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Post by futuretrunks on Jan 23, 2021 2:16:17 GMT
She has a sort of jazzy spontaneity, but I can't say I saw genius in any of those clips. Certainly nothing like Huppert's paroxysms in The Piano Teacher. I need to feel the effect. That flash of a smile is easily replicated by any good actor, and isn't nearly as expressive as I was anticipating.
THIS, is genius:
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Post by RiverleavesElmius on Feb 4, 2021 1:46:08 GMT
She has a sort of jazzy spontaneity, but I can't say I saw genius in any of those clips. Certainly nothing like Huppert's paroxysms in The Piano Teacher. I need to feel the effect. That flash of a smile is easily replicated by any good actor, and isn't nearly as expressive as I was anticipating. THIS, is genius: Rowlands OWNS Huppert.
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Post by futuretrunks on Feb 4, 2021 2:24:23 GMT
She has a sort of jazzy spontaneity, but I can't say I saw genius in any of those clips. Certainly nothing like Huppert's paroxysms in The Piano Teacher. I need to feel the effect. That flash of a smile is easily replicated by any good actor, and isn't nearly as expressive as I was anticipating. THIS, is genius: Rowlands OWNS Huppert. Maybe. I can't get through enough Cassavetes films to find out. I doubt she has anything matching Huppert's Piano Teacher though, as I've seen 70% of A Woman Under the Influence and that isn't remotely as impressive.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2021 4:05:33 GMT
pacinoyes Mattsby - Might have to cross-post this in the "Great Actors Acknowledging Each Other" thread, but I just thought this really matched what was already said here. Here's Ben Whishaw on Gena Rowlands in W Magazine:
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 18, 2021 8:38:45 GMT
pacinoyes Mattsby - Might have to cross-post this in the "Great Actors Acknowledging Each Other" thread, but I just thought this really matched what was already said here. Here's Ben Whishaw on Gena Rowlands in W Magazine: ^ That's insightful and she has a quality many of these "genius" people in this thread have to some level - but her maybe most of all - people eventually figured her out after thinking about her a whole lot and came around to her, she never chased acclaim really. Everybody thinks of her in specific ways - has a unique story to tell about what they see in her work - so they relate to her far more emotionally and personally I think than most actors........there's no boring simple or trite narrative to Rowlands. She's a great antidote to what we talk about on here all the time (and I'm guilty of it too) and that's this (stupid) "culture of success" or "celebrating the success" of an actor instead of focusing on the actual work. Rowlands was almost totally aside from all of that - she barely made any theatrical films in her 30s/40s (the 60s/70s) - most weren't hits (putting it mildly), she never had a box office hot streak, was never even an Academy darling (2 nods), or any darling really (0 BAFTA nods!) her PEAK was acting for her husband (not that much in movies either!) and being a wife and mother....... The way she's remembered - and you routinely hear her referenced as an all-time great actress - has grown because of the films she made and how she presented her work - she's a complete opposite to that typical "successful" Hollywood actress/actor success arc.........she's's Punk Rock really (my highest compliment )
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2021 13:42:36 GMT
pacinoyes - I so love your writing, but especially when you're writing about Gena Rowlands. I would say that she's an Emmy favorite - 8 nominations and 3 wins - she also has a Daytime Emmy (for acting!). She's my mom's favorite primarily because of her TV work - The Color of Love: Jacey's Story is a family favorite (filmed in NC!) - Rowlands' maternal roles are just so heart-rending and beautiful. I have to say that, with this Whishaw quote, this is the first time I've ever seen a "thoroughbred"-type English actor cite her as a favorite (of course Blanchett loves her, cites her as her acting inspiration, and presented her with her Honorary Oscar, but she's Australian). I mean... could you see Rowlands doing something like Chekhov or Shakespeare?
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 18, 2021 14:56:30 GMT
pacinoyes - I so love your writing, but especially when you're writing about Gena Rowlands. I would say that she's an Emmy favorite - 8 nominations and 3 wins - she also has a Daytime Emmy (for acting!). She's my mom's favorite primarily because of her TV work - The Color of Love: Jacey's Story is a family favorite (filmed in NC!) - Rowlands' maternal roles are just so heart-rending and beautiful. I have to say that, with this Whishaw quote, this is the first time I've ever seen a "thoroughbred"-type English actor cite her as a favorite (of course Blanchett loves her, cites her as her acting inspiration, and presented her with her Honorary Oscar, but she's Australian). I mean... could you see Rowlands doing something like Chekhov or Shakespeare? Thanx Tyler - Well, I dunno but part of Rowlands whole assessment of talent was like Ullman - who to me is her closest actress type in many ways - both either held back or a career made by a single director and in the same-ish era ..............where people always had to guess or assume both of their limitations. Like you never got to see the full acting breadth of Rowlands in Cassavetes - though you saw a type she played spectacularly - so people maybe see her (and Ullman) as only "the crazy/suffering/breakdown lady" for a stretch ......... could Ullman do comedy is the same kind of shorthand criticism - possibly correct, maybe false - because there weren't much laughs in Bergman so it's an unknown........and these are two GOAT level actresses being short-handed like that in ways that are logical and maybe unfair also. Often you don't really know until later in a career - if I was assessing Paul Newman in 1967 it would be harsher than I would later - he seems far more limited to me than he exhibits later on - Butch Cassidy, The Sting and Slap Shot......... like when did he get funny? (He has it earlier at times but he improves on it subsequently imo) Was he great at it?........well he was good enough .....but he'd never do Shakespeare or Chekhov and we'll never know if he could have. But by not doing it - it's a question mark to some extent ..........although he didn't fail at it either.......that's the opposite of the Olivier acting approach - which was do EVERYTHING, try it all, you're an actor so ACT.......the misses don't matter, the hits matter and if you hit in something people thought you CAN'T do.......well that's like hitting the actor's jackpot.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2021 15:12:29 GMT
pacinoyes - That's definitely true, and I think it's often really difficult to compare actors to each other unless they literally played the exact same role in separate productions. I guess it was just so intriguing to me that Ben Whishaw would cite Gena Rowlands as his favorite actress rather than say, Helen Mirren or Diana Rigg - these other English "thoroughbreds" who can basically do "anything" - as Whishaw definitely fits their mold - does that make sense? Rowlands is incredible, but I definitely see her as more niche - and again, that's probably unfair to her, it's just based off of what we've seen her do. I think you will love reading this profile of Charlotte Rampling in the Financial Times - (another more niche actress who was given the chance to show her range with Cacoyannis' The Cherry Orchard - a role she won over "thoroughbreds" Mirren and Glenn Close): That's Rowlands to me, also. Anyway, love discussing this kind of thing with you! Hopefully I haven't taken up too much of your time.
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Post by MsMovieStar on Feb 18, 2021 17:47:48 GMT
pacinoyes @tyler Oh honeys you're always having these conversations about Gena without me! I like to talk about Gena as well... I don't think she worked much when she was younger because as well as raising children (Cassavetes being of Greek heritage was very traditional about a woman's place) and her marriage to Cassavetes was quite idiosyncratic and at times difficult. Somebody said that each thought the other was crazy: he once re-mortgaged the family home to make a movie (Rowlands was furious and threatened to divorce him), while she once walked into a room with a piano, sat and started playing it beautiful and Cassavetes totally flipped because after 10 years of marriage, she'd never mentioned that she could play. I don't think it was an easy marriage or the bed of roses most of us imagine... and then of course there was the drinking... that ultimately killed him. Ray Carney, one of the Cassavetes biographers said in an interview that Rowlands could be difficult and often quite guarded when discussing Cassavetes. My favourite performance of Rowlands is as Mildred in Unhook the Stars. It's a movie that deals with so many issues about being a woman, especially an older woman or widow like Mildred and being a mother and not being a mother. It's also a movie about disappointment. I may be wrong but I think it was a role that was quite personal to her. Rowlands performance in that is sublime. It is much less showey than the work she did with Cassavetes. I wonder what both your thoughts are on that movie?
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 18, 2021 19:38:07 GMT
pacinoyes @tyler Oh honeys you're always having these conversations about Gena without me! I like to talk about Gena as well... My favourite performance of Rowlands is as Mildred in Unhook the Stars. It's a movie that deals with so many issues about being a woman, especially an older woman or widow like Mildred and being a mother and not being a mother. It's also a movie about disappointment. I may be wrong but I think it was a role that was quite personal to her. Rowlands performance in that is sublime. It is much less showey than the work she did with Cassavetes. I wonder what both your thoughts are on that movie? The movie is so-so but it's crucial in her career I think - it's kind of a must see. It gives her a chance to do a lot of different things as an actress that go outside of her famous earlier work actually or even the good/greatish work she did in the late 80s/early 90s : She has to act across a lot of different types of characters and familial relationships - which didn't often happen as much in Cassavetes films which often were more 1 on 1 .......... and she interacts with Depardieu who was like #5 or #6 on my all-time GOAT list ...........I mean DDL was like or 8th or 9th - fight me MAR!! This movie and Another Woman give her a chance to modulate what she's doing and also to interact a little with an all-time great actor (it's Hackman in Another Woman) - which she never got to do much by working with the Cassavetes regulars mostly. Also Unhook The Stars has something you almost never see in American movies but see all the time in foreign films - where people EXPECT a certain behavior from a character and she has to navigate how she plays to those expectations that she knows about but maybe we don't. American movies never do this - people just "are" with no subtle pressures on them which is.......... ridiculous and false. So that aspect gives her a lot of room to layer Mildred and play scenes that are functioning gently in multiple small ways at once and give us small clues or details about her.
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Post by MsMovieStar on Feb 18, 2021 20:59:38 GMT
pacinoyes @tyler Oh honeys you're always having these conversations about Gena without me! I like to talk about Gena as well... My favourite performance of Rowlands is as Mildred in Unhook the Stars. It's a movie that deals with so many issues about being a woman, especially an older woman or widow like Mildred and being a mother and not being a mother. It's also a movie about disappointment. I may be wrong but I think it was a role that was quite personal to her. Rowlands performance in that is sublime. It is much less showey than the work she did with Cassavetes. I wonder what both your thoughts are on that movie? The movie is so-so but it's crucial in her career I think - it's kind of a must see. It gives her a chance to do a lot of different things as an actress that go outside of her famous earlier work actually or even the good/greatish work she did in the late 80s/early 90s : She has to act across a lot of different types of characters and familial relationships - which didn't often happen as much in Cassavetes films which often were more 1 on 1 .......... and she interacts with Depardieu who was like #5 or #6 on my all-time GOAT list ...........I mean DDL was like or 8th or 9th - fight me MAR!! This movie and Another Woman give her a chance to modulate what she's doing and also to interact a little with an all-time great actor (it's Hackman in Another Woman) - which she never got to do much by working with the Cassavetes regulars mostly. Also Unhook The Stars has something you almost never see in American movies but see all the time in foreign films - where people EXPECT a certain behavior from a character and she has to navigate how she plays to those expectations that she knows about but maybe we don't. American movies never do this - people just "are" with no subtle pressures on them which is.......... ridiculous and false. So that aspect gives her a lot of room to layer Mildred and play scenes that are functioning gently in multiple small ways at once and give us small clues or details about her. Oh honey, that a really astute observation about the foreign movies. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe that is why I like it so much. I forgot about Another Woman, one of my favorite Woody Allen movies. I've seen that movie so many times. I also loved her vignette on Night on Earth (everybody wants to be a movie star!). Which are your favorite performances?
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 18, 2021 21:32:38 GMT
The movie is so-so but it's crucial in her career I think - it's kind of a must see. It gives her a chance to do a lot of different things as an actress that go outside of her famous earlier work actually or even the good/greatish work she did in the late 80s/early 90s : She has to act across a lot of different types of characters and familial relationships - which didn't often happen as much in Cassavetes films which often were more 1 on 1 .......... and she interacts with Depardieu who was like #5 or #6 on my all-time GOAT list ...........I mean DDL was like or 8th or 9th - fight me MAR!! This movie and Another Woman give her a chance to modulate what she's doing and also to interact a little with an all-time great actor (it's Hackman in Another Woman) - which she never got to do much by working with the Cassavetes regulars mostly. Also Unhook The Stars has something you almost never see in American movies but see all the time in foreign films - where people EXPECT a certain behavior from a character and she has to navigate how she plays to those expectations that she knows about but maybe we don't. American movies never do this - people just "are" with no subtle pressures on them which is.......... ridiculous and false. So that aspect gives her a lot of room to layer Mildred and play scenes that are functioning gently in multiple small ways at once and give us small clues or details about her. Oh honey, that a really astute observation about the foreign movies. I hadn't thought of that. Maybe that is why I like it so much. I forgot about Another Woman, one of my favorite Woody Allen movies. I've seen that movie so many times. I also loved her vignette on Night on Earth (everybody wants to be a movie star!). Which are your favorite performances?I love all the Cassavetes stuff - and also Night on Earth, Another Woman too - but one that really sticks with me is Minnie and Moskowitz because it's so.............weird .........first of all, she's the stable one (!) and she plays all around romantic comedy tropes without softening her character or dumbing it down and yet you're still not sure you wouldn't question almost EVERYTHING she does in this movie. It's not her "best" performance but I really love it, it's like watching someone juggle plates and bowling bowls and cats simultaneously ....also the TV movie Hysterical Blindness with Uma Thurman and Juliette Lewis I love that one too - where she gets to play tough but fragile, her specialty really.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 19, 2021 0:57:41 GMT
MsMovieStar - Oh honey, yes, I love ‘Unhook the Stars’ and Rowlands’ performance in it.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 24, 2021 14:12:57 GMT
MsMovieStarTennessee Williams on Gena Rowlands:"We have to be witnesses to each other—all of us—but particularly among artists... I believe in loyalty toward those who have given so much to our lives without the benefit of social or sexual intercourse—artists who have endowed us with their souls. We must be loyal to them. Show them respect. Spread the word. Be a witness. I'll give you a list, and the first name is that of Gena Rowlands." Sidney Lumet on Gena Rowlands:“The highest compliment I can pay to her—to anyone—is that the talent frightens me, making me aware of the lack of it in so many and the power that accrues to those who have it and use it well. And the talent educates and illuminates. She is admirable, which can be said of only a few of us.”
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Post by MsMovieStar on Feb 24, 2021 14:29:31 GMT
MsMovieStar Tennessee Williams on Gena Rowlands:"We have to be witnesses to each other—all of us—but particularly among artists... I believe in loyalty toward those who have given so much to our lives without the benefit of social or sexual intercourse—artists who have endowed us with their souls. We must be loyal to them. Show them respect. Spread the word. Be a witness. I'll give you a list, and the first name is that of Gena Rowlands." Sidney Lumet on Gena Rowlands:“The highest compliment I can pay to her—to anyone—is that the talent frightens me, making me aware of the lack of it in so many and the power that accrues to those who have it and use it well. And the talent educates and illuminates. She is admirable, which can be said of only a few of us.”
Oh honey, when did Tenn work with Gena? I thought his muse was the great Anna Magnani. (There really should be a genuflection emoji for every time I write her name).
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 24, 2021 16:06:06 GMT
Sidney Lumet on Gena Rowlands:“The highest compliment I can pay to her—to anyone—is that the talent frightens me, making me aware of the lack of it in so many and the power that accrues to those who have it and use it well. And the talent educates and illuminates. She is admirable, which can be said of only a few of us.” This is pretty big praise because at least to my knowledge Lumet was very stingy with his praise of actors - and he's considered by many to be THE greatest director of film actors. I've read a lot of interviews with him and for the life of me I can't recall him dumbing it down - like he never says "oh they are great" or platitudes like that.......and he's not always nice even to Brando who obviously loves. There's a famous clip where he talks about Brando on Dick Cavett and how Brando eventually "gave up" that is one of the most fascinating insights into "Why" that is that you'll ever hear. The way Lumet sees acting - and he was an actor himself as a young boy even, is fascinating. Like Hitchcock would have been like "what are you talking about?"
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Post by Deleted on Feb 25, 2021 3:06:36 GMT
Because she deserves her own post.
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 7, 2021 21:02:52 GMT
Pretty cool discussion (2009) with Cage advocating for "acting as Art" and Freeman for "it's a craft" and the others chiming in with their POV - less than 4 minutes.
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Post by ibbi on Sept 7, 2021 22:34:34 GMT
I feel more inclined these days to feel the Hitchcock way. The trouble with declaring actors (on screen anyway, on stage is a different matter) genius is that... I mean it's all on whatever take is selected. Some GENIUS take (more than one even) might have been left on the cutting room floor, and how the hell would we ever know?
Jessica Alba might have had 50 different ingenious takes of her walking into the pole scene from Good Luck Chuck she got to do just for her, and the director might have gone with the 1 he got just to be on the safe side.
Any actor who spends a significant amount of time acting is likely to do plenty of run of the mill, ordinary work. Genius in screen thesping is likely to be displayed in a handful of small moments, and who the hell knows how many takes, or how much direction it took to get them there? It might have been an accident, it might have been someone elses idea.
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Post by pacinoyes on Mar 22, 2022 18:22:12 GMT
......any American female besides Streep? I mean... Did you really have to ask? When speaking of Close and Pacino, journalist Christopher Hootan had this to say: "They're a little scary to be around, because you feel they might jump you or blow up at you at any time. They are ticking time bombs." The New York Times went even further when reviewing her performance in Damages: "There is no actor dead or alive as scary as a smiling Glenn Close." This has to be the "Adam Driver Career Day on SNL" of its time - and opposite the Master Thespian himself no less.........
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Post by Deleted on Mar 22, 2022 18:32:03 GMT
pacinoyes - Impeccable comedic timing from Glenn!
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Post by flasuss on Mar 22, 2022 22:12:47 GMT
ACTING!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2022 3:01:17 GMT
"Glenn is charming, empathetic and warm-hearted. At the same time, she is a master at playing hard, ambitious characters. The contrasted background draws attention to this paradox. Looking through the lens at Glenn Close feels like a direct line back to Hollywood stars of the past such as Joan Crawford. Intense discipline and focus to succeed." - Simon Annand, who photographed Close as she starred in the London revival of 'Sunset Blvd.' as part of a series on British theater for The Independent.
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