SHE DISES DISABILITIES!
French director Catherine Breillat (art house faves “Romance”, “Fat Girl”, etc.) has a new film opening in the U.S. Friday July 4th…one that involves a much larger canvas and budget than her earlier films. I was reading about it in a Sheri Linden L.A. Times article the other day, and what struck me even more than the description of the film,
“The Last Mistress”, an adaptation of Jules-Amedee Barbey d’Aurevilly’s 1851 novel (how’d ya like to go thru life with a name like that??), was the description of Ms. Breillat! Not only is she a 59 year old FEMALE DIRECTOR (already puts her in pretty rare company), but she has suffered numerous strokes, including a 2004 cerebral hemorrage that left her partly paralyzed and delayed “Mistress” for a year. But inspite of that, not only did she finish a film set in 1835 Paris of a novelistic scope in this, her 11th film, but this fall she begins shooting her version of “Bluebeard” (she promises it will scandalize!) and then plans on shooting a film based on her own politically incorret novel, “Bad Love.” When I think of the difficulty of dealing with such physical problems and shooting a film at the same time, it floors me! Well obviously it didn’t floor her…as she says in the article, “I’m simply not made to inhabit a world of disabilities”. Good for her, I say!
If she can dis her disabilities so can I, and so can you! I’ll be the first in line this Friday to support such downright gumption.
Judith Drake, blogger for In The Trenches Productions, The First Entertainment Website Celebrating the Power and Beauty of Women Over 40
