She was an art student and then an art teacher. She did some acting in a Lizzie Borden film. Her early interest in films were by European filmmakers like Passolini and Fassbinder and moved through American B-movie directors of the ‘50s, and then to the likes of Sam Fuller, Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah.
As an exercise in learning narrative, she adapted novels (Patricia Highsmith gave her a free option on “Enough Rope,” which she wrote but couldn’t finance), and even wrote an episode of the TV series “The Equalizer.”
Is Kathryn Bigelow as auteur? I think she is because even though she did not write most of her films, she has definitely put her own spirit and trademarks into them. For example: she likes the first person point of view and uses this method in most of her films. Most of her films are not feminist in nature, although her film called The Weight of Water is about women trapped in suffocating relationships.
What I find fascinating about her is that all her movies have been independent and she took a tremendous risk making The Hurt Locker. No other directors wanted to make it. She made it very true to life and documentary like. She doesn’t do what Bell Hooks explained in Making Movie Magic from Reel to Real, “..give the reimagined, reinvented version of the real."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Bigelow
I truly admire women, especially independent filmmakers, who create films inspirational and narrative driven films that convey a personal story to the audience rather than the cliche messages portrayed by the mass media. Another interesting focus about Kathryn Bigalow is that she uses feminist auteur theory in order to depict a story about women engaged in "suffocating relationships." Thanks for the intriguing post!
ReplyDeleteKathryn Bigelow did a great job with this film!
ReplyDeleteI think that most of the people, if they dont know, would probably think it was directed by a man...Great movie !
Katheryn Bigelow very much deserved that win!
ReplyDeleteAlthough Im excited to hear of any women winning the coveted award I would hope that a)Shes not a one hit wonder and b) She goes on to make movies about women and not stereotypical women either such as Monsters Ball with Halle Berry. Itd be amazing for her to make a powerful for about women but if shes going to be detrimental might as well not do it.Theres enough men in Hollywood to do that job.
FIRST woman to win Academy Award for Best Director only now is rather sad to be honest. I for one never really bothered to know the names of the directors and screen writers of movies. To me they were just another few lines in the rolling credits. So I was pretty ignorant to the fact that there are so few women directors and screen writers in the film industry. I just always assumed that things were pretty even and that women were a part of the Hollywood establishment. But after our class on the women in the film industry I am rather surprised and sadden that even today in 2010 there is such a huge obstacle for women to break through.
ReplyDeleteKathryn Bigelow being the first women to win Best director Academy Award now isn't really something to be proud or happy about. We should be ashamed that only in 2009 this happened. This should have happened decades ago!