Jessica Chastain Tells Cannes That Lack Of Female Storytellers Distorts Women In Film

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Jessica Chastain Tells Cannes That Lack Of Female Storytellers Distorts Women In Film

Jessica Chastain said she found the onscreen representation of women in this year’s Cannes Film Festival lineup "quite disturbing."

"I do believe that if you have female storytelling you also have more authentic female characters,” Chastain, who served on the jury said during a press conference Sunday. “This is the first time I’ve watched 20 films in 10 days, and I love movies. And the one thing I really took away from this experience is how the world views women from the female characters that I saw represented. It was quite disturbing to me, to be honest.”

Sofia Coppola Talks 'The Beguiled', Lensed By Steven Meisel For WSJ Magazine June-July 2017

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Sofia Coppola Talks 'The Beguiled', Lensed By Steven Meisel For WSJ Magazine June-July 2017

Photographer Steven Meisel captures talent Sofia Coppola for 'Enchanted', WSJ Magazine's June/July cover story. Paul Cavaco styles the director of 'The Beguiled' in Lanvin, Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, Celine, Valentino, Fendi, Salvatore Ferragamo, Botegga, Chanel and more. / Makeup by James Kaliardos; hair by Jimmy Paul

Speaking of 'The Beguiled' cast of Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst and Nicole Kidman portraying women at a girls' school in Virginia who care for a Union soldier during the Civil War, Coppola said to Jason Gay:

“I thought it was interesting to see these women who were left behind, they’d been raised to be companions to men…and there were no men around. Everything’s polite and lovely, but then there’s darkness underneath.” 

'The Beguiled' movie trailer gives us insights into Coppola's distinctly female sensibility in the film, one she maintains relies more on Thomas Cullinan 1966 source novel  and not the original version of the 1971 movie starring Clint Eastwood. In the new movie, nominated for the 2017 Cannes Palme d'Or award, Colin Farrel plays Union soldier Corporal John McBurney.