Oh, Italy. As beautiful as that country is, it still has a lot of work to do when it comes to taming down the misogyny that is quite apparent all around that country. After all, they've all but refused to go along with the #MeToo movement and even had an Italian director strut down the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival with a "Harvey Weinstein is Innocent" T-shirt.
Jennifer Kent's "The Nightingale" was the only film directed by a woman to be part of this year's Venice competition. Yes, the film was deemed somewhat of a disappointment for many but that wasn't an excuse for a member of the Italian press to shout “Shame on you, whore! You Suck!” when Kent’s name appeared on the screen during the credits.
Eventually, the person who yelled the obscenity apologized, but Sharif Meghdoud said, “I put my face on it and take responsibility.”
Kent responded saying (via Variety), “it’s of absolute importance to react with compassion and love for ignorance. There is no other option.”
She continued, “The film speaks very clearly to that. I am very proud of the film and my crew for daring to tell a story that needs to be told. Love, compassion, kindness are our lifeline, and if we don’t utilize them, we will all go down the plughole.”
“It’s not about me, but it is quite hard for me because I wish I had my sister filmmakers here. It’s important we move towards gender parity. Cinema’s job is to reflect the world, and if we only reflect 50% of the world, then it’s not doing its job. It’s a very serious issue,” Kent said. “There are other filmmakers that are under-represented: indigenous filmmakers, filmmakers of color, filmmakers from developing countries, filmmakers who don’t identify as cisgender men or women. We still have a lot of way to go.”
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.