Nugget quotes

Have you heard about the experiment made by the Boston orchestra when they tried to hire more women? They interviewed the candidates behind a black curtain, anonymously. The jury chose more men and everyone was disappointed. They redid the experiment by putting carpet on the floor, so that the jury couldn’t hear the candidates walk in. The jury chose 50/50 that time. This shows just how far the prejudice goes.

In professional events of the industry, when women are thanked in acceptance speeches, it is always by their first names. Don’t they have last names?

I’m an actress, I’ve already portrayed leading parts, been a Jury member in high profile festivals, and yet, I’m mostly interviewed about my appearance, my make up, fashion, and my love life…

Female filmmakers are payed 34% less than men. And we assimilate it like good pupils. 

Create complex characters is a way to see women differently. It is a way to be woman and a way to be man.

We must exclude two words when we talk about women filmmakers:  sensitive and hysterical. 

I do not agree with the way harassment is presented by the media. For me, it is more a question about power than a question about gender.

We, French people, in our history we made revolution. Today, what is happening, is our revolution [women’s one]. We must win back liberty, our liberties, equality, our equality, and brotherhood, our “sisterhood”. Without cutting off any heads.

What is gendered in interpretation? There is no difference of nature between male and female interpretation.

During my interviews in the cinema industry, the pregnancy question always came up. I don’t know if that happens with men. If that’s not sexism, it sure looks like it.

When a male director is young, he’s called a genius. When it’s a woman, she’s called inexperienced.

When you’re a female director and you do a portrait of a woman, there’s always the same reaction: “what a lovely portrait of a woman”, even though it’s only a female character. No one would ever say “what a lovely portrait of a man”, for a film with a male lead. It’s just stigmatizing.

It is often said that directors’ wives are working thanks to their husbands. When it’s the other way around, nobody says a man’s working thanks to his wife.

Women are too polite, don’t impose themselves enough. We shoul be more like Kathryn Bigelow.

In the way we exist, we have to politicize our presence. It is our individual and collective responsibility.

I have a lot of women and men filmmaker friends. Legitimacy is a problem that is never mentioned in men’s conversations.

Cinema is a projection of the society’s archetypes

They said ‘You made a mistake, you wrote that the woman was handsome and the man was pretty

This is our revolution. It is not led by men anymore but women. 

In one of my movies, the main character is a woman and she is going to provinces. How many times was I asked why her husband was staying in Paris and was not saving his wife? But today, women do not need to be saved by men anymore!

If there is no specific attention, it will never work because society is unbalanced.

As a female producer, I always feel that women who want to make high budget films are looked at with condescension. If you have a 7 to 8 million euros film, the answer is : you don’t need that much money. What are we supposed to do if the script is good and there are a lot of scenes, settings and characters? We end up censuring ourselves, and convincing ourselves that we, indeed, don’t need that much money… And this feeling naturally transfers to female directors…

There must be something done about men on the issue, as they’re simply unaware that inequalities exist. We have a long way to go both ways.

The first time that I felt like a woman, that I started asking myself questions related to my gender, was the time I directed my first feature. I asked myself if I had the backbone to lead a team. But then I realized I had started asking myself this question because others wouldn’t stop asking it to me!

I’ve been an actress since I was 17 and I had to wait until I was 38 to get a female part where she has an actual job.

We won’t earn success in anything as long as we can’t cross the points of view.

To walk on the red carpet, you have to be pretty

When a man is complaining about not knowing how to speak to women anymore, after Weinstein case, the answer is simple: Ask yourself if you would say the same thing to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson?

You must be very brave to show yourself the way you are.

In femininity, we are our own enemies. We, actresses, have always been put in competition against each other.

I can’t stand it anymore that women are always suspected of being chosen because of quota, while men are never concerned about it.

Cinema is challenging. The female producers, people of power, they are the ones that can change things.