Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 113: Tue Apr 24

Be Pretty and Shut Up (Seyrig, 1981): Barbican Cinema, 6.30pm


This film is part of the 'Nevertheless, She Persisted' season at the Barbican. Full details here.

Barbican introduction:
Frustrated by her own and other women's experiences in the film industry, French actress and activist Delphine Seyring interviewed two dozen French and American actresses in 1976. The expectation to 'be pretty and shut up' is not new, nor has it disappeared since actress-activist Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad, Jeanne Dielman ...) recorded these interviews over 40 years ago. Seyrig speaks to 24 French and American actresses, including Maria Schneider, Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine, about their experience across the industry. 
Through their words, Seyrig reveals the frustrations of working within the patriarchal studio system that offers a stereotypical and reductive view of women through unimaginative and regressive roles. A compelling and ever-relevant cinematic herstory, this frank document gives voice to the concerns of women in the industry and demonstrates the way in which actresses have always supported each other privately, and the power of public declaration to effect change.

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