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Watched Smallville this morning (I don't talk about Smallvill that much for obvious reasons - flist is sort of nasty about their dislike of it - even if they haven't watched more than a handful of episodes. Be sort of like me ranking on Bones - wait, I have, never mind.)
In last night's episode - there's a great line, that bears remembering, don't punish yourself for the mistakes of the past, shed the past and concentrate on the present. Worrying over the past, and fearing the future destroys today. Forgive yourself, forgive everyone else, and move on. Holding onto it does no one any good. Here it is shown whether then told, and it hit me that in some regards that was the main theme of Angel - a character so weighted down by his guilt over his past deeds that he became a monster in the present. He was unable to deal with his own guilt, it consumed him, and corrupted all that he touched. Similar theme in Smallville, Brainac 5 gets across to Clark that his guilt, his desire to punish himself and those around him for past mistakes that cannot be undone is the darkness that weighs him down, and his fear that the future won't end well - destroys it before it has begun. You have to be in the present. Learn from the past, but don't let it overwhelm and take over your life. That message resonated for me.
The other line I rather liked was Oliver Queen's to his interviewer: "We've become a nation of armchair critics, having created little more than a generation of bloggers...with no leaders..." Smallville has been on for about ten years. I prefer the last five years to the first five (which I found to be rather silly in places. I gave up on Smallville during Season 4, and was convinced to try it again in Season 7 by a co-worker who loved it. So I missed most of 4-6 or the college years.) At any rate because it's been on so long - it can reference the vast changes in technology. How the torch was once a newspaper and a wall of pictures, now it's viral or online. There's these nifty little touches that I've grown to love. Also the women on this show are kick-ass.
Speaking of women and film/television - there was an odd post that Whedonesque linked to on Sy-Fy
website:
http://blastr.com/2010/10/7-greatest-actor-director.php
[Found it courtesy of![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
angeria .] It's a list of top ten actor/director relationships - I'm guessing in Sci-Fi. And has no women on the list and pairs James Cameron with Bill Paxton (of all people - he's a supporting player and never the lead in any of Cameron's works that I've seen nor featured in his prominent ones, and hello, Titantic was not Sy-Fy.), and Joss Whedon with Nathan Fillion (who was on a 13 episode series, quested on Buffy, a webseries, and a movie - Summer Glau was in just as many series and had a more prominent role.)
This list threw me. Most of these lists do, because I find myself quibbling with the writer on their top ten favorites. Let's face it they are incredibly subjective.
So my challenge to you - if you happen across this? Come up with five to ten actor/director relationships that involve women in Sci-Fantasy genre. Rules - the actor had to be in at least three of the directors films (at least that's the pattern I saw and have a major role - and the show last more than one season or be a film) and/or is connected to the director(writer) in a major way. It can be male/female or female/female.
Example: Joss Whedon and Eliza Dusku (Dollhouse, Buffy, Angel) - This actually works better than Whedon/Fillion for the following reasons. Eliza had top roles - in all three, she was Faith, an established character with a strong arc, and more than one dimension. She was on all three for more than one season. And all three lasted more than one season. She was also a producer on one of them and developed it with Whedon.
I can't come up with one, but maybe you can?
The reason I can't come up with one - is, I think the fact that there are more male directors and writers getting jobs than female ones. The industry is unfortunately still very racially and gender biased. Very much ruled by white men.
In last night's episode - there's a great line, that bears remembering, don't punish yourself for the mistakes of the past, shed the past and concentrate on the present. Worrying over the past, and fearing the future destroys today. Forgive yourself, forgive everyone else, and move on. Holding onto it does no one any good. Here it is shown whether then told, and it hit me that in some regards that was the main theme of Angel - a character so weighted down by his guilt over his past deeds that he became a monster in the present. He was unable to deal with his own guilt, it consumed him, and corrupted all that he touched. Similar theme in Smallville, Brainac 5 gets across to Clark that his guilt, his desire to punish himself and those around him for past mistakes that cannot be undone is the darkness that weighs him down, and his fear that the future won't end well - destroys it before it has begun. You have to be in the present. Learn from the past, but don't let it overwhelm and take over your life. That message resonated for me.
The other line I rather liked was Oliver Queen's to his interviewer: "We've become a nation of armchair critics, having created little more than a generation of bloggers...with no leaders..." Smallville has been on for about ten years. I prefer the last five years to the first five (which I found to be rather silly in places. I gave up on Smallville during Season 4, and was convinced to try it again in Season 7 by a co-worker who loved it. So I missed most of 4-6 or the college years.) At any rate because it's been on so long - it can reference the vast changes in technology. How the torch was once a newspaper and a wall of pictures, now it's viral or online. There's these nifty little touches that I've grown to love. Also the women on this show are kick-ass.
Speaking of women and film/television - there was an odd post that Whedonesque linked to on Sy-Fy
website:
http://blastr.com/2010/10/7-greatest-actor-director.php
[Found it courtesy of
angeria .] It's a list of top ten actor/director relationships - I'm guessing in Sci-Fi. And has no women on the list and pairs James Cameron with Bill Paxton (of all people - he's a supporting player and never the lead in any of Cameron's works that I've seen nor featured in his prominent ones, and hello, Titantic was not Sy-Fy.), and Joss Whedon with Nathan Fillion (who was on a 13 episode series, quested on Buffy, a webseries, and a movie - Summer Glau was in just as many series and had a more prominent role.) This list threw me. Most of these lists do, because I find myself quibbling with the writer on their top ten favorites. Let's face it they are incredibly subjective.
So my challenge to you - if you happen across this? Come up with five to ten actor/director relationships that involve women in Sci-Fantasy genre. Rules - the actor had to be in at least three of the directors films (at least that's the pattern I saw and have a major role - and the show last more than one season or be a film) and/or is connected to the director(writer) in a major way. It can be male/female or female/female.
Example: Joss Whedon and Eliza Dusku (Dollhouse, Buffy, Angel) - This actually works better than Whedon/Fillion for the following reasons. Eliza had top roles - in all three, she was Faith, an established character with a strong arc, and more than one dimension. She was on all three for more than one season. And all three lasted more than one season. She was also a producer on one of them and developed it with Whedon.
I can't come up with one, but maybe you can?
The reason I can't come up with one - is, I think the fact that there are more male directors and writers getting jobs than female ones. The industry is unfortunately still very racially and gender biased. Very much ruled by white men.
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Anyway I was just thinking about male directors and I think that Ridley Scott's use of Sigourney Weaver was probably (strictly speaking) an example... although she was playing the same character in multiple movies (it counts iMO because he didn't have to use her... but her character ended up being the most interesting).
Also while thinking of it with non-Sci-fi films I realized that Vincent Minnelli used Judy Garland a lot, and also married her... I think that that happens a lot! Wood Allen and Alfred Hitchcock didn't marry the women they fell in love with and used in movie after movie... and at least in Hitchcock's case it seemed just a little creepy.
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My favorite and the only one I could watch all the way through was Cameron's Aliens. Scott's was too scarey for me.
Cameron and Linda Hamilton may be a better example - he used her more than once, but also admittedly for the same role.
Tim Burton and Helena Bonheme Carter (his wife) - Alice, Corpse Bride, Sleepy Hollow and a few others
Woody Allen was notorious for working with women that he was either living with or sleeping with at the time. Diane Keaton,
Mia Farrow both fit that category. (It got to the point that I stopped watching Allen because I got tired of them, and was incredibly relieved when he broke up with Mia Farrow, because finally something new.)
Hitchcock - had a thing for cool blonds. Kim Novak, Marie Eva Saint, Tippi Hedren, and Grace Kelly - who all looked alike - with their ice blond hair and cool exterior.
Can't think of many female directors/writers - and you're right they haven't been able to do as many films. Compare Kathryn Bigelow to James Cameron. OR for that matter Jane Espenson to Joss Whedon. Doris Egan kept trying to get Jensen Enckles (but he was always busy).
On TV - there's very few female show-runners. Shondra Rhimes is the only one with two tv shows. 90% are men. Even Vampire Diairies is more Kevin Williamson than Julie Plec. I'm trying to think of others ...Stephanie Savage who does Gossip Girl with Josh (?) who did Chuck (with another guy and all guy writers), and Tina Fey whose doing 30 Rock.
I feel sorry for female television and film writers and directors.
More so than actresses. It's harder gig to push into. Katheryn Bigelow did but it took a long time and she still struggles. After all - they didn't ask her to do Avengers or Iron Man or Wonder Woman - and she's a far more seasoned director than the men they asked to do those films. Bigelow was directing films in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I believe - with Point Break. Nor have they asked women writers to write scripts for this fare. Yet we see the male writers and directors crossing over far more for the chick-flic's such as Nick Hornby for An Education, or Ryan Murphy for Eat, PRay, Love.
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And I agree, it has been much easier for talented actresses to gain power and position as an actress than it is for female writers to become show runners and/or directors, and for women directors to get the huge studios to trust them with big budget block buster films.
I hope that that is changing.
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To be honest, off the top of my head, I can't think of any that do fit the criteria, and that makes me sad.
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I guess you could say Jamie Lee Curtis and Carpenter - in his horror flicks? But not sure about that.
Most of the collaborations that come to mind are unfortunately male/male - demonstrative of how Hollywood works.
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