Women as Directors

I was struck by the irony of Peter Rainer’s commentary on the death of David Lean, in which he says: “A master director offers up a way of seeing, and when he dies, that way of seeing goes with him.” (“The Greatest Movies Never Made,” April 25).

By talking about master directors in male terms only, he implies, perhaps unwittingly, that this category cannot include women. Unfortunately, women’s ways of seeing are even more rarely brought to the screen, and this is a much larger loss than the one Rainer addresses. It certainly has a greater impact on our culture.

I understand that Rainer’s subject was not women’s lack of access to the director’s chair, but his language, on the most general level, indicates that he doesn’t even consider the two problems related.

ANNE SCHWARZ

San Diego