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.