Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, the master that brought us “Zama” and “The Headless Woman,” has been a vocal skeptic of superhero movies in Hollywood. During a public Q&A held this week in Barcelona, she doubled down on her distaste for MCU and DCEU movies:
"Why do we need to tell war stories with horribly bad guys and jolly good guys?" she asks. "Wonder Woman is not going to save women from the dictatorship of having a wasp waist." Martel went on to condemn the artificial notion of feminism in Hollywood and that just because there are female superheroes that doesn’t mean anything has been ostensibly “solved.” "Why do the highest-grossing Marvel films have the word “War” in the title or a military reference with Captain America?" she questioned.
Earlier last year, Martel had harsh words to say about Marvel, whom, she says, approached her to direct “Black Widow.” During an interview with Daily Pioneer, the director discussed Marvel and Disney’s approach:
“I received an e-mail from Marvel for a meeting. Because they were looking for directors for ‘Black Widow’. So I went to the reunion. I actually signed this thing where I can’t talk about that reunion. Marvel and other such production houses are trying to involve more female filmmakers,” Martel said.
She continued on, “I do believe another female director is making the movie (now). What they told me in the meeting was ‘we need a female director because we need someone who is mostly concerned with the development of Scarlett Johansson’s character.’”
However, as expected, Martel had hesitations with the project, “They also told me ‘don’t worry about the action scenes, we will take care of that.’ I was thinking, well I would love to meet Scarlett Johansson but also I would love to make the action sequences,” Martel said.