For instance, he doesn\u2019t especially like the modern blockbuster: \u201cNow we\u2019re in the age of Marvel action films, people destroying entire cities on a whim, they\u2019re not particularly interesting to me.\u201d (But that didn\u2019t stop him making cameos in the two most recent Thor films, directed by fellow New Zealander Taika Waititi.) Or that \u201cthe great years of cinema were the 50s through to the 70s\u201d, which is, again, surprising, since in a career spanning 45 years, the golden age tapped out (according to him) after his fourth film in 1979, My Brilliant Career<\/a>. This was an absolutely epochal feminist masterpiece, which anyone of a certain vintage \u2013 50 \u2013 will remember because of how many times their mum made them watch it. \u201cIt was a film about women, made by women, and that was almost unheard of then. And rare enough today,\u201d he says. If you run the numbers, how many female antipodean directors made it big in the 20th century, and how many cast Neill as their leading man, you come back with \u201cboth of them\u201d (Gillian Armstrong and, of course, Jane Campion with The Piano, in 1993). When feminists all (both) like the same guy, it\u2019s usually because he\u2019s not a dick.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/9f1fd6e17351d32a62a6281eafad045fd62c57fd\/0_676_3648_2189\/master\/3648.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=46db30f42ca81002db06822a349f3395\" "\\"The")
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