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Monday, February 9, 2009

The Plight of the Female-Centric Films

The performance of He's Just Not That Into You is sparking a heated debate over whether or not women are perpetuating misogynistic views by seeing films like it and the recent Bride Wars. There's a great discussion at Women and Hollywood

Personally, I haven't seen either film. I was drawn more to the quiet charm of Last Chance Harvey than the antics of either HJNTIY or BW. 

So I really can't comment on the quality of either HJNTIY or BW or the level of misogyny going on in them. But I can comment on the dearth of quality female-centric films, whether studio-driven or independent, that has resulted in success for films like HJNTIY and BW. 

For some reason, the studios do not feel the female market is viable. This should be obvious to everyone. How many films at the theater are geared toward women? And how much shock was everyone in last year when Sex and the City did remarkably well? I wasn't in shock. My response was, Duh! 

The side effects of all this talk about the female audience will hopefully help our situation of getting quality female films greenlit. You better believe HJNTIY and BW are being monitored by the studio heads and other financiers and that their success will directly relate to the greater development of projects for women. And that's exciting and that's where we should put our focus. 

Let's make sure the strides that are being made to prove the female market exists are used to help us make better films for women that have greater exposure. Let's talk about and take action on getting the development process to focus on projects that don't suggest misogyny. 

1 comment:

Sabina E. said...

you also forgot to mention that TWILIGHT is such a huge hit and will spawn a franchise.

other female fronted franchises that performed well: Charlie's Angels, Lara Croft Tomraider, and Resident Evil.