While Blade Runner 2049 is one of this year’s finest films, director Denis Villeneuve has received criticism for his portrayal of females in his film. The Guardian, in particular, observing that Mackenzie Davis plays a “sex worker who is literally used as a puppet.”
Villeneuve has addressed the criticism in a new interview, with the director arguing that the portrayal of women in Blade Runner 2049 was not fair to women. “I am very sensitive to how I portray women in movies, “This is my ninth feature film and six of them have women in the lead role. The first Blade Runner was quite rough on the women; something about the film noir aesthetic. But I tried to bring depth to all the characters. For Joi, the holographic character, you see how she evolves. It’s interesting, I think.”
He continued by saying, “What is cinema? Cinema is a mirror on society. Blade Runner is not about tomorrow; it’s about today. And I’m sorry, but the world is not kind on women. There’s a sense in American cinema: you want to portray an ideal world,” he continued. “You want to portray a utopia. That’s good—dreams for a better world, to advocate for something better, yes. But if you look at my movies, they are exploring today’s shadows.
