THE MUSE #83
In this edition: The women of Jurassic World Dominion talk about the franchise’s power to inspire women and girls for generations to come. Plus, highlights from the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and Star Wars Celebration.
“The Feminist Evolution of Jurassic World Dominion”
How Laura Dern, Bryce Dallas Howard and DeWanda Wise Became Summer’s Breakout Action Stars
“Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth.” A lot has changed in the ensuing three decades since Laura Dern’s Dr. Ellie Sattler uttered that iconic quip in 1993’s Jurassic Park, but that line still roars.
The sixth film in the series, Jurassic World Dominion, debuts June 10, and of all the movies in the franchise, it is the installment most firmly committed to that feminist creed. Dern makes her long-awaited return, and this time she’s flanked by Bryce Dallas Howard, who carried the pro-woman torch starring as Claire Dearing in 2015’s Jurassic World and its sequel, Fallen Kingdom, as well as by DeWanda Wise, who picks up the baton as pilot Kayla Watts.
“What’s just dope about the franchise overall is it gives this vast representation, both of women and what the strength of women actually is,” Wise proclaims.
In Variety’s cover story, the women of the mega-billion-dollar franchise open up about their gravity-defying stunt work, filming amid the pandemic and working with baby dinosaurs. Click here to read the full story.
Channel Your Muse: Erato, Muse of Love Poetry
This edition of “Channel Your Muse” is inspired by Erato, the Muse of Love whose very appearance inspires thoughts of creativity. Here are five films that won the hearts of the Cannes Film Festival this year.
Artwork: Traci Wright Martin, Pompeii fresco, Unknown, and Peter Nixon.
Triangle of Sadness | directed by Ruben Östlund
Winner of the Palme d’Or
The highest prize awarded at Cannes
This dark-comedy film centers on Carl and Yaya, a couple of models and influencers who are invited on a luxury cruise with a rogues’ gallery of super-rich passengers. The ship’s crew takes great care of the vacationers, but when a storm rises and the survivors are trapped on a desert island, the balance of power is reversed.
On the inspiration for the film, director Ruben Östlund told Variety, “Well, my wife is a fashion photographer. So when I met her seven years ago, I wanted to hear about the fashion industry and the beauty industry because I’m scared of it. At the same time, I’m attracted to it, and I think it says something about beauty. Beauty is scary at the same time as it’s attractive because it also reminds us about the hierarchy. Beauty creates a certain kind of hierarchy in all social situations.”
What Critics Are Saying… “The thing about Östlund is that he makes you laugh, but he also makes you think. There’s a meticulous precision to the way he constructs, blocks and executes scenes — a kind of agonizing unease, amplified by awkward silences or an unwelcome fly buzzing between characters struggling to communicate.” ~ Peter Debruge, Variety
Watch an official “Triangle of Sadness” clip here.
Close | directed by Lukas Dhont
Winner of the Grand Prix (Tie)
Runner-up to the Palme d'Or prize at Cannes
A coming-of-age drama about adolescent friendship and responsibility, revolving around two 13-year-old boy besties whose intense bond is tested when they start secondary school.
“As a kid, I often denied myself an intimate relationship with another boy, because I feared that relationship,” director Lukas Dhont shares with The Hollywood Reporter.
“I read research by an American psychologist who followed around 100 boys between the ages of 13 and 18. At 13, she saw how those boys describe their friendships as being incredibly important to them. Their friends were the people they trusted, who they shared their secrets with, who they loved. They weren’t afraid to express the love they felt for their friends. Then she re-interviewed them at 15, 16, 17 and 18. And with a lot of them, she saw how performance masculinity intervened. The intimacy those boys had with each other was interrupted.
All of a sudden, the story of my very personal experience seemed to click into something much broader, much more universal. I understood I wanted to make a film about the impacts of friendship. I think a lot of time in film, we focus on romantic relationships, but for so many of us, friendships define who we are.”
What Critics Are Saying… “A study of children confronted with the kind of grief that they have neither the maturity or the temperamental framework to fully understand is always going to be a powerful proposition, but the combination of knock out performances, in particular from newcomer Eden Dambrine as Léo, and direction of uncommon sensitivity from Dhont makes for a picture which is intimate in scope but which packs a considerable emotional wallop.” ~ Wendy Ide, Screen Daily
A24 scored North American rights to “Close;” watch an official clip here.
Stars at Noon | directed by Claire Denis
Winner of the Grand Prix (Tie)
Runner-up to the Palme d'Or prize at Cannes
In 1984's Nicaragua, a mysterious English businessman and a headstrong American journalist strike up a romance as they soon become embroiled in a dangerous labyrinth of lies and conspiracies and are forced to try and escape the country.
Joe Alwyn, one the lead characters, describes his process of preparing for the role with Deadline as, “... more than anything, just jumping in on instinct from what was on the page and going with that and also going with Claire and seeing where she felt. Not just in terms of character story, but you’re almost informed as much by the way that she’s making the film and the feel of it.”
What Critics Are Saying… “... this sordid tale of beautiful people on the brink of self-destruction would still continue to stand out for the dissonant energies, sensual rhythms, and prickly encounters that shape Denis’ search for mutual aid in a mercenary world.” ~ David Ehrlich, Indie Wire
A24 will release “Stars at Noon;” watch an official clip here.
EO | directed by Jerzy Skolimowski
Winner of the Jury Prize (Tie)
For original work that embodies the spirit of inquiry
EO, a grey donkey with melancholic eyes, meets good and bad people on his life's path, experiences joy and pain, endures the wheel of fortune randomly turn his luck into disaster and his despair into unexpected bliss.
What Critics Are Saying… “I’m not sure this is my favourite Skolimowski film, but it is engaging in many ways: beautifully photographed, sentimental and surreal in equal measure; and also stubborn – as stubborn as its hero – in its symbolism and stark pessimism.” ~ Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
The Eight Mountains | directed by Felix Van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch
Winner of the Jury Prize (Tie)
For original work that embodies the spirit of inquiry
Adapted from Paolo Cognetti’s bestselling novel, the movie charts the decades-long friendship between Pietro and Bruno, who meet as 11-year-old boys one summer in a remote Alpine village and reconnect later as adults.
In an interview with Woman and Hollywood, co-director Charlotte Vandermeersch shares her best advice for women directors: “My experience is that women should surround themselves with people they don’t need to explain things to in a literal way, but with people who feel them. Fewer words, greater understanding.”
What Critics Are Saying… “Van Groeningen and Vandermeersch’s movie runs nearly 150 minutes [but] I think it earns just about all of them, given how gradually and perceptively it tracks its characters’ journey, as friends and individuals. This is the rare movie that understands how tied we are to the physical and psychological spaces of childhood, how our families and the traditions they raised us with can be both nurturing and limiting. More than anything, it brings a little-seen world to life with an almost palpable physicality, even as it reminds us that to live and work with one’s hands — to milk a cow, to build a house, to scale a mountain — is for some merely a romantic ideal and for others an implacable reality.” ~ Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
Watch an official clip from “The Eight Mountains” here.
The Calliope Diaries
Here at Nine Muses, we’re big advocates for dedicated journaling time.
Every month, we’ll share a free-response prompt to get your creative juices flowing. This month’s prompt:
Name three of your favorite characters
These can be characters from books, films, TV shows, games, etc. For each character, answer the following:
1. What about their personality and personal values do you love about them?
2. Describe their character arc. Name an instance in which the character surprised you in that journey.
3. Complete this sentence for the characters: “The most terrifying thing in the world is…”
Recommended Time: 5 minutes
“My muse must come to me on union time.”
Newsletter run by Nia Farrell, Director of Development & Production at Nine Muses Entertainment
