Today's director for our Female Filmmakers series is one of my personal favorite directors working right now. Let's talk about the exciting actress, writer, and director Anna Biller.
Not only is Anna also an actress, but she has also gone delightfully nude which we can talk about in a moment. Let's start with some background on this unique modern director. She does EVERYTHING from writing, acting, directing, editing, producing, designing, composing, and more. She is so wildly talented which will become clear in this article even if you've never heard of her before.
She was raised in LA to parents who were designers. That means that visuals were always a part of her upbringing! It's only natural that someone who grew up with her parents' bright color palates in Hollywood would gravitate towards making her own brightly colored classics with rich visuals.
She began her career writing and directing short films in the 90s and 2000s starting with her debut film which was 1994's Three Examples of Myself as a Queen. She studied at UCLA and continued her education at CalArts to get her MFA in art and film.
Her debut feature film was 2007's Viva which stars Biller as a bored housewife who wants to spice up her life in the 1970s. Festival critics were clamoring to see more of her "pseudo-Technicolor" work and were excited to see such a keen sendup of this era and style. I have to agree! The film looks and sounds like it was made in the 1970s with a bit of modern cheekiness.
You know what's wild? Her own parents appeared in Viva in bit roles! They didn't take on the nude roles, but plenty of other beautiful actresses did. There's a grand nude scene that features a lot of ladies with no layers on.
After Viva, she switched gears a bit to write and direct a fascinating horror-comedy and another nod to 1970s sexploitation: The Love Witch. 2016's The Love Witch has been hailed as one of the best and most interesting modern horror films.
You all know that I love The Love Witch. Samantha Robinson is perfect as the determined witch that we follow on her mission to make men love her. She does this by seducing them with a potion, but then she finds that the men become a little TOO into her. Honestly, they become straight-up obsessed with her and she gets annoyed by how clingy and pathetic they get. So she gets rid of them, but she sees it as an unfortunate setback on her desire for true love.
Samantha is sexy, as is her coven whose naked rituals we get to check out.
Things change for The Love Witch when she meets a no-nonsense detective who isn't falling hard for her charms the way that other men have. He's interested, but he's not head-over-heels obsessed with her which only makes her fall harder for him.
As I said, this film earned her a lot of respect and acclaim. She was even invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. So she has definitely made it! She has everyone dying to see what she does next.
It's clear to see why people are so enthralled by her. Biller has such a gorgeous aesthetic. She loves bright colors, pleasing visuals, and sensuality that oozes excitement in every single shot. I also love how much she celebrates female sexuality. She did not shy away from showing hot naked women who want to explore their deepest desires. From the sexploitation send-up Viva to the satire The Love Witch, her work dances in between comedy and sex while making poignant commentary on sexual attraction.
Sex is so important to Biller. She has even said, "Film is like sex. Film fulfills all my expectations, all my fetishes. Video doesn't satisfy anything for me. If I couldn't work on film anymore, I would just go back to painting or writing, or writing music. I'd just stop making films." Thank goodness for her film fetish!
Anna Biller is currently working on a new project based on Bluebeard. I can't wait to see what that is like!
