Actress Files: The Morning After
Who else woke up early and bleary-eyed? Hopefully not for the sole reason that the Garland piece was so long that it kept you up all night. Compared to several of the other pieces, and certainly to the performance, I admit to being disappointed in what I turned out in the time I had. Maybe, à la the film, I'll have to mercilessly chop big portions of unnecessary text and just replace them with still photos! When, one day in the future, it's possible to pick this project back up and revisit some of the performances I'd already seen a while ago, I'll wrestle with the problem of why it's so much harder to comment on the very best ones without just sinking into descriptive reverie. But Star Is Born fans everywhere can hopefully relate to that temptation. Now that I've fixed the initial snafu that was prohibiting comments on the Garland post, you can tell me so. Or, if you're finding that one of the pieces has especially lingered with you, I'd love to know which one.
Two more things: in the even more distant future, I'll probably develop some combo of the year profiles and these longer individual performance reviews as a proposal for a complete, printed book. Concrete evidence that an audience exists for that book would be a huge asset, so if you can imagine buying such a thing, and you're just dying to know what I've got to say about everything from Meryl Streep's Sophie to Ali MacGraw's "never having to say you're sorry," please leave a comment on this post or else e-mail me here. Meanwhile, Blogger has made their archiving protocols even less user-friendly than they formerly were, so this page is the easiest place to have a look back through where we've been since April, if you ever get the hankering.
I have wanted to see all of these performances since falling head over heels for the first two that ever crossed my path—Marlee Matlin in Children of a Lesser God and Sigourney Weaver in Aliens, both when I was in the fourth grade. So, I'm really excited to have capped off that recreational goal, and I definitely feel ready to move on to some other projects. You know how Faye looks in this famous, wonderful photo from the morning after she won her Oscar—like she finally got what she wanted, but a day later, she's already immersed in a strange combination of satisfaction, skepticism, and fatigue? I'm kind of in the same place. Derek and I decided to commemorate the moment—he is represented by the camera flash in the screen of my no-it's-not-a-flatscreen TV—and we hereby officially invite Faye to come have tea with us.
For now, thanks to everyone who has read so loyally and commented so generously on these Actress posts! Blogging definitely won't be daily for the rest of the summer, and posts will take some different turns when they do crop up. For one, I'm eager to talk up whole films and not just performances for a while—hopefully, some good ones will pop up that are worth the effort, but I won't be surprised, or sad, if I wind up diving into the vault to find some inspiration. Happy actressing, everyone!
Labels: Best Actress, Site Features
posted by NicksFlickPicks at 5:00 AM
58 Comments:
lol, those two pictures just made my day!
I would surely be interested in such a book but since I am not from the US, I don't know if I am your key audience.
Again, congratulations on the project!
Funny, I just commented on the possibility of said book in the Garland comments...
So, to make it clear - such a book would be up there with David Thomson's 'Biographical Dictionary of Film' and 'Have You Seen...' and Mark Harris's 'Scenes from a Revolution' as fantasy film books that actually come into existence. It would sit next to them on my shelf with dog-eared, well-thumbed pages. I want to have it in my hands right now, and its non-existence is bringing on a Veruca Salt level red-faced tantrum.
As to favourite pieces - I think the laurels maybe have to go to your piece on Hepburn in 'The Nun's Story', where you not only have to write on a performance you love, but one that is so restrained and so minimalist that it is easier to talk about what isn't there than what is. You did a magnificent job. And if I may demur, and repeat myself from the Garland comments, I think five star reviews bring out the best in your writing. Snarky dismissal is the bread and butter of so many critics, particularly online, but they have such a hard time communicating what works for them, what moves them. There's no snarky dismissal in your negative reviews (not even of Sarah Miles in 'Ryan's Daughter', which must have been an effort of will), but your ability to write about what you love is your greatest strength. If those pieces also display the greatest shortfall between what you wanted to communicate and what they actually say, then that may just be the price of really loving these performances.
To repeat - a round of applause for gentleman passed out on his keyboard.
I would buy a copy of the book every time i met another actressexual and give it as a Hello New Friend gift. And I would buy a copy for every 5 star actress that I also think is 5 star and ship it to her management.
and I'd keep four copies for myself. One signed by you. One for note taking. One to keep in pristine condition. And the final one to use as bludgeoning device should i ever meet an Academy member who doesn't take their voting in this category seriously.
I would buy it! I have been a faithful reader of your blog for several years now, and I love your writing and analysis. I agree with the previous post that you write beautifully and with care about the performances you (and I) love and that you are never mean to performers (like Pauline Kael often was-whom I also love-but she could be so cruel to actresses). I have another book project for you because I also loved your career reviews of Streep, Christie, etc. Several of those brought tears to my eyes because you described so well what I felt about these actresses. Thank you!!
Nick, congratulations on this major accomplishment! I'm glad it ended on a major high note (no pun intended). I'd buy your book in a heartbeat. If Faye ever blesses you with her presence, just remember to NOT discuss Mommie Dearest in any way (lol)!
All right, I really can't beat Nathaniel's comment, but I would own at least two copies of this book, and would buy one for my equally Oscar-crazed brother. This would be amazing, and I also love the photo-always a good thing, drowning in a sea of actresses.
Congratulations Nick!!!
I'd buy a few copies too, obviously.
Haha! Love the photos! That Faye still really is an iconic one.
I'd definitely buy the book, and I'm sure that many others would too. It would encourage Actressexuals to follow in your footsteps, which is never a bad thing.
Congratulations; this series has really been such a treat. That photo of you a la Faye is hilarious; love the prominent placement of "Frances," "The Story of Adele H," "Woman Under the Influence," and what look like Katharine Hepburn obits.
For some reason, I most remember your piece on Rachel Roberts in "This Sporting Life." I saw that movie a long time ago and barely remember it; your description of what she's doing and what she could be doing is so vivid that I feel like I've seen it again, and loved it, just by reading about it. You made me want to see "The Whisperers" again, too.
Of course I'd love to buy and read a book like this, devoted to close-reading analysis of these performances. Writing of this caliber needs to be preserved, for all the people who would enjoy it (and especially for the new 4th grader actressexuals we once were, of course).
i just realized i could enlarge the photo by clickin on it. I am seeing MAJOR art direction going on to please yourself and your actress-happy friends. Thanks for making sure that Pfeiffer is sticking out of a drawer for me!
Nick, my hat is off to you. I've been too buried to properly comment on the entries, but I've been so delighted to find one waiting for me every time I fire up my laptop in the morning. Your talent shames me, friend.
As for the book: Yes! I would so buy multiple copies; at the very least one for home and one for office.
If there ever was a book, I would preach its contents like gospel.
It MUST happen Nick!
Oh and I LOVE your desktop wallpaper Nick, haha. :)
@Fritz: You are part of my "key audience" whether or not you live in the U.S., and whether or not I ever write the book.
@Laika: The Hepburn piece was maybe my favorite to write, since I admired the work so much and it took me so completely by surprise. So I'm glad to hear it was especially resonant for you, too! I got a very nice note from someone whom I still owe a response who knew Fred Zinnemann near the end of his life, who says Zinnemann didn't at all anticipate having any of his films remembered by anyone in the generations that grew up after he passed away. If he only knew! (Thanks, too, for the other very nice compliments.)
@Nathaniel: You would deserve multiple publisher's copies, since you've been around for so much of this and at the heart of the project in so many ways.
@PJ1: Thanks so much! Those career retrospectives are some of my favorite writing, too, and it's part of what I'm most looking forward to now: getting off the Oscar track and seeing how my sense of some "familiar" figures might change once I start clocking performances that Oscar didn't pick up on. Obviously, that makes a huge difference for most of the important actresses working today—imagine knowing Cate Blanchett only through the two Elizabeth films!—so this will be a treat, and hopefully will yield more essays like the ones you point to.
@CCW: I actually think Mommie Dearest is pretty nervy filmmaking, so I'd have to bring it up, since she ought to hear from some of its faaaaaaaaaaans.....
I already said my piece in the previous thread, but just so you can show any potential publishers an advance sales list as long as your arm, put me down for several copies too. All for myself, of course -- I tend to wear my favourite volumes out.
@John: "Drowning in a Sea of Actresses" - is this your bid for the title of the book? Thanks to you, for keeping up through the last many, many, many of these well before this spring.
@Julien: Merci encore!
@Cal: That would be an important goal of a book, if I wrote it. Getting my own students to rent and screen more excitedly from movies made before they were born, and that they may not have heard of from the AFI or the IMDB Top 250, is always one of my big classroom goals. It's the biggest purpose that Oscar history served for me, so I'd have to find a way to repay that favor.
@Dan: The 4th-grade actressexuals we once were - a positively Wordsworthian sentiment! I would have positioned Frances that prominently for myself, but believe me, I had you in mind, too, as I did a few other people in the way other movies got arranged. And I'm so glad you like the Roberts piece! That was a tricky one for me as I prepared it, so it's very gratifying to hear.
@Nathaniel: Bien sûr! As we're always reminding people, productions don't design themselves! I knew you'd "get" this photo more than anyone, probably, and no way was Pfeiffer getting hid under a bushel. Love Field is just three DVDs down from The Piano by my feet, though I'm sorry my Linney-autographed You Can Count on Me just barely conceals Mme de Tourvel.
@Joe: I already don't think you sleep at all among your job and your TV watching and all your writing, so I'm touched you even kept up with these. Thanks!
@JAR: I don't think that wallpaper is ever leaving my desktop. There was some entertaining of having the original Faye photo on the computer, but she got outvoted by the other 204 ladies. (That's right, statistics queens: 205 actresses, 408 performances, so it works out almost perfectly that Best Actress contenders average two nominations piece, even though the median is obviously 1, by a large margin.)
Joining with the crowd, Nick, I would definitely buy multiple copies of your book -- and, as many people testify here, I'd already mentioned to several friends how much I wished you would turn it into a book. Yours has been a fantastic project superbly done and I'd like to be the first person in line to buy your book. Congratulations on a stupendous -- and stupendously entertaining -- achievement.
I would buy the book for sure - and thank you for this series and your whole site in general, as i discovered many masterpieces I would have never watched if it weren't for your articles.
Rise - and consider yourself dubbed The Greatest Knight In The Realm - this particular realm being the Land of Actress Appreciation. Thank you, Sir Galahad, for all the illumination and excitement. Week after week, it's been a joy to revel in this particularly generous burst of brilliant, penetrating prose. And, of course, add me to the long list of people yearning to hold that book in their hands.
Congratulations, Now I'm expecting for the movie version, Nick and the Flicks
And I'm sure if such a book came to manifest, every actress and actressexual both latent and profound in Hollywood would hound you for the film rights.
Julie & Julia got nothing on this project!
I haven't commented for a while, mostly because I haven't seen any of the performances in question (one day!), but I should say congratulations! and yes, I would absolutely buy that book. Of course, I'd buy any book you put out, but still ...
Now, I'm just counting down the days until "A Star Is Born" plays at my Cinematheque as part of the James Mason tribute. Thanks for getting me all excited.
@Guy: My goal for such a book would be to record my impressions without leading to insufferable narcissism...
@Robert: Thanks so much! If you're the Robert I think you might be, I still owe you a response to a truly heartwarming e-mail.
@Adelutza: I'm always curious about your opinions on these films and performances, so I'm so glad you've been reading along.
@Ken: You're so generous to knight me, when we all know you're the Merlin. I've never gleaned so many out-of-the-way or against-the-grain recommendations from anyone, which will figure even more largely in my post-Oscar renting. Keep 'em coming!
@John and @JAR: I love the idea of a movie version. Do you think Amy Adams will play me? Maybe I should have made the boeuf bourgignon to savor while I took in the Garland...
@Lev: A James Mason tribute in your 'hood! This is too good to pass up.
@Nick -- and don't think i didn't notice the prominence you gave BRIDGET JONES since you're quoted on that dvd! ;)
also, I don't think AMY ADAMS should play you. We need an actress that could properly convey your intelligence as well as your joy.
@Everyone: So flattered and moved to see such nice write-ups about this project's completion from two of its ongoing inspirations and cheerleaders, Nathaniel and Guy. Thanks, chums!
As a truly gratuitous bonus, here is an illustrated guide to all of that production design, care of me, Cedric Gibbons, and Stuart Craig.
@Nathaniel: Ouch! Let's hope Amy doesn't read that! Did you just watch Leap Year or something?
I love that photo of you! It makes me wonder: Have you ever done anything lazily? So much creativity, attention to detail and great skin (Seriously, where you touched by Meryl?)!
If you write it and it becomes available in Greece, I'm bying it. And I'll force all my non-film fanatics but fluent in English friends to read it too!
OMG. That gratuitous illustrated guide is my new favorite thing of today. And today has had so many favorite things already!
YAY
Rosario Dawson then? You know she loves it every time she's onscreen which is a prerequisite reaction since actressexual seeing an actress onscreen is the equivalent of physical activity releasing endorphins.
And Nick, would it possible to get a copy of your desktop wallpaper? It would be nothing less than motivating to everyday wake up, sit down, open my laptop and be greeted by 205 women all daring me to write something worthy of them to compete for throughout the cinematic ages.
@James T: I cannot even pretend to claim great skin, but you're very kind. I think I have maxed out my quota of compliments for 2010 already, but this edges things toward the science-fictional.
@Nathaniel: I thought you'd get a kick out of this.
@JAR: Not sure I follow re: Rosario Dawson. As for the image, it's already up on the site, so I can't control what you might do with it!
That illustrated guide is immediately my new desktop wallpaper, replacing a particularly seductive still from Raging Sun, Raging Sky. Only you could achieve this. That's all.
I'd buy several copies of said book. One for myself and one for the person sitting next to me on the train who would inevitably ask "what book are you reading?" and I'd be able to pull it and of my bad and give them a copy.
See, I'd love to see what you have to say on performances like the ones you mentioned. Why do I get the feeling you wouldn't like Matlin if you watched Children of a Lesser God today?
It was such a fantastic project. I hope you're not having a sort of survivors guilt type of deal! You got through the project generally unscathed (...generally...) and I hope you had a hard drink and big sleep afterwards.
You should set up an online petition for people to sign for the book deal.
I promise to you, I opened up your blog today with the sole purpose of telling you that all of these write-ups ought to be collected in a book. I was gonna put this in the comments section of the Judy Garland post (which I read yesterday but I was in too much awe at the event to muster up an adequate comment). And then I read your post, and thought, yaaay, it's gonna happen!
And if even I am excited about this book - me who works actively every day to incite a War on Terror against Ampass - that has to bode well for your commercial prospects.
Plus, I'll be buying the book as a present for every actress I know. And I know a LOT of actresses. And it is mandatory that every aspiring actress reads your book (and perhaps takes acting lessons from you). I've already started emailing links to your posts.
I meant Rosario Dawson to play you in the movie adaptation. Haha. :)
Holy DVD shelf! Looks like I'm terribly late to the party. Congratulations on this monumental achievement, and I'd surely be among the audience for your book (though this is a given, considering I have a file with your two queer-film papers and photocopies of your reviews in Fifty American Films). Amazed at your devotion to this project, at the calibre of your daily reviews, at your amassed DVD collection, at your set design and annotations of that capping photo. Massive cheers!
Holy Gena Rowlands! I haven't been commenting here lately due to a combination of exams/work/not having seen a majority of the films you've written up. But I've delighted in reading each entry as its appeared and now I'm in awe. That picture is hilarious and a wonderful cap to this monumental project. (Word of warning: Faye is an admirable role model in some respects, but don't emulate her too enthusiastially. I'd say your students would appreciate you being able to move your facial muscles in years to come.) Chalk me up as another definite book purchaser.
So glad to see everyone is joining the "Nick is great" train but I'll add my tuppence nonetheless. Though I'm all the way in Guyana I will buy that book somehow whenever it comes out. The reason it'd be so great is that even when your thoughts are completely different from us your ideas are always thoughtful and provocative (I mean I had more fun reading your entry on Susan Hayward than watching the movie). Of course the entry on Kate's Summertime stands out because it works so well as a stand-alone post and as a part of the whole and I did like the Ava Gardner one, though I never saw the movie.
PS. Whenever you do write this book (and don't tell us you won't) you should include those lovely ruminations on actresses like the one on Christie, and Lange and Thompson etc.
I'm a bit sad that we're at the end now (don't go disappearing on us completely).
@Tim: There is no photo I could stage that ought to be supplanting Raging Sun, Raging Sky. Don't deny yourself. And thanks so. much. for this article in the Daily Telegraph!
@Glenn: I agree that some of those personal pets and life-changers would be good to add the next time I'm supplementing this feature. Also some write-ups of recent performances that are as extensive as some of the older ones, since I didn't have anyone later than 1979 left to screen this time 'round. I have seen Children of a Lesser God again over the years, and while it cooled me on the movie (why does it keep blocking scenes so that you can't read the sign language?), I think Matlin is very good, especially (but not only) for such a new film actor. I ought to write that one up, for sure. Thanks for being willing to buy the imaginary book, and even to spring it on strangers!
@Goran: I have to say, I really appreciate hearing this from you, because from all your comments over the years, I think of you as a tough customer, in the best way. I like your unabashed skepticism about the whole Oscar endeavor, and when you say you like something, you really seem to mean it. So, thanks for being so complimentary even about an "Ampass"-related compulsion!
@JAR: Well, that would just be typecasting, right? I think she was already sort of playing me in Sin City.
@Colin: My own file! You go to so much trouble to read everything; I so appreciate it. And I'll still look forward to a Welcome to Chicago screening, in not very long at all. (On the DVDs: Let's just say I don't update my wardrobe very often, don't have a car or a mortgage or an heir to think about, and I'd rather bargain-hunt for two used DVDs than eat something other than tuna for dinner.)
@Catherine: It is lovely to have you back, and I hope all those exams went well. "Holy Gena Rowlands" is a phrase I might have to purloin. And no, I promise not to become a sort of Giacometti elongation of myself any time soon. Brows were invented to be raised, and if anyone ought to know that, it's Evelyn Mulwray. Then again, if actors live by their faces the way writers live by their words, and if there were a collagen I could inject that would help me think of words besides "nonetheless," "however," "not only," "indeed," and "astonishing," I'd probably shoot it up every morning.
@A:EE: Amongst Guyana, Greece, Ireland, Germany, England, France, Singapore, Brazil, and Canada, with a very welcome dash of South African expatriate-ness, I'm feeling like this turned out to the World Cup of Best Actress! I didn't say so in the illustrated photo, but I'm sure you realize I had you in mind when I trotted out those "Remembering Kate" issues of People and USA Today for the set design. And I'm glad you're still dwelling on the Gardner piece! My idea for those body-of-work tributes would be that I might intersperse some at regular intervals in the book, the way the Time Out Film Guide interpolates page-long mini-essays about movies that, for whatever reason, are especially on the writers' minds in a given edition. We'll see.
Arriving late to the book party, but YES. Please sign me up for multiple copies... Your brilliant productivity of late has been inspiring (especially as I've been languishing in my own moribund rut).
Oh and I think I'm going to frame that picture of you and put it above my writing station...
@Lulu!: As I'm sure you can guess, I fully commiserate. Feeling productive about these posts in the early mornings and late evenings has powered me through feeling thwarted, baffled, and molasses slow during "other" writing processes in the rest of the day. We shall overcome! Hope it's summer already where you are. We're inching ever closer, sending all our love to whoever invented the quarter system.
Nick, can I ask what the future will bring for your blog now? Is there a new project planed? (Of course only after you get back all the energy that all these Oscar-nominated women took from you!)
I'd read any book you put out, so count another in the pro column.
Love the spoof pic. Didn't figure you for a "Once & Again" or "MADtv" fan--I thought you were anti-television! (Sorry, I get really nosy when somebody shows me their DVD collection, even virtually.)
I'm a tad late to the party, but congratulations on finishing this lengthy project! I have devoured every single article in the past two months, often staying up past my bedtime to get a peek at the newest one. Also, I'd buy a book like it was a Kathy Griffin autobiography (which I pre-ordered months in advance).
Yes, this should definitely be a book project, even with an introductory critical flourish to give it a place in the academic edifice in relation to stuff like Richard Dyer's "Stars."
Very late to the party. Congrats, Nick! Since the majority of Oscar-related material consists of fluff pieces aimed at the Van Johnson set or tacky gossip aimed at the Michael Musto crowd, your write-ups and rankings have been really refreshing, even when you disparage my personal goddesses. I'd love to see them compiled into a book.
@Nick: Ditto about Mommie Dearest, but it seems to be a completely off-limit topic in the world of Faye. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RIxgeDSRRM
I've been rediscovering Gena Rowlands works, and she is one of my all time favorite actresses.
Definitely a chapter devoted to her film career is a must for your book.
How about the title. "Screen Divas"?
You can count on my financial contribution supporting a publication spotlighting the best actresses ever to grace the big screen.
Nick, mega hairy muscle hugs of thanks for making my movie viewing pleasurable with your always insightful commentary.
I'd buy this book, and then give it to everybody in my circle of friends and family for Christmas.. It's never too late to start learning about the Oscars!
Definitely, I'd buy the book! I am an avid reader of your website, and I always enjoy the insight, the wit, the passion that you put into your writings. And damn, watching every nominated actress's work is just plain impressive. Amazing!
Please write this book, Nick. Thank you. :D
You must write this book, your intelligence illuminates the march through time of these cinematic milestones
WRITE THE BOOK.
Signed... Nick Duval
Congratulations on completing this monumental task!
I have a few questions for you:
Out of the 408 performances, which do you think are the ten best? Which do you think are the ten worst?
Is it too late for me to comment on some of the performance reviews?
@Everyone: Very, very kind encouragement. Hope it's not too long before I'll be able to move forward with this plan.
@Matt: Fair questions, but I need to save some content like that for the book in mind. Can't be giving away all the features of the book in advance, but you'll get the answer to these questions eventually!
I'm so amazed by this whole project, and the prospect of a book about all of this is tasty.
By the way, I'm just really curious -- how many stars would you give Winona Ryder in "Little Women"? I know she's your pick from the (incredibly weak field of) nominees that year, but she isn't on your Great Losers list. It's a performance I always waver on...
We were having a conversation last night about how we would read every book you produced. Absolutely an audience here.
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