Swiss-born director Lea Fazer offers criticism of the limitations society places on women.
By HANNAH BROWNLea Frazer 88 224(photo credit: Courtesy)
"Women directors in France: We do cute films, we do ironic comedies, but we don't do war or detective films or huge commercial movies," says Lea Fazer, the director of What If . . . ? The movie will be showing at the Women's Film Festival in Rehovot, which opens September 15 and runs through the 21st.
"We are decorative, we are cute. I'm kind of a pessimist about the situation. But maybe things are going to change soon," she says.
But while Fazer recognizes the difficulties facing women in the film industry, she doesn't let them stop her from making the movies she wants to. What If . . .? is a comedy-drama about two young Parisian lawyers, played by Alice Taglioni and Jocelyn Quinn, who are married to each other and work together. They face a dilemma when an important job opens up at their firm and both are considered for it. The movie looks at two scenarios, in the tradition of such movies as Sliding Doors: What happens to their relationship if each of them gets the promotion?
"In both realities, it's a catastrophe to their relationships and their souls," says Fazer, who was born in Switzerland and now lives and works in Paris.
She cites the classic Katharine Hepburn-Spencer Tracy comedy Adam's Rib as an influence on her. Another film that she had in mind while making What If . . .? was Working Girl, starring Melanie Griffith as a secretary who manages to become an executive. "This girl [in Working Girl] wants to be successful, she is very nice and very smart. Her film ends where mine starts," says Fazer.
GROWING UP in Switzerland, where women only got the right to vote in 1971, had an impact on her. "I was marked by it [this inequality] as a little girl. I wanted to make a movie about the situation of women in society, but I didn't just want to do another movie about a woman who wants to do something but can't because she is a woman."
In spite of the prominence of Segolene Royal in the recent campaign for the presidency of France, Fazer says that in France, "The representation of women in politics and top jobs is very low."
But for Fazer, it was natural to deal with this serious issue through comedy and irony. Although she started out studying to be a classical actress in France, she always wanted to write and direct. She began writing plays and then moved into television comedy. When producers were looking for someone to direct a comedy about the differences and conflicts between the French and the Swiss, she was the natural choice.
The film that she made, Bienvenue en Suisse (Welcome to Switzerland), was a commercial success and created a surprising controversy when it was included in the prestigious and usually very serious Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival.
While she acknowledges that Bienvenue en Suisse was a "more harmless, less ironic" film than What If . . . ?, Fazer calls the controversy over its inclusion, "ridiculous, but I enjoyed it. I like when people get upset, it's very interesting and you know something is happening."
What If . . .?, which was released in France last winter, did stir up some debate on the glass ceiling in Europe and is perhaps even more apropos now than ever, with Sarah Palin's sudden celebrity dominating headlines in the US.
Although Fazer continues to ponder questions raised by her film, she has moved on professionally. In the winter, shooting will start on her next movie, a jokier comedy about adult children faced with a harsh economic climate who move back in with their more prosperous parents.
Asked whether the screenplay is finished, she laughs, saying, "It's only finished after the film has been shot."
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