BADASS WOMEN: SOFIA COPPOLA

PILLOW TALK: "The point of pillow talk, though, is for two people to enjoy each other's presence through conversation, in a somewhat spontaneous way, but in a way that will let both parties go to bed with clear heads"

I studied film in college, so I know first hand that most of the directors, producers and cinematographers of note are male. This wasn't an error in curriculum, the fact of the matter is there is a huge disparity in the number of male and females behind the camera. According to Variety.com, "women comprise just 7 percent of all directors working on the 250 highest-grossing domestic releases in 2016." What. The. Fuck.

Similar concerns about the other side of the camera were recently voiced by Jessica Chastain in a Cannes press conference, as she described the depiction of women in the Cannes film festival "disturbing."

It's beyond obvious that to change the depiction and discourse around women in film, we need more women behind the actual camera. I'm not saying that only women directors are capable of capturing authentic female narratives, but they need to be more present in the mix so that the narrative is more complex, with more takes, perspectives, and voices behind it for a new norm to be found.

Sophia Coppola grew up in film under her father, director Francis Ford Coppola, and has been involved in the industry ever since. Coppola was nominated for three Academy Awards and Two Golden Globe awards for her 2003 film Lost in Translation staring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson; a film she also wrote which makes me love the movie 5x more. Her "best director" nomination made history, as she was both the first and youngest woman to be nominated. In 2010, Somewhere, staring Dakota Fanning, won the top prize at Venice International Film Festival. In 2017, The Beguiled won her the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. The Beguiled is currently in theatre's and is about a wounded solider held and tormented by the freaky female students & teacher at a southern boarding school. It honestly looks like a fucked up movie in terms of plot, and couldn't have been casted better with Nicole Kidman, Elle Fanning and Colin Farrell. What makes Sophia Coppola one of my favorite directors is not that fact that she is a woman (okay, that's a def a reason) but the fact that she is SO diverse in her style and the types of movies she's involved with

She refuses to be pigeonholed & defined by one genre or one style. She is the predominate female face young girls aspiring to be in the industry need.

A look at her most memorable works:

The Virgin Suicides:

"A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents in suburban Detroit in the mid-1970s."

Lost in Translation:

"A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo."

Somewhere:

"After withdrawing to the Chateau Marmont, a passionless Hollywood actor reexamines his life when his eleven-year-old daughter surprises him with a visit."