Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film

'A fascinating polemic' Sunday Times
'A powerful, sobering and vital work' The Mail on Sunday
'A page-turning read, peppered with humour' Sight & Sound
'A must read' Edgar Wright

A call to arms from Empire magazine's 'geek queen', Helen O'Hara, that explores women's roles - both in front of and behind the camera - since the birth of Hollywood, how those roles are reflected within wider society and what we can do to level the playing field.

Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights. With no rules in place to stop them, there were women who forged ahead in many areas of filmmaking. Yet, despite the work of early pioneers like Dorothy Arzner, Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford and Alice Guy-Blaché, it soon came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty but refused to pay them the same respect as their male contemporaries - until now . . .

The tide has finally begun to turn. A new generation of women, both in front of and behind the camera, are making waves in the industry and are now shaping some of the biggest films to hit our screens.

In Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film, film critic Helen O'Hara takes a closer look at the pioneering and talented women of Hollywood and their work in film since Hollywood began. And in understanding how women were largely written out of Hollywood's own origin story, and how the films we watch are put together, we can finally see how to put an end to a picture that is so deeply unequal - and discover a multitude of stories out there just waiting to be told.

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Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film

'A fascinating polemic' Sunday Times
'A powerful, sobering and vital work' The Mail on Sunday
'A page-turning read, peppered with humour' Sight & Sound
'A must read' Edgar Wright

A call to arms from Empire magazine's 'geek queen', Helen O'Hara, that explores women's roles - both in front of and behind the camera - since the birth of Hollywood, how those roles are reflected within wider society and what we can do to level the playing field.

Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights. With no rules in place to stop them, there were women who forged ahead in many areas of filmmaking. Yet, despite the work of early pioneers like Dorothy Arzner, Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford and Alice Guy-Blaché, it soon came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty but refused to pay them the same respect as their male contemporaries - until now . . .

The tide has finally begun to turn. A new generation of women, both in front of and behind the camera, are making waves in the industry and are now shaping some of the biggest films to hit our screens.

In Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film, film critic Helen O'Hara takes a closer look at the pioneering and talented women of Hollywood and their work in film since Hollywood began. And in understanding how women were largely written out of Hollywood's own origin story, and how the films we watch are put together, we can finally see how to put an end to a picture that is so deeply unequal - and discover a multitude of stories out there just waiting to be told.

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Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film

Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film

by Helen O'Hara
Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film

Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film

by Helen O'Hara

eBook

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Overview

'A fascinating polemic' Sunday Times
'A powerful, sobering and vital work' The Mail on Sunday
'A page-turning read, peppered with humour' Sight & Sound
'A must read' Edgar Wright

A call to arms from Empire magazine's 'geek queen', Helen O'Hara, that explores women's roles - both in front of and behind the camera - since the birth of Hollywood, how those roles are reflected within wider society and what we can do to level the playing field.

Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for women's rights. With no rules in place to stop them, there were women who forged ahead in many areas of filmmaking. Yet, despite the work of early pioneers like Dorothy Arzner, Mabel Normand, Mary Pickford and Alice Guy-Blaché, it soon came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that fed on their talent, creativity and beauty but refused to pay them the same respect as their male contemporaries - until now . . .

The tide has finally begun to turn. A new generation of women, both in front of and behind the camera, are making waves in the industry and are now shaping some of the biggest films to hit our screens.

In Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film, film critic Helen O'Hara takes a closer look at the pioneering and talented women of Hollywood and their work in film since Hollywood began. And in understanding how women were largely written out of Hollywood's own origin story, and how the films we watch are put together, we can finally see how to put an end to a picture that is so deeply unequal - and discover a multitude of stories out there just waiting to be told.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781472144416
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date: 02/18/2021
Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format: eBook
File size: 1 MB

About the Author

Helen O'Hara has been working as a film journalist for over fifteen years, after qualifying as a barrister and immediately getting bored. She started her film writing career on the staff of Empire, the world's biggest film magazine, and remains their editor-at-large and co-host of the Empire podcast, where she can be found weekly singing the praises of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and complaining about La La Land. She is also an author and freelance writer. Northern Irish born, O'Hara now lives in London, splitting her time between cinemas, libraries and coffee shops.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

The Wild West

When film could he female 1

From Pioneers to Pariahs

How women fell silent before sound 14

The Factory

Putting the industry in film industry 34

The Underdogs

How marginalised women fought the odds 56

Censorship

Or, a great way to screw everyone over 77

Directors Behaving Badly

How the auteur theory twisted film 105

The Revolution

Movie brats and the male gaze 131

The Boring Legacy

Or, how franchises took over Tinseltown 159

The Auteur Gap

Where are all the female directors? 183

#MeToo

Making Hollywood safe for everyone 213

Pay It Isn't So

How to end the pay gap 246

Gatekeeping

Or, who critiques the critics? 268

Who's the Boss?

How we can change the picture 295

References 309

Further resources 333

Acknowledgements 337

Index 339

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