Thanks to Uma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino for this latest conversation about the uglier aspects of Tinseltown, where a mania for onscreen "authenticity" comes dangerously close to abuse — or even death — on set.
Is the jig finally up? One can only hope.
4 comments:
It is so horrifying to read all these different accounts and stories of on and off screen negligence and abuse, especially the ones coming from Tarantino one of my favorite filmmakers of all time. I always thought him and Uma Thurman had a great relationship based on how driven she always appeared to make her films be as great as they could be. However there is just so much time the average filmgoer doesn’t see in the production of movies and tv that it can only be expected that some bad things happen sometimes. The only thing that gives me hope about this article is that most of the stories are from classic movies and nowadays women are more educated and righteous and hopefully that helps them stand up for themselves and make the workplace safer with the awareness of the crew as well. Also if directors could just take a step back and realize these are real people they’re dealing with, that would be good too.
This article’s information actually horrifies me. To read these women’s stories and find out the mental and physical torture they had to endure just to make a good scene is sickening. It is so hard to believe that this kind of behavior is so overlooked and allowed. Women and I am sure men too, were forced to do things they didn’t want to that didn’t just go away but stayed with them forever on screen and in their minds. As painful as it can be to come forward with these stories, I really hope that those that have spoken are really being heard like Uma Thurmen and others come forward so change can be initiated. I feel that where we are at in this society is a large development of change to better the experiences and workforce for women especially in the entertainment industry. This conversation of sexual harassment and non consensual acts is not going away tomorrow and people with power and who can change the flow of things need to understand the importance of this movement and the influence of people’s stories being told.
Oof, that was a rough read. I've heard about a few of these really extreme film directors that believe that pushing their actors to the utmost extreme will make their film better. And honestly, if you look at the films named (Apocalypse Now, The Shining, The Birds, Joan of Art) are all universally accepted masterpieces of film. The article reads: "Male actors are probably subjected to mistreatment and danger on set, too. (Think Martin Sheen, who nearly died in the jungle during the shooting of Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, a chaotic nightmare of a production in 1979, according to film historians.) But women have been the most obvious victims of abuse-for-art impulses over the years.
• Going way back, the classic 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc is filled with close-ups of French actress Renee Maria Falconetti (billed as Melle Falconetti) looking pained because director Carl Dreyer made her kneel on stone floors until her face showed the right degree of suffering. She never made another major film." Which makes me really empathize with the actors, but it will not make me think less of the films they starred in.
It is outrageous that we live in a time where people, especially women, are bullied and pressured into uncomfortable and dangerous situations. No one should ever be pushed into a situation they don’t feel comfortable and confident in. Directors and other figures of authority in film should never make someone feel as though their job is on the line for not doing something that could result in injury, maybe even death, or humiliation. And when I say it is outrageous that we live in a time like this, I guess what I mean is that it is completely despicable that it has been this way since the beginning of time. This is not new. It has not changed. These circumstances that women in film, and honestly, women in every industry, face every day has been the norm since the beginning of time. But now, there are absolutely no excuses (if there ever were any before) to stop creating environments like this.
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