Women and Hollywood: This film was the hardest thing I have done in my career but ultimately the most rewarding. I was asked to develop My Lucky Star as an adventure-comedy for the biggest female star in China, Zhang Ziyi. She had loved my Colin Firth movie, What A Girl Wants, and wanted to do something new with a character she had created in 2009 for her comedy Sophie's Revenge. Having seen her in Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers and Hero, I knew she was a brilliant actress who really knew her way around a fight, but I did not know that she was also a brilliant comedienne. What we were attempting had never been done before-I am the first American woman to direct a film in China for the domestic Chinese market.
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An essential piece of knowledge I wanted to know about this article was why did she find herself in China in the first place? While not stated directly, one could assume that the producers wanted to experiment with Chinese receptivity to an Americanized film format; a giant gamble. Yet as technology and innovation has enabled travel, the free exchange of ideas has only increased, and I predict that this is the first of many productions of this kind. I await to see what kind of response is prompted. I predict that Chinese receptivity will go one of two ways. Either it will be largely accepted and audiences will be exposed to a new form of storytelling, or it will be seen as too “out-there”, and rejected as highly stylized and American. Even so, if this is the initial reaction, this may not be the end of the story, as many avante guarde performances are initially distressing and rejected, yet we see ripples of their ideas in works five years later. It will also be interesting to see if the exchange goes both ways. While there is a prescence of foreign films in America, I have yet to hear of a foreign director and creative team given notable names through which to make a project intended for the mainstream. This is a film I would like to see, yet is also a prime example of art extending beyond the audience into cultural commentary and global connectivity.
Collaborations are always a great step forward, and it will be interesting to see the reviews of this film in the US as well as in China. I do hope that it is actually not still seen as Americanised as that would be unfortunate. Apart from that it is great to know that despite the setbacks and governmental procedures involved in the process, they were still able to create a final product.
I have a lot of respect for Dennie Gordon- it's got to be terrifying to direct a film in a different language, for a different culture, in a country that is not exactly known for its support of artists. It seems like she met all of these challenges wonderfully, and I am sure her film will do well. One of the things I took away from this article was the section where she talked about her crew being suspicious of her. I love that she took the time to go around and win their trust, instead of trying to force them to do what she wanted because she was in charge. It was natural for the crew to be skeptical, and she handled it in the perfect way. I am sure the final product is much better because she was able to handle challenges such as this so well.
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