Sois Belle et Tais-Toi! (BE PRETTY AND SHUT UP!)

Part of the special series FEMINIST FRAMES

Even before #metoo in 2017, women in the industry were talking about how misogynistic the film industry is and how hostile its scripts are to women. The interviews Delphine Seyrig conducted with her colleagues in 1976—about how it feels to be an actress whose main requirement is to “be beautiful and keep your mouth shut,” about what roles you get to play at what age, also depending on your skin color, about how producers and directors behave, about whether it's possible to have a family and act—were conducted a long time ago and are still relevant today.

Actress and activist Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine, Maria Schneider, colleagues such as Ellen Burstyn, Cindy Williams, Rita Renoir, Viva, Candy Clark, Barbara Steele, Patti D'Arbanville, Louise Fletcher (she of “Nurse Ratched” fame), Juliet Berto, Jenny Agutter, Maidie Norman, Jill Clayburgh talk about their work experiences, about money, about dependencies, about the forced complete visual transformation of the self on behalf of a studio, about the incredibly bland material they are given to play, the co-stars who are twice their age.

“I only play schizophrenics, lesbians, crazy women, murderers,” says Maria Schneider. Fonda talks about how JULIA was perceived as a lesbian love story just because she starred in it with Vanessa Redgrave.

“I haven't done anything for a long time that I liked at all, you see. [...] I get incredibly angry and humiliated at the work I've done, you know. Absolutely. I feel so exploited and reduced,” says one protagonist.