The absence of female directors among the 2023 nominations for the César ceremony caused a scandal.
On the music side, on the other hand, an artist - Irène Drésel, named for the boosted soundtrack of
À Plein Temps
, managed to slip in alongside her fellow composers.
Nevertheless: the woman is rare in the award ceremonies.
Flore Benguigui, the singer of the group L'Impératrice, does not intend to be satisfied with this situation.
“
We know
John Williams (the composer of
ET
,
Star Wars
,
Indiana Jones
)
, but who can name a composer of film music?
“Lamented Flore Benguigui in January, who declined her podcast “Cherchez la Femme” in round table evenings and mini-concerts, to bring the forgotten of the music industry out of the shadows.
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Debates, 100% female DJ sets, tasting of wine from winegrowers… This monthly meeting in Paris is the logical extension of her podcast broadcast every month on Tsugi Radio, an online media.
Flore Benguigui hopes to participate in weaving a network of professionals from the world of music.
The lack of representation of female film music composers was discussed with three of them, Uèle Lamore, Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen and Julie Roué.
Women with little help
"The film industry is not the most inclusive, it's catastrophic for film music composers
," says Flore Benguigui.
"Between 2012 and 2021, the original music of 37 projects supported by the CNC is strictly composed by women, i.e. 6.7% of all supported projects"
, according to a report by the National Center for Cinema and Image. anime of 2022.
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"Men are strong enough to federate"
, observes Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen, who however finds exceptions, as with Nicolas Bedos, for whom she composed several pieces of music such as that of
La Belle Epoque
.
"The men choose their doubles, for the composers there is also a more obvious identification with the directors"
, nuance Julie Roué, author of the soundtrack of
Une femme du monde
by Cécile Ducrocq, with Laure Calamy.
The CNC identified 30.6% of films directed or co-directed by women in 2021.
“We women have not had this learning from the guys who say “I want my name on the credits”, “
laments Uèle Lamore who signed the soundtrack for Aïssa Maïga's film
Marcher sur l'eau
, released in 2021. The invisibilization of female soundtrack composers is indeed another part of the problem.
Forgotten composers
In her podcast, Flore Benguigui brought Angela Morley out of limbo, a trans woman (born male, under the name of Walter “Wally” Stott), who remained in the shadow of John Williams as an orchestrator, that is to say say second-in-command composer, for
Star Wars
,
ET
and
Superman
.
Or Shirley Walker, whose work on Tim Burton's
Batman
is relegated to the background behind that of Danny Elfman.
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To enter the spotlight, Uèle Lamore advocates the establishment of
“quotas”
linked to the allocation of subsidies.
For her part, Julie Roué acts within “Troisième autrice”, a Facebook group that has become an association of composers of music for the image.
They organize round tables there on
“subjects like maternity, money, contracts, these little taboos for women”
.
The goal of all these steps?
"Arming Young Female Composers
" by BO
.
“to save time”
.
"
At festivals, when I'm interviewed by journalists, the question 'how does it feel to be a woman here?'
takes the place of another question, when I could have talked about my work
”, she illustrates.
A little music which they do not despair of getting rid of.