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Barbra Streisand showed up at the Tribeca Film Festival over the weekend, wearing this ^^^ dynamite all black ensemble. Barbra was interviewed by director Robert Rodriguez for a Tribeca Talks: Storytellers event and covered a wide range of topics like her father dying when she was only 15 months old and her fascination with Johnny Mathis. But much of the discussion centered around Barbra’s efforts as a director and why women have never been regarded in Hollywood. According to Barbra, she’s never received an Oscar nomination because of the bias against women directors. A bias, she says, that belongs to both men and women. Barbra said that when it comes to critique of her directing, women have been more critical of her then men and that is something we need to get better at.
Barbra Streisand argued that sexism cost her Oscar nominations for “Yentl” and “The Prince of Tides” during a spirited public interview at the Tribeca Film Festival on Saturday. But it wasn’t just men who balked at the idea of a woman calling the shots on a major motion picture.
“There were a lot of older people,” Streisand told her interlocutor Robert Rodriguez. “They don’t want to see a woman director.”
“I don’t know how many women wanted to see a woman director,” she added.
Streisand said that jealousy and competitiveness are partly to blame for women turning on one of their own gender. As evidence, she claimed that female critics were harsher than their male counterparts to “Yentl.” Three decades after the drama’s release, a review by former New York Times critic Janet Maslin still seemed to rankle the recording star and filmmaker. She remained put out by Maslin’s reference to Streisand’s use of a “pillbox-contoured designer yarmulke” in the film.
“None of [the female critics] talked about what the movie was trying to say,” Streisand said. “It was not about what the movie was about — a celebration of women and all they could be.”
Oh, and for the record, Streisand said the yarmulke was authentic to the film’s early 20th century Polish setting.
“Yentl,” the story of a woman who dresses like a man so she can study Talmudic Law, was nominated for five Oscars, missing out on a Best Picture nod. “The Prince of Tides,” a drama about an emotionally damaged man who falls for his psychiatrist, got seven nominations, included film of the year. In both cases, Streisand’s name was left off the director’s short list. Eight years separated the two films.
Streisand said she was pleased that being overlooked focused attention on discrimination towards women, but she said the experience of being snubbed for “Yentl” had something to do with her long hiatus.
“I must have been more hurt than I thought, because I didn’t want to direct for years,” she said.
[From Variety]
To be honest, I don’t remember Yentl or Prince of Tides that well so I can’t remember if I thought Barbra deserved to be nominated. I do know the films were well received so I’m inclined to think she did. I like the fact that Barbra is driving home that this is not solely a men vs. women situation and that many women had a hand in trying to keep her in her lane. I’m curious about the reviews of Yentl that hurt her so much. Is that exclusive to female directors, that critics don’t listen to the message, only the aesthetics? If true, life really does imitate art, doesn’t it? Just shut your mouth and look pretty. Barbra started directing after Sydney Pollack, who was a good friend, cut two scenes from The Way We Were that she found critical. She became a director to be heard, which I love. However, her career progression in general shocked me, “I would say I’m an actress first, only because I started singing because I couldn’t get a job as an actress, and I started directing because I couldn’t be heard as an actress.” Let that sink in for a moment – there was a time when Barbra was not pursuing a career as a singer. That can’t be right, can it? I don’t want to live in that world.
However, possibly the most surprising part of the interview was the fact that Rodriguez was the one to interview her. The reason for this is quite simple: he admires her as a director. This stems from being brought up to worship her, “My mom loved to talk to her 10 children about two things: God and Barbra Streisand.” Rodriguez and Streisand have formed a friendship, which is how he came to interview her on Saturday. Probably the best takeaway from the interview was when Rodriguez and Streisand were discussing fear. Not only was Barbra’s answer inspiring, but she was able to take a swipe at #45 without mentioning his name:
Streisand: “Fear is an engine to create.”
Rodriguez: “That’s great – you turn fear into an engine, not a wall.”
Streisand: “Don’t mention a wall to me.”
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Photo credit: Getty Images, WENN and Fame/Flynet Photos
Source: celebitchy.com
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