Amanda LePore – The WOW Report

Arzner with DP, Lucien Ballard, Film Quarterly via YouTube

January 3, 1897– Dorothy Arzner:

“Each day when I went to work at a studio, I took my pride and made a nice little ball of it and threw it right out the window.”

Portland’s own Todd Haynes (who was yesterday’s #BornThisDay figure) has been promising a Dorothy Arzner biopic since 2003. Her story has yet to make it to the screen, but maybe Julianne Moore could be Haynes’ number one choice for the role. Who else do you think might embody the men’s suit wearing, openly gay Arzner? I’ll even throw in Cate Blanchett to play Katharine Hepburn for a second time. Does that make it more enticing? After all, Arzner was the one that gave Hepburn her first starring role, playing a famous female flyer in Christopher Strong (1933).

Arzner nurtured the careers of several strong female film stars. She has also served as an inspiration for other women directors, even in our own era. Someday, when having a woman direct a major Hollywood film isn’t worth mentioning, film fans will be shocked to learn that there was a time when Arzner and Ida Lupino were the only gals working behind the camera.

Arzner started at Paramount Pictures as a typist, before making her way up the ladder, first as a screenwriter and then editor. She eventually demanded a chance to direct, threatening to move to another studio. She showed real pluck and panache with her first film Fashions For Women (1927), a box-office hit. She was then offered to direct Paramount’s very first sound film, The Wild Party (1929).

The Wild Party starred “It Girl” Clara Bow in her first speaking role, along with Frederic March in his film debut. It proved popular with the critics and fans. For its time, it was quite controversial, daringly featuring scantily clad co-eds and chorus girls. For The Wild Party, she tied a microphone to a fishing pole to put nervous star Bow at ease and get better audio, basically inventing the first boom microphone.

Paramount thought Arzner was right for directing melodramas with female leads like Sarah And Son (1930), starring Ruth Chatterton who was nominated for an Academy Award, and giving Rosalind Russell her first great role in Craig’s Wife (1936). As a technician, she was anything but fussy. She eschewed meandering shots or anything that would distract from her clarity of vision or her devotion to detail. She stated:

“Maintain conscious control of your medium – nothing random.”

One of the reoccurring themes in Arzner’s films is the emotional toll of an unhappy marriage. Her work often features a man who behaves like he owns a woman, or a man competing with a woman.

Arzner’s films also frequently show nuanced, complex, sympathetic female friendships with hints of homoeroticism. Just last month on TCM, I caught Arzner’s Dance, Girl, Dance (1940) with Lucille Ball in her first starring role, along with Maureen O’Hara. They play roommates Bubbles and Judy, who scrap over men and money, tossing off wisecracks and dancing like a lesbian version of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It also has a nutty turn by famed acting coach Maria Ouspenskaya as an especially butch dance instructor. I really enjoyed this one.

Arzner had a major love affair with Marion Morgan, the choreographer on Dance, Girl, Dance. She also spent some very special time with Joan Crawford, before, during, and after they worked together on The Bride Wore Red (1937) and The Last Of Mrs. Cheyney (1937). Their bond was so strong that Crawford was even able to lure Arzner out of retirement to shoot more than 50 commercials for Pepsi when Crawford was the spokesperson and on the Board Of Directors for the company.

In 1943, Arzner made her final film, First Comes Courage, a war film overflowing with lesbian subtext. Noted for being a hard worker, Arzner was still able to enjoy a romantic fling with the star of the film, Merle Oberon.

Systemic sexism and overt homophobia had been on the upswing with the start of The Hays Code in 1934. The Hays Code was the set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most films released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. Hollywood became more conservative and there was a return to traditional gender roles after the end of WW II. I am not certain if these were reasons why a woman whose films were as good as any man’s, who’s films came in on time and under-budget and who made money for the studios, stopped making movies. Maybe because she was often the only woman director working in Hollywood, her first goal was to prove that she was competent because competence was far more important than brilliance or originality in making sure she had a career. Her inability to conform to an increasingly conservative moral climate in Hollywood had to have been a major stumbling block.

Arzner was a complicated and unique woman. She possessed a biting sense of humor and a sophisticated personal style, noted for her short-cropped hair and the wearing of pants.

Between 1927 and 1943, Arzner directed 17 feature films. Almost all have her trademark unconventional heroines, strong and self-sufficient, who must reconcile marriage and career. Like the masterful gay director, James Whale, her films resonate with gay subtext.

She mentored a young film director named Francis Ford Coppola. I hear things turned out well for him.

After leaving the studio system, Arzner made Army training films and taught at UCLA, plus she shot those Pepsi commercials. In 1936, she became the very first woman to join The Directors Guild Of America. The Guild finally got around to honoring her contribution in 1975 with their Legend Award, four years before her passing. She left this world with no Oscars, honorary or otherwise, and aside from that DGA reward, after a prolific career that spanned from 1922 to 1943, she only has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

There is some promise and progress for women directors. Currently there are 245 films by women streaming on Netflix. In 2016, there were 49 films directed by females according the DGA, not all of them found distribution. Only one film of the top 25, Kung Fu Panda 3, was directed by a woman, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and she gets to share the credit with a dude, Alessandro Carloni.

In 2017 and 2018, there are only 24 films directed by women, despite the attention paid to Hollywood’s gender inequality issues. Granted, Warner Bros. had Patty Jenkins’ blockbuster Wonder Woman, but the studio has nothing on the docket for 2018 that is to be directed by a woman. In 2017, only two of the Top 50 money makers were directed by women, Wonder Woman and Trish Sie’s Pitch Perfect 3.

Disney had zero films directed by women in 2017, although their 2018 lineup includes Ava DuVernay’s A Wrinkle In Time, the first $100 million live-action feature to be directed by a female director of color.

They might not have been huge at the box-office, but some of the year’s best reviewed films were directed by females: The Beguiled directed by Sofia Coppola, Dee Rees’ Mudbound, Angelia Jolie’s First They Killed My Father, Faces Places directed by 89-year-old Agnes Varda, and one of the most honored films of the year Lady Bird from Greta Gerwig. I would also mention Battle Of The Sexes directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, and the fascinating Wonder Woman backstory Professor Marston & the Wonder Women directed by Angela Robinson.

Women directed just 4% of the top money-making films in the 21st century. Of the 700 top-grossing films in history, women make up 13% of the directors. In 89 years of the Academy Awards, only four female directors have even been nominated for Oscars: Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for Lost In Translation (2003), and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009). Only Bigelow has taken home the statue, making the ratio of female to male winners 1 to 89.

Lesbians making feature films is a very small list indeed. There is Phyllida Lloyd, Dee Rees, and Jodie Foster, and I particularly admire Kimberly Peirce who directed Boys Don’t Cry (1999), and Lisa Cholodenko who directed the terrific Oscar nominated The Kids Are All Right (2010). My gaydar goes off for Ava DuVernay, director of the landmark, Selma (2014) and 13 (2015) but she keeps her private life private, although I know she vacations with Oprah and Gayle.

As Katharine Hepburn put it to Arzner in a telegram when she was at last honored by the DGA in 1975:

‘Isn’t it wonderful that you’ve had such a great career, when you had no right to have a career at all?”

Via YouTube

January 4, 1960 – Michael Stipe:

“As a 14 or 15-year-old, All The Young Dudes resonated with me because of my sexuality. There was a hot guy in glasses and I wore glasses.”

A few days ago, I had a friend take issue with my free use of the term “Queer”. I explained to her (a straight person) that I found the word to be inclusive of all sorts of gayness and that it was, for me, like the N word, mine to use freely, offensive for most other people to use, and after decades of facing the term ”Queer” as a jeer, an insult, a slight, it is fun to own the word and I wear it as a badge of honor. Also, I like Qs. I collect them; I even have a Q as a tattoo.

Two and a half decades ago Michael Stipe came out of the closet as Queer, not Gay. I liked that. I like Stripe. I like that band that he used to be in. I liked them a lot apparently, I have every album they put out, including B-sides and rarities.

Stipe:

“In 1994, most people had a largely binary perception of sexuality, the message was complicated for them. I am thrilled to see how much this has changed in those 20 years. The 21st century has provided all of us, recent generations particularly, with a clearer idea of the breadth of fluidity with which sexuality and identity presents itself in each individual. Gender identification, and the panoply of sexuality and identity are now topics that are more easily and more widely discussed, debated and talked about openly. It’s thrilling to see progressive change shift perceptions so quickly.”

“I think queerness is a state of mind brought about by an understanding: it is understanding difference, accepting your own truth, desire and identity, and lovely, lovely choice.”

In the 1990s, I had a lot of voice-over work and much of it was recorded at Seattle’s Bad Animals Studios, partly owned by Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, and where bands and artists like R.E.M., Soundgarden, Johnny Cash, Nirvana, and Danny Elfman could be seen roaming the halls.

In 1992, I ran into (literally) Stipe there. I would describe him as enigmatic and shy, to say the least.

Via YouTube

When the strange, beautiful, semi-acoustic R.E.M. album Automatic For The People appeared that year, the reticent singer had fully grabbed my attention. R.E.M. began work on Automatic For The People soon after all four members had turned 30-years-old. It reflects the loss of youth but is filled with emotional intensity.

Appearing a year after Nirvana’s Nevermind (with the Seattle Grunge movement’s anthem, Smells Like Teen Spirit), R.E.M.’s understated album seemed at odds with the times.

Stipe:

”It sounded like the work of people who have just come through their 20s, past the famous age in Rock ‘N’ Roll when people of 27 drop dead. There are a lot of songs about darkness and sadness and death and transition. These are songs of transition.”

But, for Stipe to come out in 1992, would have just been too difficult. Stipe:

”I had lived with fear of HIV for almost 10 years. The first New York cases were being reported in 1983 and in the neighborhoods where I spent most of my time. I had to cope with not knowing if I was positive until I was able to get tested anonymously, only to find out I was healthy. People thought I was sick but I wasn’t.”

Stipe’s skinny body and gaunt face prompted a lot of speculation. His R.E.M. bandmates Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry were worried. Stipe:

”When I got my status, they were certainly aware of it but I don’t think they knew how scared I was. I lost, we lost, a lot of people. I wore a hat that said ‘White House Stop AIDS’. I’ve always been skinny, except in 1985 when I looked like Marlon Brando, the last time I shaved my head. I was really sick then. Eating potatoes. I think AIDS hysteria would obviously and naturally extend to people who are media figures and anybody of indecipherable or unpronounced sexuality. Anybody who looks gaunt, for whatever reason. Anybody who is associated, for whatever reason, whether it’s a hat, or the way I carry myself, as being queer-friendly.”

In January 1980, Stipe met Buck at the Athens, Georgia record store where Buck worked. The pair discovered that they shared similar tastes in music, particularly artists like Patti Smith, Television, and The Velvet Underground. Stipe:

“It turns out that I was buying all the records that Buck was saving for himself.”

Stipe and Buck met fellow University of Georgia students Mills and Berry, who had played music together since high school and lived together in Athens. The four guys agreed to collaborate on several songs. Stipe later claimed that “there was never any grand plan behind any of it”. The unnamed band spent a few months rehearsing and played its first show in April 1980, at a friend’s birthday party. The band decided on R.E.M., which is an acronym for rapid eye movement, the dream stage of sleep, which Stipe had selected at random from a dictionary.

Starting with Murmur in 1983, the band released five albums before its two most commercially successful albums, Out Of Time (1991) and Automatic For The People (1992), which veered from the band’s original punk sound and catapulted them to international fame. Monster (1994) was a return to a more rock-oriented sound, but still continued their run of bestselling and critically acclaimed albums.

The success of multiplatinum Out Of Time and its monster hit singles and the videos of Losing My Religion and Shiny Happy People made Stipe Bono level famous.

In 1996, R.E.M. signed with Warner Bros. for $80 million, at the time, the most expensive recording contract in history. Their first release on the liable, New Adventures In Hi-Fi (1996) brought strong reviews, yet fared worse commercially than the earlier albums. The following year, Berry left the band, while Stipe, Buck, and Mills continued the group as a trio.

Through changes in musical style, the band continued its career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success, despite having sold more than 85 million records worldwide and becoming one of the world’s best-selling music artists of all time.

In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, in their first year of eligibility. R.E.M. formally broke up in September 2011.

I love all of their music, but one song that resonates through the years is Everybody Hurts, frequently covered, but never better than R.E.M.’s original version with Stipe’s aching vocals.

On the first five albums, Stipe’s songs were opaque and mystical, but Everybody Hurts was raw and unadorned.

”One of the things that I didn’t want to do was write another love song. There were enough of those in the world and I wasn’t sure that I could rise to the occasion and do a better one. That song grew wings. It’s a very simple thing but simple is sometimes hardest to attain. We managed to write a song that struck a chord with people and has that unique position of being exactly the right song for the moment.”

I don’t hear much about Stipe these days. In 2014, he inducted Nirvana into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.This past autumn, Stipe teamed with Fischerspooner on Have Fun Tonight for their album Sir. Stipe generously claims: ”I’m not great without those R.E..M guys as a performer.”

Stipe did provide a bit of controversy after the 2016 election, when he emphasized compassion for Trump supporters, stating:

”Rather than people voting for a racist, xenophobic agenda, an intolerant agenda, I think they were just trying to smash the machine…”

”I tried unsuccessfully to inject a bit of nuance into a few things, and I got shut down really fast. Which is gonna happen. I understand that. I knew that I was putting myself in a firing line. But that’s okay, I can take it. It’s not a time for nuance, but it’s exactly what we need. These are real people with real problems and real lives. The people who are falling between the cracks are who I’m concerned with. It’s a very fucked up time to be. That said, I’m an optimist. I think maybe things need to get really bad for people to recognize what needs to be done. I’m not sure I know what needs to be done. But, we need to start listening to each other. That’s a very hippie thing to say, but… we don’t all need to have opinions on everything. We just need to listen a little more.”

Via YouTube

Stipe owns the Athens, Georgia building that houses his vegetarian restaurant. When not in Georgia, he shares a TriBeCa loft, recently featured in The NY Times, with his hot boyfriend, photographer Thomas Dozol.

By the way, the use of the word ”Queer” is debated among gay people to this day.

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