“Nomadland”, Chloé Zhao’s portrayal of the itinerant life, explores themes typically ignored by mainstream narrative films. How often does Hollywood examine the scars of the Great Recession, the fragility of the gig economy, or the gaps in the social safety net?
But it’s almost as unusual to see an American movie centered around an ordinary older woman, according to film historians and gender equality advocates – in this case, a fiercely independent drifter named Fern, played by Oscar-winning actor Frances McDormand, 63 (The film debuted on Hulu and Friday in select theaters.)
“It’s extremely rare to see a woman in her 60s starring, especially someone who can see her age on screen,” said Alicia Malone, presenter of Turner Classic Movies who has written two books about women in the world. cinema.
“Hollywood has traditionally been a very outdated place, especially since it became a commercial company where men ran and women were thrown out as soon as they reached a certain age,” said Malone, who recently hosted a TCM series that featured 100 films. . directed by women.
The film industry routinely casts “men of a certain age” as romantic protagonists or action heroes. But women over 50 are usually relegated to supporting or one-dimensional parts, and big stars like Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman can be exceptions proving the rule, Malone said.
“When we see older women, they are in side jobs with a lot of stereotypes around them and a lot of jokes are made at their expense,” said Malone. “They rarely appear to be central to stories as viable, complex characters.”
In recent years, television shows and limited series have become havens for women over 50 looking for interesting roles, such as Viola Davis (“How to Get Away With Murder”); Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin (“Grace and Frankie”); and Catherine O’Hara (“Schitt’s Creek”).
In a report published in September, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that only three of the top 100 films of 2019 featured lead or co-leading roles, played by a woman over 45, and only one of those roles went to a woman of color.
Last year, USC researchers found that 11 of the top 100 films featured a woman over 45 – while nearly a quarter (24 films) featured a man over 45 starring or supporting.
“We don’t have enough films about women to start with, let alone women over 45,” said Melissa Silverstein, the founder of Women and Hollywood, an organization advocating for greater inclusion in the film industry. “It’s really hard to find, and it’s a problem.”
“Nomadland” breaks standards sharply with his candid and deeply empathetic take on McDormand’s character, who takes to the road in a van following the death of her husband and the collapse of the real Nevada factory town where she worked and lived for dozens years.
The film describes McDormand’s character with invigorating documentary-style intimacy. We see her toiling in an Amazon warehouse; cleaning toilets in an RV campground; bond with other vagabonds (some of them non-professional actors playing versions of themselves); enjoying the beauty of the natural world as she travels through the American West.
“I don’t think I’ve * ever * seen a movie about an older woman who is about her in relation to herself rather than in the capacity of mother, grandmother, wise aunt, etc.,” Culture writer Jenna Scherer recently tweeted“It’s so nice to see Frances McDormand just take the time and space to wander and think and, frankly, play.”
McDormand, who co-produced “Nomadland,” happens to be among a group of prominent actors who have advocated for greater inclusion and equality, both on and off the screen. (The film is an independent production acquired by Disney distributor Searchlight Pictures.)
In March 2018, when McDormand received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” she committed to “inclusion riders,” a contractual provision that artists could use to increase diversity in productions. to demand.
The relative lack of fulfillment of career opportunities for women and people of color will at least come under scrutiny in late 2017, when the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements reshaped work cultures in entertainment and media.
The imbalances between men and women also persist behind the camera. “Nomadland” director Zhao, who rose to prominence in 2017 with the neo-western drama “The Rider” and will make her debut in the Marvel universe with the upcoming “Eternals”, is one of the few high-profile female filmmakers in today’s world. Hollywood.
Zhao, who is Chinese American, is also one of the few female directors of color with a growing presence on the studio circuit. In an analysis published in January 2020, the USC’s Inclusion Initiative found that only 13 of the 1,300 top-grossing films released between 2007 and 2019 were directed by women from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups.
McDormand, for example, has said she is lucky enough to be working with Zhao, who was also determined to build a project around an authentic American woman rarely seen in the mass media.
What if I had looked in the mirror and couldn’t recognize myself as the women represented in fashion magazines and movies? What if that had stopped me? That’s a lot of what-ifs, but part of the American dream that I started to realize was working with people like Chloé Zhao, ”McDormand said at a press conference in September.
Nell Minow, a film critic and expert in corporate governance, said she believes there was more cultural oxygen available for small-scale and women-led projects during the coronavirus pandemic, as leading studios had to delay the release of many male-driven blockbusters. .
“It’s been a bonanza in many ways for more intimate films like ‘Nomadland’,” Minow said, pointing to Channing Godfrey Peoples ‘Miss Juneteenth’ and Radha Blank’s ‘The 40-Year-Old Version’ as examples of women-anchored projects. . which received welcome attention last year.
“I’ve realized that for so much of the media I use, I need to translate from the male point of view into something that speaks to me more directly,” Minow said. “When I see these films, I can relax. I don’t have to translate anything. “
“It’s a cliché at the moment to say ‘representation is important’, but I feel connected and listened to because I have something in common with these characters,” she added.
Malone, the TCM presenter, said viewers should consider how their valuable human stories have been stolen due to the gender imbalances in the film industry.
“When you consider how many older women have been erased from Hollywood, you also think of how much we have all lost by not experiencing their stories on the big screen, with all their life experience, their wisdom, humor and vitality,” she said.