Wonder Woman 1984 (TF1): "For too long, women had to identify with heroes embodied by men."

September 2018. The sun of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands rises above the ancient Themyscira arena, a huge wooden embankment where the opening scene takes place. Don’t expect muscular gladiators to kill each other in front of an emperor in this show befitting a Hollywood peplum. Here, we’re in a women-only universe: Under the cries of hundreds of viewers, Diana Prince, alias Wonder Woman, faces off against an amazon team in a frenzied race punctuated by trials, from the peak of age 8. Lilly Aspell, an 11-year-old Israeli actress, takes on this very physical role and refuses to be recognized for her stunts.

shooting at pharaohs

Star actress Gal Gadot, 33, who represents the adult superhero, looks at the young actress. Next to her is director Patty Jenkins, watching each shot on monitor screens. This 48-year-old woman with a strong character had already staged the first work of Wonder Woman adventures, which had great success at the box office, in 2015. You can’t replace a winning director: Three years later, he oversees this pharaoh movie with an iron fist, where thousands of extras meet with two hundred overworked technicians. It was he who wrote the incredible script for this 2 by 30 movie that brings the heroine like a tireless traveler from the shopping malls of Virginia to the Capitol in Washington via London, Andalusia, Tenerife and the Canary Islands.

very great show

The Warner studios faced off against Patty Jenkins were clear from the producers: Whatever the credibility of the story, only the scenes of flamboyant special-effects battles between Diana Prince and her two foes count. The judges, the fearsome Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig) and the cynical Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) ) was revived by The idea is, first of all, to put on a great show that will probably attract the largest possible audience…

A feminist blockbuster

For $8 million (a director’s record), Patty Jenkins takes on this American show uncomplicated, which some critics would still have reduced to “popcorn cinema.” However, she claims it’s a feminist message that should make the entire male gender think: “In cinema, women have had to identify with the heroes embodied by men for too long. With Wonder Woman 1984, that trend was radically reversed: Men, of course, can admire a rather dark-haired Amazon who knocks down her enemies, but this time she doesn’t give up on her sexy appeal.” Well seen! It was time to shake up the very masculine world of blockbuster movies and for a strong woman, a symbol of liberation, to establish herself in the testosterone gallery of superheroes.

Wonder Woman 1984: Sunday, March 19 at 21:10 on TF1

Jean-Baptiste Drouet