Irish director Pat O'Connor, whose eighth feature "Dancing at Lughnasa" (starring Meryl Streep in full brogue) opens today, fancies himself a ladies' man. Rather than direct standard Hollywood fare, which favors testosterone-charged action pics to women-dominated dramas, O'Connor prefers films with strong female characters ("Lughnasa" is about five sisters). "What can I say? I like women," O'Connor tells EW Online. "I'm curious about the way they are less conformist and more unconventional than men. Men tend to stick with the status quo, since we created it. Women also have a better-refined sense of humor. No one enjoys a good dirty joke like a woman."

Having worked with Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren, and Susan Sarandon -- and invigorated the careers of Minnie Driver ("Circle of Friends") and Liv Tyler ("Inventing the Abbotts") -- it's not surprising that O'Connor was able to convince Streep and four top English and Irish actresses to do a bittersweet family drama set in a 1930s rural Irish town. "This story's about women, because they were the ones in rural communities who had to bear the burden of keeping the family together," O'Connor says. "Men often emigrated, but women were left with the difficulties and the responsibilities."

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