like it or not, our gender influences our perspective on everything, movies included.
For the sheer sake of fairness, it would be cool to see more female movie critics.
Like you, I do wonder how relevant movie critics are though. If I’m undecided, I’ll check Ty Burr because he and I share the same taste in movies but otherwise I try to stay away from that stuff. I like to be surprised when I go to the movies and make my mind up for myself.
RE: rom coms–I cannot stand them but ironically my boyfriend loves them, which is really funny because he’s this football-obsessed bald dude…busting up all the stereotypes and conventions. lol
Same thing in the dance world–Alistair McCauley said Jenifer Ringer looked like she had “one sugarplum too many” in the Nutcracker. And didn’t back down when called on the carpet, instead writing he’d lost 20 pounds himself recently, that he had once admired a dancer though she was heavy, and that he’d called a male dancer portly once.
How much of this has to do with him being a man? Hard to say, but the female critics I know don’t resort to that level of snark. Maybe it’s too easy to say a woman would have done better. But it depresses me that in a field highly populated by women, most of the powerful jobs (artistic director, executive director, choreographer, chief critic, etc) are overwhelmingly held by men.
She’s just annoyed that the crappy “female-focused” films she is now making aren’t appreciated enough, and that has to come down to the gender bias of movie reviewers. I’m in that demographic, and you couldn’t pay me to see them.
Movie critic influence can absolutely matter but it depends on the genre and elements (cast, director, producer, etc.) and whether or not it’s a viable international property. Suffragette’s success heavily depends on it being an awards-worthy prestige flick, and it depends even more heavily on getting female audience support. If the critics don’t back it then it will suffer in a way that “critic proof” films like Furious 7, Twilight movies, or Michael Bay/Zach Snyder punch fests wouldn’t have to deal with.
The protesters are @SistersUncut on Twitter. Well worth Brits worried about the decimation of DV services giving them a follow. They are fierce.
Meryl just did an extended interview on the BBC. It was cut to ribbons – so much so it was horribly noticeable. Given the posts about her on here of late, I spent the entire time wondering what nonsense she’d spouted and they’d excised!
If you believe that men and women are equal and deserve parity, then you are a feminist. Because that is how language works. Words describe deeds. Rejecting the word does women and activists who are out there doing these deeds and not just starring in the movie an incredible disservice.
Also PEOPLE are different. So much so and in so many different ways, I think stamping a gender on a set of tastes is just banal.
Also, back to language, this from Dictionary.com:
“In the Renaissance, a scholar who studied the languages and cultures of ancient Greece and Rome; today, a scholar of the humanities. The term secular humanist is applied to someone who concentrates on human activities and possibilities, usually downplaying or denying the importance of God and a life after death.”
Hurray if she is a humanist the real meaning of the word, but this does not have to involving rejecting feminism.
Eh, I can’t get worked up. Again, this just feels so privileged.
Right now, there are parts of the world where women get shot in the head for suggesting they should be allowed to go to school. We have our own country where a woman can by and large not be guaranteed the same pay for the same work as a man. We also have a country where a woman fleeing an abusive situation can’t be guaranteed a safe refugee, where your rights are minimized when you get pregnant and all the majority of rapists will never ever answer for anything.
But won’t somebody think of the female film critics. Yeah, indeed.
I’m with you all the way.
I want equality for everyone, but yeah, once you start throwing too much into the pot – privileged white actor wants starring roles to be reviewed by women, too – it sort of waters down the whole thing.
I’m no expert but isn’t the whole point of feminism equal rights for women? If what she stands for is that but she doesn’t want to take on the label feminist why should she and why should she be judged?
If the label feminist more important to you than actual actions and statements supporting equality for women?
P.S Can we please just leave the t-shirt thing alone now, Flogging a dead horse comes to mind…
“[Is] the label feminist more important to you than actual actions and statements supporting equality for women?”
See, this here is just bad logic. If you’re going to claim that someone cares more about the label, you need to prove that there are no other viable reasons why someone might take issue with her stance other than caring more about the label. And you skipped that part and went straight to tossing out an accusation for which you have no support.
It’s 100% possible to know that deeds speak louder than words WHILE ALSO knowing that words/symbols are incredibly powerful. They aren’t mutually exclusive like you seem to think they are. I’m not going to stop liking Meryl just because she’s not articulating herself well, but she’s not articulating herself well. If you’re a humanist then you believe in equal rights for women, and if you believe in equal rights for women then you’re a feminist whether you’re willing to go by the label or not. And yes you will be judged for claiming to support equality while denying the label. It’s terrible logic for starters, and it validates the ongoing smear campaign against feminist efforts.
I’m talking about the times when people agree with whatever some actress says and stands for but get p***** because they would rather be called a humanist or something rather than a feminist.
If you agree with what they say or do why should it matter what they do or don’t label themselves?
If you disagree with what they actually stand for and not just the label then that’s something else. I just get sick of seeing posts where someone says they’re a humanist or something else and people start getting pitch forks out like “EVERYTHING THEY SAID IS FEMINIST, ADMIT YOU’RE A FEMINIST”.
Why didn’t they make that damn shirt just have the word “Rebel” on it FFS??! It would have been perfect. And Meryl…DUH. Men and women are different and like different things. The word “feminist” simply means women are equal to men, not the SAME. Words are so important. A few words can build a movement, tear down walls and lift people up. It can also divide, the word “Feminist” to me is one of the most important words in existence. Honor it, Meryl.
Yes the T-shirt could have said “I’m a Rebel” it would still have paid homage to the movie.
Never EVER go to the comment section of a Daily Fail article talking about feminism. Good God, it makes you wanna pull your hair out. MRAs everywhere. This article is nice though, except for the exclusion of a pic of Anne-Marie Duff’s arm candy. 😀
Whatever, Meryl, whatever. Things like this always make me think that actors shouldn’t say what they’re thinking, they should just read the lines they’re given. (Yes, I know they have a right to an opinion as we have the right to call them out on bull.)
I’m with you. While there may be difficultiy for actresses obtaining pay equality in Hollywood, it’s a bit of a tone deaf fight right now. There are so many terrible human rights violations in the world. It’s hard to respect people who make millions pretending when they are trying to promote extremely first world problems.
That said, I don’t think they don’t deserve pay equity simply because they’re pretending for a living. I do think that ageism and sexism in Hollywood is crap in this day and age. I just have a hard time respecting the fight.
I definitely feel like movies influence us. Seeing complex, multi-dimensional people on screen impacts the real world. When people live in a homogeneous white community and they mostly see the blacks actors/actresses on screen playing thugs or funny best friends I can imagine that their views of black people could become or remain very narrow, the same goes for men’s (and women’s for that matter) view of women. In order for movies about minority groups to get made they have to be proven to be able to make money. A lot of people, if they’re going to spend $11 on a movie ticket read movie reviews and it makes sense to me that the reviewers should also be diverse so that we’re not relying on basically one race & gender to tell us what’s good.
I’m just here to say that the protestors didn’t just let off smoke bombs in ‘bright colours’ – they specifically chose purple and green as these were the colours of the suffragette movement.
Ta