Let's talk about directors

[sqbr]

I don't pay much attention to the film industry, but I've seen a bunch of people complaining (rightly) about the way that when the media talks about Kathryn Bigelow, who is apparently really awesome and might end up the first women to win an Academy Award for Directing, they keep focussing on the fact that she's James Cameron's ex and also pretty.

So, inspired by this conversation: Name some directors who in your opinion are:

• Male and attractive (regardless of talent)
  
• Female and talented (regardless of attractiveness)
  
• Not binary gendered and awesome in any way
  

Personally I think it's cheating to include actors-turned-director like Johnny Depp or George Clooney but I won't stop you.

Cute male directors:
Alfonso Cuaron
Christopher Nolan isn't too bad
Joss Whedon was kind of cute when he was younger

I googled and the only name that came up for "handsome director" was Alejandro González Iñárritu, I guess I can kind of see it.

Talented female directors:
This is hard because I tend not to pay attention to directors overall careers. But based on this list, some specific films with female directors I really liked:

"Clueless" and a bunch of other stuff by Amy Heckerling
"Bend it Like Beckham" by Gurinder Chadha
"Saving Face" directed by Alice Wu
"Wayne's World" directed by Penelope Spheeris
"Frida" by Julie Taymor"
"The Brady Bunch Movie" directed by Betty Thomas
"Lost in Translation" directed by Sofia Coppola
"Big" directed by Penny Marshall

And I sadly don't know of ANY directors who identify as anything other than male or female. But I'm sure they exist!

Comments

[hl]

Lucrecia Martel! She directed La Ciénaga, among other things (I have heard only good things of the movies I haven't seen of hers). And omg, I just discovered she's slotted to direct a movie called El Eternauta--if it's indeed a movie based on the comic, I'll die of glee.

[sqbr]

I had never heard of her! (not surprising, I am woefully narrow in my film watching) Alas my dvd-by-mail company does not have that film. *mutters*

[hl]

She's awesome! At least La Ciénaga. That movie blew my mind. It's decidedly Argentinian, and more than that, from the north of Argentina in a way that resonated a lot with me even if I don't belong to the social class explored. I would warn for class and race issues, though that's the whole point of it. I rarely like national cinema (though more and more lately--it's getting better all the time, at least when it doesn't attempt to imitate Hollywood but with less flair), and this movie made it to my favourites without even trying. It's very much a picture of a time place and a particular set of people.

[hl]

Valerie Fellis, who directed Little Miss Sunshine. (scanning your link :D)

[sqbr]

I'm really glad I found that page, there's so many movies I just assumed were made by men!

[(Anonymous)]

I think the main reason the mediaa draw attention to them is because they are ex husband and wife. How about Jane Campion? Some people would classify Baz Luhrmann and Steven Spielberg as male and attractive. Hitchcock is widely regarded as the best director of the 20th century and very few people would list him as attractive.

Piajurin.

[sqbr]

Oh yeah, that's definitely part of it.

Hitchcock is widely regarded as the best director of the 20th century and very few people would list him as attractive.

That's my point: the attractiveness of male directors is not usually something people even think about! (And that's a good thing, on the whole. This post is just a brief disruption of the status quo for illustrative purposes :))

[danni]

L Wachowski maybe? Probably still identifies within the binary, but I can't see any confirmed statements on the Internet, only a denial of transition.

[sqbr]

Your comment is making me ponder the flaws in my categorisation, since trans men and women have a whole other set of crap to deal with cis directors don't. But I didn't want to lump trans in with "not binary gendered". *ponders*

Last I heard noone was 100% sure how zie identified. But imdb has them listed as female which I'm pretty sure was not the case last time, so..hmm.

[aris_tgd]

Oh, see, I was going to say Tom Ford now counts, but that's nearly going the actor-turned-director route. ;)

Jamie Babbitt! I am impressed with anyone who does TV and full-length-features because they are different skill sets and do not always translate. Also But I'm A Cheerleader has always made me happy.

Angela Robinson, similarly! Also because D.E.B.S. is, for all its over-the-top silliness, a really good movie.

I keep hearing terrific things about Julie Taymor, but I haven't seen any of her work yet.

Martha Coolidge will always have my heart for Real Genius, the first college comedy which really GOT smart people.

Kasi Lemmons directed The Caveman's Valentine, which I have not seen but my screenwriter friend continually raves about.

[sqbr]

I very nearly said Jamie Babbit and Angela Robinson myself!

[onceamy]

Wayne's World was directed by a woman?

How AWESOME. It's one of my favourite movies.

I hated Bend it Like Beckham with a passion. We had to study it in school, and by god, I wanted to spork my eyes out -- it was unoriginal, boring, and mindless to me. It was still a love story - I would have been more interested in the study of a girl who was forbidden to play soccer who did, and struggled for her rights than of a girl who seemingly gets away with it, and falls in love.

But of course, that's just me. I hate the heterosex in Wayne's World too - not because Cassandra wasn't awesome, but because I felt it undervalued her character to be an object of lust.

[sqbr]

Yes I'm really glad I read that list, it illustrates the huge variety of awesome movies directed by women.