Jodie Foster – Hollywood Survivor – Jodie Foster – Hollywood dans la peau (2021)

Directed by: Camille Juza, Yal Sadat | 53 minutes | documentary

Alicia Christian Foster is known to the general public as Jodie Foster. The documentary ‘Jodie Foster – Hollywood Survivor’ (‘Jodie Foster – Hollywood dans la peau’) offers a chronological overview of her career as an actress, director and producer.

Foster (1962-) grew up in Hollywood, as the daughter of a divorced human rights activist, and made it from a six-year-old television star to one of Hollywood’s most successful film actresses. In films such as ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘The Accused’ and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ she made an impression as the paragon of a women’s struggle. First as a mother’s forward post (Foster earned the family income as a child from TV series and commercials); later on its own.

The smart Jodie attended the Lycée Français in Los Angeles and mastered the French language perfectly, which gave her an intellectual appearance. It is remarkable, however, that she was allowed to play a role as a child prostitute in ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976). Perhaps fitting in the 70s, but also taboo-breaking. The underage actress seemed to be coping well, until a Jodie-obsessed copycat of Travis Bickle attacked President Reagan.

After that event in 1981, Jodie stepped back from publicity. As an adult actress, she won an Oscar for her role in the rape drama ‘The Accused’ (1988). Once again, Foster broke a taboo—in the sluggish Hollywood of the 1980s, paving the way for more assertive female roles. ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991) even made a clean sweep at the Oscars – not a given at the time for a film with a female lead.

After 2000, her star dropped, and Foster became a champion of author films. She continued to steer her own course, embarrassing the LGBT movement. Foster never came out openly about her sexuality before 2007; later she was less loved by a friendship with the homophobia accused Mel Gibson. But the woman who was already earning the family income at the age of twelve was silent, and even dared to publicly piss off Scorsese. It’s been pretty quiet around Foster since then. She has been able to make her point for a quarter of a century.