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Showing posts with label The Big Chill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Big Chill. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Today is Glenn Close's birthday, I mean to give her a proper writeup since she's wonderful and all - but computer troubles abound - so, no time. I take a quick look at my five favourite performances of hers - she's so diverse an actress, even if it's often forgotten. I keep hoping she'll get the leading in Sunset Boulevard: The Musical, but I wager that she's definitely too old now. Shame. I can't wait for Damages to return, though, at least I'll be able to see her semi-regularly. She's got so many Emmy's and so many Tony's and yet that damned Oscar keeps eluding her. Ah well.
Claire Wellington in The Stepford Wives (2004)
Queen Gertrude in Hamlet (1990)
Sarah Cooper in The Big Chill (1983)
Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (1987)
“You play fair with me, I'll play fair with you.”
Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
Pick a favourite.
Tuesday, 24 August 2010
I'm feeling ridiculously tired at the moment, and really the possibilites are endless (I sense a series of post imminent on this topic). Nonetheless, the ones that came to mind first...
Beautiful Profundity
The English Patient: “Betrayals during war are childlike compared to betrayals during peace. New lovers are warm and tender, but smash everything…for the heart is an organ of fire.”
The Lion in Winter: “Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war: not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing. We are the killers. We breed wars. We carry it like syphilis inside. Dead bodies rot in field and stream because the living ones are rotten. For the love of God, can't we love one another just a little - that's how peace begins. We have so much to love each other for. We have such possibilities, my children. We could change the world.”
Brilliant One-Liners
The Philadelphia Story: “This is the Voice of Doom calling. Your days are numbered, to the seventh son of the seventh son.”
The Big Chill: “I don't know anyone who could get through the day without two or three juicy rationalizations. They're more important than sex.”
Gosford Park: “I'm the perfect servant; I have no life.”
Useable in Everyday Life
There’s a scene in The English Patient when Ralph Fiennes’ patient turns to Juliette Binoche’s Nurse – Hana. “Did you know Herodotus is the father of all history.” She responds glibly, “I don’t know anything.” The line itself is nothing of brilliance, but Binoche’s line reading has stuck with me since…I use it quite often with the same inflection. It's true.
All for the MEME.
Sunday, 22 August 2010
Really the possibilities are endless because those final moments in a film are often quite striking. The Big Chill came to mind almost immediately. “We're not leaving. We're never leaving.” – those are the final words of the film (said by Jeff Goldblum), and taking into consideration the two hours that have gone before we don’t really want to leave either. In fact, the words could be taken into account for any good movie – we never really want to leave it. When Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn part in The Lion in Winter we get the sense that the journey’s not over yet even though the credits roll. Both Eleanor and Henry still have a significant amount of fight left in them. As Eleanor says, “I hope we never die!” I remember the end of Atonement with sadness – not Vanessa’s monologue but the imagined ending of Robbie and Cecilia on the beach. It’s my favourite shot in the film, that ending – and it’s not real.
If there’s something Joe Wright does that’s significant with Atonement’s end it’s the lack of speech. It doesn’t end with a tongue-in-cheek line or a pithy remark. It’s a series of images that makes it good, like the brilliance of Stephen Frears with the ending in Dangerous Liaisons. That final shot of her in the mirror frantically cleaning her face will never NOT be haunting.
In the end, I settle on the inspirational ending. I’m thoroughly fond of On the Waterfront and even though Kazan’s intention seems the slightest bit sugary I still love it. Malloy has testified in court against Johnny Friendly and he heads down to the waterfront to line up with the men. He gets beat up, roughly so, and he gets up – bloody and broken – to stand up with the men. It works for many reasons – Kazan doesn’t shy away from the brutal, Brando is just brilliant and Lee J. Cobb’s dastardly mob boss in the background all combines to make this the final scene that I consider a favourite.
This is all for the MEME.
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
I always look back in surprise that The Big Chill did so well at the 1983 Oscars. In addition to the Supporting Actress nomination for Glenn Close, it also picked nods for its screenplay and Best Picture. Of course I feel it deserved more, but for a film so self-effacing I’m still surprised it managed to gain even these laurels. From the general sense it seems the jury’s still out on the longevity of The Big Chill since in so many ways it’s a film that exists completely in its time – the eighties. But for someone who was neither alive then, nor an American, I like to think that The Big Chill exists as more than some misguided hammy ode to idealism for the baby boomers’ generation from Kasdan. It’s my bias, of course. But is it too naïve of me to see The Big Chill as it ostensibly sets itself up to be – a commemoration of that charming thing called friendship?
Obviously the lovely Meredith from M. Carter at the Movies doesn’t think I am too naïve, her words are quite perceptive, as usual.
"Too many people insist that The Big Chill is just a movie about some Baby Boomers – former college pals including Tom Berenger, Mary Kay Place, William Hurt and more – whining about their problems while reconnecting after the suicide of their roommate. These people have missed the point. The Big Chill is both timely and timeless in its central message: The dead zone years between college and middle age are rough for everyone, a period of self-discovery marked by highs and lows, the realization that no one, really, ever aces his own life. There’s something wonderfully comforting about that."
That perfectly encompasses a great deal of the film’s charm…the ability it has to comfort…
The setup is simple. A group of friends spend a weekend together when one of their original group members – Alex – commits suicide. It’s the simplest of plots. A wedding, a funeral, a reunion – all are ideal ways to get a group of persons together. Kevin Kline and Glenn Close play the generically “good” couple. It’s their house we spend the weekend at, but the film depends on all - Mary Kay Place, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams and the man of the eighties William Hurt. We will learn a number of things over the next two days. We’ll learn who had an affair with Alex, who’s having problems in their marriage – the usual things we detect when we haven’t seen friends in a while. In this way, the normalcy of The Big Chill is obvious, but it’s a normalcy that is never rudimentary. Chemistry is something that cannot be forced, and even some excellent actors are unable to forge an authentic onscreen relationship. With The Big Chill the lot of actors working together is never affected, but always genuine. It’s, by far, the most appealing thing about the film. We’re willing to buy the slight conceits of the plot because we’re so willing to believe that these people did have a life, a friendship, together not so long ago. And what happens when friends come together? Music.
Yojimbo contributes a mere line, but it says much: “Best soundtrack evah.” Not sure if I’d call it the best “evah” but it’s somewhere near the top and its as nostalgic, cool, smooth and sweet as necessary….and I do love music.
Walter Hollman of the very diverse Silver Screening Room is another fan of the ensemble dramedy (hate that word, but it applies):
"Call me a sucker for ensemble films (I am), or an unabashed lover of all things Close or Hurt (guilty), but I love this movie. Glenn Close, of course, is great in her nominated role, but I always come back to Mary Kay Place and William Hurt, two vulnerable performances that become the most relatable. What I really love, really, is that, despite centering around a suicide, the film is rarely dreary and often funny. Great soundtrack, and the fact that they actually manage to make that absurd pregnancy subplot not awkward is a credit to the actors and Kasdan."
Walter hits on another sentient. Mary Kay Place tells us that the world is cold, it is, but like friendship The Big Chill gives us that cathartic embrace that makes us forget - temporarily, perhaps - but that's enough. Zeitgeist? Probably...but not any less for it...
Nonetheless, I’d warrant that the chemistry of the cast is just a notch above Kasdan’s script. Even though it’s easy to craft a film around a group of people meeting, it’s often quite uninspiring. I would not doubt that The Big Chill sits in my top ten as one of those “you had to be there” experiences – but, then, isn’t that the very principle of making a list of favourite films? The words are potent not because they exist as brilliant reflections on life and its subsistence I always smile (although the joke is more of an in-joke) at the easiness with which Kasdan decides to craft their meeting.
I am vastly aware that my love of The Big Chill is greatly driven by emotion, but yet it remains laudable. It’s not so much that it has low standards, but Kasdan is conscious that sometimes there is beauty in the modest. Never does it deign to tell us how life should be, or what it should represent. It’s always well aware of its aims – a look into the lives of people you’re more than likely to meet sometime in your life. It’s a diffidence that charms me throughout even as there are moments that are obviously “cinematic”. Sometimes, the pithiness does protrude as an obvious tenet of the trade, but The Big Chill succeeds so much in its quest for calmness it’s easy for us to leave it forgetting that these friends haven’t solved their issues, and if so – only tenuously. But it’s Kasdan’s flair for normalcy – like life nothing is settled and no even is seismic, but life must go on. As the credits prepare to roll and the friends set up impromptu camp in the kitchen and Jeff Goldblum utters the line we took a secret vote. We're not leaving. We're never leaving. I always smile. It’s the same way I feel – I’m never prepared for something so charmingly human, but so beautifully soothing to finish. And, ultimately few things are more attractive in a film because sometimes we forget that the things that are most interesting in the world are people just like us.
The countdown continues with The Big Chill appearing at #8. Coming up next is a recent one from the last decade…does The Big Chill make you feel warm and fuzzy too...?
Friday, 13 November 2009
I’ve been tinkering with this list for a while, so finally I’ve completed it., which marks the final category, Check out the others, if you missed.
Here is the list of the thirty supporting nominees that have had the most profound effect on me. These are the women that I think are best, well not quite the best...I'm not sure I understand what that word means anymore. Here are the women that I like the most. Enough.
TIER THREE
30 – Glenn Close in The World According to Garp
29 – Maggie Smith in Othello
28 – Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights
27 – Natalie Portman in Closer
26 – Meg Tilly in Agnes of God
25 – Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate
24 – Kate Winslet in Iris
23 – Ruth Hussey in The Philadelphia Story
TIER TWO
22 – Judi Dench in Chocolat
21 – Margaret Avery in The Color Purple
20 – Marianne Jean-Baptise in Secrets & Lies
19 – Marisa Tomei in In the Bedroom
18 – Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias
17 – Cate Blanchett in Notes On A Scandal
16 – Oliva De Havilland in Gone With the Wind
THE FINALISTS
15 – Shirley Knight in Sweet Bird of YouthAlong with Angela Lansbury above, Knight lost her chance at Oscar to Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker. All three performances were good so I can’t say that Duke’s was underserved. Knight’s performance, though in Tennessee Williams’ play is quite good. As the estranged girl friend of hero [Paul Newman] she plays a young girl Heavenly – as tongue-in-cheek as Tennessee can get, and her role though quite important to the film; is not excessively large; but she plays it well. With a team of future Oscar winners, she holds her own quite nicely. Her ‘big’ scene comes when she faces off with Ed Begley in his Oscar winning role as her father. It’s a nice, strong moment and she does well with what she’s given.
14 – Celeste Holm in All About Eve
This performance is often regarded as inferior, especially in comparison to the ostensibly better performances of Davis, Baxter and Sanders. However, I love this performance from Celeste Holm. She’s the first person we see in the narrative, and her expressive face is what leads us back to the memory of Eve Harrington so long ago. Celeste’s part is for the most part reactive. She watches while Margo goes crazy, while Eve changes her behaviour and as her husband dallies with the actress. And it is with that expressive face that she sells it. I love that scene in the bathroom with her and Eve, and it’s exceptionally well played. Never, do we doubt her love for Margo even though her actions could have suggested otherwise.
13 – Maggie Smith in Gosford ParkMaggie Smith is exceptional. That much we know. Even with those one-liners in Harry Potter she still excels. In Gosford Park she is given the perfect role for an aging actress. Her performance is hinged into the beginning and the end of the film. At the start, the absurdity of having her maid stand in the rain is sad and humorous at once; and her narcissism in shown again at the end where she laments how trying being a witness at court would be for her. And in between that he spot-on delivery of her lines is enviable; in particular those few scenes with Kristin Scott Thomas [with whom she shared an uncanny chemistry] where she changed the course of the narrative were done well. A beautiful job from her.
12 – Patricia Clarkson in Pieces of AprilFor an actress that seems to be as ubiquitous as Patty I’m always a little bewildered at times when I realise that this is her only nomination. But then this performance is not as frivolous as it seems. The movie is enjoyable, if a bit trite but Patricia elevates her character to such a height that it’s amazing. There’s a scene that always sticks with me. It’s where she vomits in a bathroom on the road and replaces what we realise is a wig on her head. Then looking at her reflection in her mirror she gives her visage a knowing, deceptive smile. It’s a nice acting moment from her, and it’s little touches like that that make turn this character into a realistic character.
11 – Helen Mirren in The Madness of King George1994 in retrospect was quite a good year in this category. Although I was not enamoured with all the performances, it was a definite step up for the Academy from 1993. Helen Mirren’s Queen Charlotte is a Cannes’ winning performance and with reason. It is a bit of co-lead I suppose; she and Nigel Hawthorne are the driving force behind the film and she handles her role wonderfully. It’s a pity that this performance is not as remembered as it should me.
10 – Judy Garland in Judgment at Nuremberg I know that everybody in the world loves Rita Moreno’s vivacious Anita in West Side Story; but as much as I like the film and enjoy her performance I really was not gunning for her to win. I suppose that somewhere hidden there is an irony that when Judy went straight up drama she lost her Oscar to a straight up musical performance. Of course Judy has always and will always be remembered as an omnipresent musical star but this is my favourite acting performance of hers. As a pivotal witness in the Nuremberg trials there is an alarming weakness that she brings to the role which is unlike much we’ve seen her do before. Stanley Kramer handles her scenes very well and it comes off a deservedly nominated performance.
9 – Dianne Wiest in ParenthoodThere is something that just charms me about this movie; but more importantly there’s something that just charms me about Diane Wiest in the movie. As a single mother, who may be just a little crazy she imbues the character with so much good nature that she’s wonderful to watch. Never does it seem off, and never does it seem as if she’s trying too hard. Even in those silly moments with her daughter – it’s all done in good taste, so funny and yet so poignant. There’s just, as I said a charm about her that I can’t resist. She is a wonderful actress.
8 – Joan Allen in The Crucible As a fan of Arthur Miller I can’t say that The Crucible is my favourite play of his; but there is something amazing about the play nonetheless and the adaptation of it is able to capture the beauty of it. As Elizabeth Proctor Joan Allen towers above the cast [yes, even the talented Daniel Day Lewis]. Of course the effusiveness of her performance is owed to Miller’s original work; but there is just something outstanding about her performance that I just cannot put my hand on. It’s a pity that she had to go against my darling Binoche in 1996, a year earlier or later I could have seen her easily winning the populist fare that Oscar rewarded. And it doesn’t look as if he’ll ever get the recognition that she deserves.
7 – Vanessa Redgrave in Howards EndRuth Wilcox, more than any other character in Howards End, hovers over the film. It’s not the obvious type of hovering where a character’s death must be solved. But eventually we realise what it is, Ruth Wilcox is Howards End. At the end when Meg Schlegel finally gets the house, we can almost see the figure of Ruth smiling in heaven…and seeing that her character disappeared from screen almost two hours earlier, this is no mean feat. And that is because Vanessa Redgrave is so talented. I wonder if Merchant Ivory meant for this character to seem important. Even if he didn’t Vanessa certainly made it seem so. Her rapport with especially Emma Thompson is beautiful to watch and hers few scenes are just so well acted that there’s no doubt that her Oscar nomination was deserved.
I know that many are not as fond of this performance as I would like; but then many are not as fond of the film either. Glenn plays Sarah; one of a group of friend who meet for a weekend after the suicide of one of their friends. The group went to college and have met again after a parting of ways. The Big Chill is their story. You can click on the link to see more of what I thought of the performance; but with every thing she’s given and what is an ensemble film Glenn still manages to make Sarah seem more important. It’s a well deserved Oscar nomination.
I always felt that Kate’s first nomination [more than her most recent, obviously] was always the easiest; or should have been the easiest actually. With Jane Austen as her guide Kate played Marianne Dashwood, the eponymous ‘sensibility’ of the film’s title. She is the excitable middle Dashwood girls, who is Elizabeth Bennett of Pride & Prejduice – but with less morals. It’s a sweet performance from Kate, and a thoroughly English one. She plays well alongside Emma Thompson and even seems to make a convincing romantic connection with Alan Rickman, which ostensibly seems strange.
INTERNAL STRUGGLING: The Respected Women
4 – Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous LiaisonsMme Tourvelle. Michelle earned her first nomination in Frear’s Dangerous Liaisons, a nomination I wish had substantiated into a win. What I love about this performance is Michelle’s use of body language, but more importantly the use of her face. The internal struggle of Tourvelle is difficult to present cinematically, and wordiness would not be true to the character, but yet we are able to understand. Clichéd perhaps, but goodness is not something that we can hear and believe, it comes from inside and just happens to shine through. Michelle’s Tourvelle lets her goodness shine through.
3 – Helen Mirren in Gosford ParkI watched this movie thrice one day. Just because, I knew on each viewing I’d pick up something new. When you know what’s going on, it’s amazing how everything falls into perspective. There’s a scene early, it’s actually the first time we meet Mrs. Wilson, she’s directing Clive Owen where he should be sleeping. He tells her his name and you see the slightest trace of surprise on her face that is immediately cast off. It’s both the genius of Altman and Mirren that make me love that part. It’s so subtle, and yet so telling. Mrs Wilson’s internal struggle in this role is so palpable, and that last scene where she breaks down her in her sister’s arm is never superfluous, but as tender and poignant as it should be. Only Helen Mirren.
2 – Marcia Gay Harden in Mystic River
When Celeste goes to Jimmy we are to believe that this woman loves her husband. We must think that this is not a betrayal, no soliloquy is written for her to explain, we just have the actor there. And when that actor is Marcia Gay Harden, you can be assured that we’ll understand what she’s feeling – because she’s that talented. I won’t be covetous. Two Oscars in four years might have been too much, but it wouldn’t have been unseemly. No matter how much Clint Eastwood annoys me every now and again, I will forever respect him for directing this wonderful performance. Marcia Gay Harden in what could have been nothing but turned into what’s my favourite performance of her and of the entire film.
1 – Julianne Moore in The Hours
I always find it strange that I love this performance so much. Because I never question that I wanted Catherine Zeta Jones to win her Oscar, I still don’t agree with Sage and Twister when the rail about her. But still, I cannot disagree that Julianne Moore is astounding in this film. It’s the sort of performance that only gets better with age. It’s the type of performance that so many of the supporting women must do – forced to keep their feelings inside. For a film so simple, there’s that one surreal moment where Laura is about to attempt suicide and we see her bed surrounded by a murky swamp. Laura awakes with a start – a newfound intelligence. It’s a moment that shouldn’t work, in the same way that crying in the bathroom or confessing to Clarissa shouldn’t. And yet…it does work. Is it Daldry, is it Julianne? I don’t know, but it is beautiful.
Whew! That was a lot of writing. Thoughts?
Sunday, 21 June 2009
The second woman up for discussion is the only actress who had been nominated before of the lot.
Glenn Close in The Big Chill
Glenn Close is my second favourite living actress (to Annette Bening), even though neither of them is doing any regular work…on the silver screen. I remember clearly the first time that I saw The Big Chill. I loved it. I’d always heard about The Big Chill, and I though it mean chill as in fright, not as in hanging out… so I was expecting a horror film – or a thriller at least. Obviously, I was wrong. The Big Chill tells the story of a group of former college friends who spend a weekend together after the suicide of one of their clan. Apparently this movie is about the baby boomer generation, but as an eleven year old this was completely lost on me when I saw this showing one night on TV, and to this day I didn’t really see that as a major theme.
For me, the movie is essentially about friendship and how it changes over time. The cast is pretty much an ensemble. Upon my first viewing three cast members stood out for Tom Berenger, Jeff Goldblum and of course Glenn Close. I am prepared to stand by my belief that (other than the great soundtrack) Glenn was the best thing in this GREAT movie (followed closely by the screenplay and then the rest of the cast). I saw this movie at a time when I knew Glenn for three roles – Cruella De Ville, Countess Merteuil and Alex. Sarah was miles away from any of these three women. She and Kevin Kline have great chemistry as husband and wife – in fact the entire cast has a decidedly realistic chemistry with each other.
Glenn Close is really the heart of The Big Chill, it's such a clichéd thing to say, but she really is. She was really at her peak in the 1980s and although I love her at her macabre best later in the decade she was outstanding playing such a sweet character. There are some obvious moments that stand out as good acting, like the famous shower scene and of course the tug-of-war when she allows her friend to sleep with her husband. That plot point is actually kind of strange. To keep it simple Meg (Mary Kay Place) is unmarried and wants a child so Sarah lets her husband sleep with her. I guess there was no such thing as a sperm donor back then. The scene where Sarah gives her husband away is really subtle and nice and good acting on Glenn's part.
For me though, why I love this performance is less about cetain moments and more about the alacrity with which Glenn is able to deliver her lines. She is just so fluid as Sarah, not only the big scene stealing moments, but all around. That is a good performance.
Karen: I don't know how you're holding up but everything's just beautiful.This is up at IMDB as one of the memorable quotes, and it is always one of the scenes I remember immediately about this film.
Sarah: Yeah we put on a great funeral here.
Michael: [sarcastically] Yeah, maybe I'll have mine here.
Sarah: Well we give first priority to those who kill themselves in one of our bathrooms.
[the three stop smiling]
Sarah: That was a terrible thing to say... I don't know why I said that.
The Big Chill was my favourite film of 1982, I know I may stand alone, but I feel it was way better than the other dramedy that year – and a few of the men in it (especially Tom Berenger ROBBED of an Oscar nomination) could have gone toe to toe with Jack Nicholson (who gave his best supporting performance two years earlier in Reds). In case you did not notice as yet I LOVE THIS MOVIE and I love all the performances in it... but most of all I love Glenn Close.
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