Holly Hunter as Jane Craig in BROADCAST NEWS

HOLLY HUNTER

HOLLY HUNTER as Jane Craig in BROADCAST NEWS

Plain Jane name but this delivery from Ms. Hunter is anything but plain. From her hair at the uncomfortable conference to the way she stomps into work – gathering the papers and letting the news-stands shut on their own. If she weren’t executive producing the news division – she would be committed to a mental institution. Defiant, temperamental, under-sexed, jealous and willing to admit her faults and frailty. A high voltage character on a high wire act, a high stress job but Holly welcomes the range of stresses from heartache to high morality with ease and a big unabashed wallop. Most film snobs would point to THE PIANO, but I' didn't get THE PIANO, seen it many many times and I liked it but it's no signature piece.

This is a ‘Signature Role’ tailor made for pint sized Holly Hunter. Who else could have walk through these shoes. Her size, her tight upper lip. Holly Hunter is aware of what she is and how she comes across. Uses every once of energy and every emotion in this role. I’m not quite sure where she’s going now. This TV role she’s in – feels like she’s trying to re-capture her youth and play on her sexiness. She’s sexy, but in a geeky girl it's kinda hot way. She’s not really T and A. I loved her dance scene in LIVING OUT LOUD but again her current incarnation feels a tad desperate, but I can’t punish her for trying to cash in, she has twins to feed.

It’s Diana Christiansen's NETWORK but with big emotion and a softness that they didn’t give to Faye. It’s not in the role. But it is here. Tough as all hell, yelling at someone on the phone about parking to laying her self out on a bed before William Hurt “ how are you at back-rubs”– who rejects her. She’s revolted by her own desperate love needing acts and at the same time feels disgusting she falling for a idiot.

A big messy mass of contradictions. She ends up busting William Hurt for using his acting abilities to manufacture tears for a story but doesn’t mind sending off her rival female co-worker to Alaska into a blizzard - because she has the ability to do so. Because no one bust her – she’s OK with it. Brilliantly written and conceived role to ballsy actress without limits.

Hyperventilating, and then snap recovery to angry to demanding. She's one of those women sometimes thought to be too smart for her own good, and sometimes she has to agree. When the head of the network news division says, with a good deal of sarcasm, ''It must be nice to always think you're the smartest person in the room,'' she replies, ''No, it's awful.''

Another brilliant sequence is the moment right before when silently Jane Craig is watching William Hurt and moving uncomfortably around the room, sees him turn her back just before he sees her and walks away from him. You can feel her prepare, she tweaks her neck and relaxes her shoulders as he touches her and she turns to look at him. And he announces that she looks “Clean and Pretty”, says “Clean.?.” – please clarify and he tells her at work she’s and covered in a "kind of film". William Hurt, again brilliant. Her look of rejection and disappointment – haven’t we all been there? - is so truthful and specific. We are deep within the mind of this little bundle of quick firing energy. "It must wonderful to know you’re the smartest person in the room", “No it’s awful”.

As Jane famously observes of herself to her best friend – who’s in love with her on the other end (Albert Brooks best work – by far), “I seem to be repelling people, I’m trying to seduce.” Self mockery – twinge of twang, shoots at her later “I think you’re the devil!” to rewarding co-working for a job well done, “Thanks everybody” the tone that we’ve never heard before on film, like a friend or family member – a loved one – It sounds so real and familiar. Like someone we know or have worked with or a grown up with – she bring s new sound to her vocal cords and to her little body as well. Every part of her is vibrating in this role. This could be Tracy Flick from ELECTION all grown up. We can feel Holly Hunter is thinking and rethinking and acting from all possible angles when she’s going over her script. Smart lady, smart role – really smart performance from the gut.

I happy to see CHER ( come on - I'm a big queen) win that year, but would have been equally pleased to see Holly Hunter up there.

Dianne Wiest as Helen Sinclair in BULLETS OVER BROADWAY

DIANE WIEST

DIANE WIEST as Helen Sinclair in BULLETS OVER BROADWAY

I was going to wait to take care of supporting players another time, another day. But I couldn’t wait on this one. It’s one of those roles that boarders on being a lead, like Donald Sutherland in ORDINARY PEOPLE (who missed out on nomination because it was an in-between status role) but because she’s an ego less actress – always fitting back into the ensemble – without robbing any of the players of their moments. She not only got the nomination but took home her second OSCAR. This is a leading ‘Lady’ in the best sense of the word. The generous and warmth of Dianne Wiest, in a tiger of a role: Helen Sinclair. Wiest, vain, always in full make-up, summoning a deep, bassoon like voice that she's never used in a film before, Wiest plays the self-infatuated Helen like a second-class Norma Desmond –(“I’m still a star…”) pumped up with delusions, but savvy enough to get whatever she wants from her naive playwright "Bullets Over Broadway" is a bright, energetic, sometimes side-splitting comedy with vital matters on its mind, precisely the kind of sharp-edged farce Woody has always done best.

I’m including lots of lines form the film – in case you ever meet my friends or me – you can be up to speed.

Helen Sinclair a demanding grande dame on and off stage who is just a teensy bit over the hill. Just a teensy bit. She is (by her own description) "some vain Broadway legend." But it's also true, in the words of her manager (Harvey Fierstein), that in recent years she's "been better known as an adulteress and a drunk, and I say that with all due respect." Helen happily drops the names of "Max" Anderson and "Eugene" O'Neill at every opportunity, but she's ready to take a chance on a newcomer. She's also ready to make him rewrite his play so that it becomes more flattering to her. You would think with that incredible opening sequence, a very clever intro of a big Sunset Blvd esk type ego – with the throwing the script down first and then super needy star descending the staircase. It’s so important to the character to chew up the scenery but as I said before she’s a gifted and generous actress, She knows when to play it huge but she lets Harvery has his moments without robbing jokes from him. It’s a sign of true talent. She fills every moment with her barely see able – thin - squinty eyes with a bible of subtext in her moments when she’s contemplating her next big role. A extreme puff of smoke- “I should billed above the title” displaying it in front of her on the marquee, hysterical! Harvery quickly, “ It is without question…”

Nobody beats Helen Sinclair when it comes to making an entrance either, "Please forgive me!" she booms, sweeping in late for the first read thru. "My pedicurist had a stroke. She fell forward onto the orange stick and plunged it into my toe, and it required bandaging." Gazing around the empty theater, Helen feels the urge to offer grandiose greetings – underneath it all I am the star here folks – don’t fuck with me ("Mrs. Alving! Uncle Vanya. There's Cordelia! Here's Ophelia").

"My taste is superb," Helen corrects him. "My eyes are exquisite."

Her signature line “Don’t Speak” actually didn’t happen right away. In fact, the outside flower scene – the only scene that doesn’t really jive with the rest. The first scene they shot. Taking another week off to do pre-production. She wasn’t entirely happy with…either was Woody – Only because she was not happy they postponed the film shoot. She keep lowering her voice deeper and deeper and then the character clicked. She found it!

Every other scene she’s in – you watch with bigger eyes – your ears open up. She commands more attention than the other actors – It’s no just the role. She’s got a lot going on…Another scene I always haves actor study is the bar scene with she order herself a couple martini’s – When she’s knowingly trying to cast her spell to change his play more to her liking. She never strays off her super-objective to 'change that script'. She seduces, teases, compliments. Every arsenal in her book still acting coquettish and demure. Both needing a complement for herself and seducing to get what she wants. There’s an honesty and sweetness even when she is being manipulative and uncaring. It’s hysterical to watch her face and nothing else. Timing like this can’t be learned or achieved over years of practice – it’s something an actor knows innately. She honed her skills years in the theatre and off Broadway and off off Broadway and on Broadway. And then she met Woody Allen. Her three minute audition / meeting left her stunned and thinking – He must have liked the other girl she went in with she thought. Not a chance.

Woody Allen has stated many times that from the moment he met her – without seeing a stitch of his acting he just knew ‘she lit up the room’. “She’s one of the great actresses in America, comedy, tragedy – I’m not just saying that as a generalization, she is truly a great actress”. Three other actresses came into the audience room at the same time, they took a Polaroid, shook hands, and he couldn’t take his eyes off Dianne Wiest. He just knew. She thought it was an obvious rejection that ‘he liked one of the other girls’ He didn’t. He only had eyes for Dianne…Wiest.

FRANCES MCDORMAND as Marge Gunderson in FARGO

FRANCES MCDORMAND

FRANCES MCDORMAND as Marge Gunderson in FARGO

Nothing is as it seems on the surface. Frances McDormand goes very far to bring us back to where her character begins and ends. Fresh, pure heart and calm. Sweet by choice. Some can’t see the depth in this character. But this is a seriously smart – layered performance – But to the novice movie going it may feel like a one note caricature. You have to wait to the end to see it - the looks in the review mirror - educating and scolding her ‘bad guy’ – that’s when you see glimpses of the real woman underneath the simple big pregnant gal with the big twang and heart of gold.

The people with the badge, the ones that are good police men and women identify with the opposing forces with the bad guys. This is a cliche in and of itself, but it’s true. They are hidden criminals themselves – choosing to do good rather than do bad. It's almost as if the badge keeps them from being behind bars. The job imposes their moral duty and choices. When Marge tells clumsy co-worker, when she gently chides, "I’m not sure that I agree with you 100% on your police work there, Lou." – For those of you who felt this was a one joke – one note caricature performance – watch closely Frances McDormand’s face in these moments. A lot is going on – there’s a fascination with his ineptness – then calm patience – back to an inner smile and then sweetness. She decides she’s going to walk him through it. But there’s a flicker, just a hint of masculine sternness, perhaps, underneath it all, she’d just like to smack his face. It's brilliant. Strong lady. It’s hard to do good.

Right before this you had the classic moment of her bending over – "ut oh" morning sickness. "I think I’m going to barf”. Tough to have the best policeman in your area eight months pregnant. Our first meeting Marge is almost 45/50 minutes into the film. Rare for a best actress win. But Like Geraldine Page or Anthony Hopkins. You don’t need big screen time to make a big impression.

Frances McDormand has a difficult tasks of saying one thing – all the while having a string of thoughts that sift through the multiple options and evils. She plays up her humor and uses goodness with abandon to get what she wants. ‘Kill em with kindness’ could be her mantra.. It’s lonely to behave morally in this world that has celebrated its own greed and corruption. Great themes. McDormand goes deep to play a simpleton - this small town folk hero. As McDormand has said, “There’s a musicality to the language of the script, every single ‘yeah’ and ‘you betcha’ was in the script”

She is clever, but she outsmarts them because the men keep underestimating her. She talks nice, but she's actually pretty brave and tough and thinks like a con man- consider the scene in which she confronts Shep - "that right there would be a violation of your parole".

Plus, she never lets up on the details - the way she keeps on at Macy over the Tan Sierra is the core of how she cracked the case. Because when she meets him she knows – After a brief couple moments – This is the guy.

And Joel Coen has never handled performers better. He balances Macy’s Jerry and McDormand’s Marge against each other in a way that steadies the picture even though they have only two scenes together. You’re constantly comparing Jerry’s twisting on a hook to Marge’s steadiness, his agonized impotence seeps deeper into your bones than anything else in any of the Coen brothers’ movies and Marge, with her big blue eyes and mournful under bite, is there to comfort you with an incomprehension you can only contemplate, like being born without original sin. The Coens may not be able to get an adequate sense of horror from a massive spray of blood in the snow, but then the picture isn’t Jerry’s tragedy. It’s a black comedy about the resilient sanity of a woman who cannot understand how that blood came to be there. Marge cleans up Jerry’s mess like an ideal mom who knows, without even having done the comparison-shopping, which paper towels are the most absorbent. But somewhere deep within her – knows exactly how this person operates and ticks – how they all about how and why – and go the extra mile. To play this role just cheery and unaware wouldn’’t have rang true. She knows – You know she knows. But she chooses day after day to do the right thing. And yet she still wants to bring a child into this mess. “One more month”, her last line …Good stuff. There are die hard Emily Watson fans that still can’t sleep all through night knowing Frances won the Oscar that year – but I think they both got what they deserved. Emily got a career and Frances got rewarded for this signature piece of acting.

JANE FONDA as Bree Daniel in KLUTE (1971)

JANE FONDA

JANE FONDA as Bree Daniel in KLUTE

“You never want to play a bad actor in film”. I think Dustin Hoffamn said that – and he outta know, he to learn the hard way. He played a great actor in Tootsie- Genius. Paid off in spades…and then play a bad actor in ISHTAR and almost destroyed his career,

You see my point.

In this film you see the Hooker try to be an actress and she’s not a very good Actress, but she’s a great hooker. Wow! It’s Jane Fonda - who knew? It’s Jane Fonda!

Henry’s daughter… A great, really great f-ing actress. Probably surpasses her Dad in this one. It happens. Good for her. She’s out and in raw rare form here.

Fonda plays troubled / angry New York City call girl Bree Daniel, who finds herself in the middle of an investigation by small-town private eye John Klute (Sutherland). Klute’s businessman friend has been missing for months, and he thinks Bree is at the center of it. As the lanky detective investigates, he gets involved in a sordid web of murder and with Bree, who uses sex as a way to assert herself over her array of insecurities.

Fonda gives her Bree , a sort of nervous intense center, that keeps her so firmly locked into a film character that the character actually seems distracted by things that come up in the movie. You almost have the feeling, a couple of times in KLUTE that the Fonda character had other plans and was just leaving the room when this (whatever it is) came up. Great acting tip: Don’t play the scene – play the scene that’s happening out in the hall.

Lots of research and deep emotional work by Fonda and it shows. She seems possessed in this film and it’s tiniest moments shine better then the big ones. I like that Jane Fonda plays her anger and never really backs down from that – ads to it and polishes the rage but doesn’t ever play weak. True, that’s how these ladies of the evening are…someone did their homework.

Bree is further developed in scenes showing her trying to get out of the trade and into something straight. She takes acting lessons, she auditions to model for cosmetics ads. She talks to her shrink (in scenes that sound improvised and exhibit Fonda's undeniable intelligence). I describe this ambitious undertaking from Jane Fonda as a lesson in authenticity. If you don’ know – go find out. She did her research from what I’m told and it shows and shines. Sympathetic with arrogance. (opposing forces working - yet again – attention actors)

Hard, cynical and brittle without feeling the need to back down and apologize or be forgiven. It’s a unforgettable performance in an otherwise forgettable film. You see that haircut and you think ‘Hanoi Jane' and that's a shame. You need to see that haircut and think of Alan J. Pukula’s terrific thriller and Jane Fonda’s killer Bree in KLUTE. That’s all that matters, good solid work.

SALLY FIELD as Edna Spalding in PLACES IN THE HEART

SALLY FIELD

SALLY FIELD as Edna Spalding in PLACES IN THE HEART

I know NORMA RAE has that signature moment that been pounded by the marketing teams and media – it’embedded in our brains holding the sign in protest in the factory. But like Sissy Spacek in CARRIE – Yes, by all means brilliant acting – worthy of Signature Role status but is it her signature piece of acting? Is it her personal best? That moment, holding the sign, is frozen in our brains because of the re-used image, it’s 20 years later joked about on ‘Will and Grace’, seen over and over again in ads and award season campaigning but for me her better work and most treasured role is Edna Spalding in Places in the Heart. Well, If I felt this way than why didn’t I chose MISSING for Sissy rather than COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER. My position is this. As a fan and teacher of the craft of acting I have to stand by the elements that I use to judge what it is to be a Signature Role. The level of commitment and ability to bring something to the role that no other actor in the world could do. Could somebody else play Edna Spalding. Yes most definitely make it better I doubt it – Make it different – yes. And when an actor has two great role – both signature ones like Hilary Swank – Sally Field and Jane Fonda I go with my gut. And for me my gut says this is a better use of self and deeper exploration than Norma Rea. They are doing everything right in both cases – but there’s one that just sticks out a little further than the others. I watched NORMA REA yesterday and I thought the accent was a tad generalized ‘Southern’. Not region specific. And the spine of her angry and rage was very one note. With other actors like Meryl or Geraldine – It would be criminal not to mention the other SIGNATURE ROLES – but with the other players – be happy with the what I give you.

Ok, back to the excellent work at hand, Sally Field - the time is 1935, and the setting is the small town of Waxahachie and the gentle Texas countryside surrounding it. When her husband is killed in an accident, Edna Spalding (Sally Field) finds herself, after 15 years of marriage, with two small children to support, a farm on which the bank is about to foreclose, less than $200 in the bank and no talent for anything except cooking and keeping house, which, for the self-employed, paid no more then than it does now.

PLACES IN THE HEART is the moving and often funny story of how Edna Spalding, through hard work, grit and a certain amount of luck, manages to see things through. Edna, as beautifully played by Miss Field, has a lot of the steadfastness that distinguished the actress's Oscar-winning performance in NORMA RAE. However, Edna is also a much less sophisticated personality, whose growth, in the course of the film, reflects an almost 19th-century faith in the possibilities of the American system, not as the system was, but as one wanted to believe it to be.

My favorite moment is in the cotton field as they near their deadline to come in first to win the prize money – to save the farm and keep the family together. Field goes from spent to humble to utterly terrified to exhaustion beyond this character could ever conceive of prior. She’s shaken to the core. It’s incredibly suspenseful and utterly wrenching to watch. The underlying fear of losing her kids and farm. Field’s hands go from dirty to cracked and then bloody, and her back can barely hold on, (as warned by the terrific Danny Glover – in another overlooked, understated performance that year) and we wince with her as what seems at first manageable work becomes harsh and abrasive. The camera holds on her face she tries to face the worse possible outcome. Not a word is spoken. She's shaken to the core. Every actor wants to be able to have that big moment – filled with words. Here Sally field gets to have her SOPHIE'S CHOICE moment, ‘I’m going to lose my children’ - all without words. It's astonishing desperation and pride in action. A great performance – essential also is her understanding of era and time. She could have could easily played up a stereotype of oppressed nobility. Field gives it a sweet understated dignity that makes this role stand way ahead of Norma Rea.

The moment in the office when she’s risks it all for a few pennies more a pound. Sizes up the winners of past farms that won the prize. We put it together along with Mrs. Spaulding. Desperate and yet proud, it’s a complex set of big emotions she swallows and owns perfectly step by step, moment to moment. Most actors would jump tot he finish line - not Sally Filed. Slow and steady. She figures it all out in that moment it's happening - fantastic!

And then she had to blow the whole picture with the whole “You like me, you like me” flub at the OSCARS and no one saw the movie – it’s a shame. It’s a great film with a knockout performance from Ms. Field.

SISSY SPACEK as Loretta Lynn in COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER

SISSY SPACEK

SISSY SPACEK as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter

Sissy Spacek- is Loretta Lynn. I still get them confused when I see them in pictures. I’ll see a snapshot of Sissy Spacek at a movie premiere and I'll start talking with a Southern accent like Lor-rettie. With the same sort of magical chemistry she's shown before, when she played the high school kid in CARRIE, Spacek at twenty-nine has the ability to appear to be almost any age onscreen. That’s the real deal about this performance. In COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER she ages from about fourteen to somewhere in her 30's. When mauling over true blue performances I always looks the age, and how she handles playing the various stages of a life. In this she never seems to be wearing makeup. She does it with her posture and acting ability. Age is a difficult thing to master and if done badly – actors come off as mongoidal; early in the film, as a poor coal miner's kid, she slouches and slinks around, and then later she puts on dignity with the flashy dresses and wigs she wears onstage. Lange did it in FRANCES beautifully and Marion – more recently in LA VIE EN ROSE. Early thirties seems to be that age where a talented actor can completely be able to go back and then forth – without any doubt. Late twenties / early thirties are the age range to do those legendary bio roles. This is the definitive example.

There is a grandness when finding a signature piece. CARRIE would definitely have signature characteristics and IN THE BEDROOM creeps in at times too. I’ll think about moments of what Sissy did in awe. I feel she had better acting moments in MISSING, especially the stunning sequence in Santiago when Beth, unable to get home before curfew but that film didn’t have the bigness that this film and character had. It’s a better film in my opinion but her Beth was a quiet suffering – subtle – wise – funny - warm lady where Loretta Lynn has all bigness that a signature piece represents.

But it’s those early moments of COAL MINER”S DAUGHTER that I always go back to and think - wow - how did she manage that? The movie's about Loretta Lynn's childhood, her very early marriage, her quick four kids, her husband's move to Washington State looking for a job, her humble start in show business, her apparently quick rise to stardom, and then the usual Catch-22 of self-destructiveness. You can feel love inside she has for her husband, kids, music, fans (at the end) and special friend Patsy. One of my favorite little moments is when Patsy Cline has returned tot he 'Grand Ole Opery' after her car wreck and winks to Loretta off-stage, who idolizes the talent and loves her new superstar friend.

We're not surprised, somehow, that right after the scenes where she becomes a superstar, there are scenes where she starts using pills, getting headaches, and complaining that everybody's on her case all the time, that no one loves her for her, "I need you Doo". We fiercely want to believe in success in this country, but for some reason we also want to believe that it takes a terrible human toll. Sometimes it does and that always makes for a better story. Straightforward success sagas, in which the heroes just keep on getting richer, are boring. We want our heroes to suffer. We like to identify, it makes stars more human, somehow, if they get screwed by Valium, too.

What's so refreshing about COAL MINER"S DAUGHTER is that it takes the basic material (rags to riches, overnight success, the onstage breakdown, and, of course, the big comeback) and relates them in wonderfully human terms. It's fresh and immediate. Spacek through every step has such an honest and simple way she delivers this performance we forget about a story and think it’s documentary about Loretta Lynn.

The most entertaining scenes in the movie are in the middle, after the coal mines and before the Top 40, when Loretta and Mooney (Also terrific Tommy Lee Jones) are tooling around the back roads trying to convince country disc jockeys to play her records. The scene with Mooney taking a publicity photo of Loretta is a little gem illustrating the press agent that resides within us all... "Where do I look?" "Look up to heaven baby".

I think it's one of those films people like so much while they're watching it that they're inclined to think it's better than it is. It's warm, entertaining, funny, and centered around this great performance, Who raises the bar for actors taking on Musician bio pics but it's essentially pretty familiar material (not that Loretta Lynn can be blamed that Horatio Alger wrote her life before she lived it). The movie isn't great art, but it has been made with great taste and style; it's more intelligent and observant than movie biographies of singing stars used to be. That makes it a treasure to watch, even if we sometimes have the feeling we've seen it before. Another great brief performance by Beverly D‘Angelo as Pasty Cline, whom should have been nominated as well for supporting but Sissy won the Gold that year. I do feel Mary Taylor Moore should have won, ( A photo finish I'm sure ), but this is still one amazing performance with a magical ending.

Gywneth Paltrow as Viola De Lesseps in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

GYWNETH PALTROW

GYWNETH PALTROW as Viola De Lesseps in SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.

I’m going to get a lot of flack for this but this is an amazing performance by an amazing actress and I stand by it scene for scene. She is the best young Actress in the young group – standing tall along side Reese Witherspoon, Michelle Williams, and Natalie Portman. Better than The Gel-lars, The Ryders, The Lohans – perhaps all of them combined. Starting with the text itself. This great story telling – clever - ingenious (the reducing of history and the period in a) contemporary romantic comedy. But these pieces of dialogue are not easiest words to say for the two leads. Let alone putting something underneath and then passion and inspiration and all that is art and theatre. Hard to do – easy to comprehend but very hard to play. Gywneth tackles it with gusto, grace and ease.

In every performance there’s always that one moment that wraps up the entire character and film and for me is at the end on stage with that look off stage to her lover waiting in the wings. Reminiscent of Hollywood’s Golden Era of Cinema and the leading ladies of the past like Hepburn , Davis and Grace Kelly – Paltrow is almost saying along with everything that’s required to her lover, to the audience as well - with a simple smile and gaze “Don’t give up on us young ladies yet!”. She is trying to bring 'style and class back to film acting'. That face and talent is one that gives us pure hope that things may change. Actors are not just about fashion, ( although she dos it quite well), paparazzi and tabloid - that the true blue art of acting is possible again. And young woman don’t have to flash their cuchie to get noticed in Hollywood.

It’s one of the best reviewed movies of the 90’s but yet people seemed to gather in their hatred for Ms. Paltrow and her nepotism and privileged upbringing with her father Producer – actress mother- Danner and God Father Spielberg but this is an actress of rare quality. So back off haters!

I remember Anthony Hopkins interviewed when asked about Ms. Paltrow’s talent on Oparh and he said simply – “I’ve worked with all of them as you know – And Gywneth is the best of them all” He said it – “OF THE ALL” – Anthony Hopkinds folks – Not Ryan Reynolds. ANTHONY HOPKINS, hel-lo! He worked with Hepburn, Anne Brancroft, Jody Foster, Emma Thompson and he picked this young lady. I think America must reconsider why we’d placed such hard judgements and exiled Gwyneth. It’s not justified, you are missing out on an incredible talent.

Back to Shakespeare in Love

This is all wonderful stuff Gwyneth Paltrow, in her first great, fully realized starring performance, makes a heroine so breathtaking that she seems utterly plausible as the playwright's guiding light. In a film steamy enough to start a sonnet craze, her Viola De Lesseps really does seem to warrant the most timeless love poems, and to speak Shakespeare's own elegant language with astonishing ease. ''Shakespeare in Love'' itself seems as smitten with her as the poet is, and as alight with the same love of language and beauty.

And the humor of "Shakespeare in Love" is standard setting. Mixing farce, sexual innuendo, old actors' and writers' in-jokes, puns to do with the situations at hand, a running joke about the popularity of Christopher Marlowe and everything I've mentioned in previous paragraphs, it does a better job of cramming sharp gags into every moment than "Wag the Dog", or even "Annie Hall". John Madden, who lets his camera breeze throughout the sets heedlessly and his actors perform with high energy levels, creating something joyous and accessible. Romantic, too -- his stroke of genius in making the movie is to push the love story into the foreground and the banter into the back. This gives us a true, emotional, serious involvement in the affair (Viola has a shattering line, with "This is not life, Will... this is a stolen season."), but also helps the comedy, because it now seems to have more of an unintentional, incidental, off-hand manner.

Madden's entire cast serves him well, too, because he controls each player just right, giving them the freedom to do showy work and yet applying enough restraint on them so that the ensemble piece works, with nobody trying to steal the show. Having said that, Fiennes and Paltrow are especially engaging…Fiennes was overlooked come that award season and it’s a pity.

This is a great film, which stands up to multiple viewings. I've seen it several times, and learned that it is so sweet, endearing and layered, familiarity only accentuates the charm, energy and passion. When so many films are nonsensical products of assembly-line cynicism, "Shakespeare in Love" is a wonder to behold, and to cherish. If you watch her work in SILVIA and PROOF there is series artists here that commits to the inner life of the character that young actresses just don’t bother with. It’s rare gift, maybe passed down – maybe unique. This business is only nepotistic for that first role and then you have to prove yourself.

Finally, though, as always in romance, it's the stars, especially Paltrow, that carry the film. Fiennes, the younger brother of Ralph, has the burning eyes and brooding demeanor appropriate for a lover, and he and Paltrow, flourishing once again under a British accent and doing her best work - have a winning chemistry. It's no small thing to be completely believable as a besotted couple who can't keep their hands off each other, and that is what the pair accomplish here.

We need to forgive ourselves for being so cruel to Ms. Paltrow and that goes for you too Kathy Griffin – We need more young actresses to have Gwyneth’s integrity and grace and daring application system. Walking off in the end in the film – is parallel perhaps her walking away from Hollywood – as it were. I say, come back GP, come back!

GENA ROWLANDS as Mabel Longhetti in A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE

GENA ROWLANDS

GENA ROWLANDS as Mabel Longhetti in A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE

Before there was Cherlize Theron in MONSTER or Hilary Swank In BOYS DON'T CRY there was only Gena Rowlands in A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE. Thinking about this film I always have this image of John and Gena running around LA with their kids putting up movies posters cause they couldn’t afford proper marketing. And then I think of my mother. Who wasn't off the deep end as much as Mabel, but occasionally, seasonally, had moments that were very Mabel-esk. My mother was diagnosed, reluctantly later in life as bipolar and if Mabel would have ever went to a professional - she would have been labeled the same. I avoid this film at times. It's too familiar - too honest, doesn't cut away when I need a moment, it just keeps going. Unrelentingly honest and persuasive.

This film is a tough hard look at what lays behind low / middle to low income track houses and housewives.

Normally an actor would approach ‘crazy’ or any kind of mental illness with broad - generalized strokes and we can see it coming a mile a way. But Rowlands goes for ‘normal’ and bring us in slowly. We enter on a energetic – childlike woman who loves her kids and waves them off to school. Nothing wrong with that…She does the most innocent things with just a sprinkle of what dangers may lay ahead. Then her husband – played by the terrific Peter Falk (another under appreciated, Oscar worthy actor) bring home his co-workers for some breakfast. She makes spaghetti. Ok, not a normal early morning meal, but OK. With every line to the men, “want some Spaghetti?” seems like a tiny desperate cry form help. As if she’s saying ‘please take me away from all this’. Then she doesn’t remember the men, ut oh – or does she? We want, we need Mabel from the beginning to hold it together. As her world cracks so does ours. When she breaks, we break. I remember sitting outside the bathroom with I was seven. Inside my mother was taking a bath and crying. 'Hold it together mom' I would pray.

Mabel isn't gregarious, but, she tries. She tries too hard, and that's her problem. She desperately wants to please her husband, and when they're alone, she does. They get along, and they do love one another. But when people are around, she gets a little wacky. The mannerisms, the strange personal little ways she has of expressing herself, get out of scale. She's not sure how to act, because she's not sure who she is. "I'll be whatever you want me to be," she tells Nick, and he tells her to be herself. But who is that?

The film takes place before and after six months she spends in a mental institution. Her husband has her committed, reluctantly, after she begins to crack up. There have been some indications that she's in trouble. She behaves strangely when some neighbor children are brought over to stay for a while with her own, and the neighbor is afraid to leave his kids because of the way she's acting. But what, exactly, is "strange"?

Well she's insecure, hyper, manic. She laughs too much and pushes too hard. She's not good with other people around. So her husband does what he thinks he has to do and commits her. But what about him? What kind of a guy is he? It's here that this film and performance gets to be terribly complicated, involved and fascinating -- a true blue revelation. Because if Mabel is disturbed, then so is he. He's as crazy as she is, maybe more so. But because he's a man and has channels for his craziness, he stays at home and she gets sent away.

Said to have taken cues from a family friend and a mother of a childhood friend. This is a hard one for me to watch cause I have been there as my mother’s seasons had changed in her mind - I watched time and time again the sun go down and her depression and mania go up. It’s one of those performances I don’t like to talk about cause it’s too real – too vivid – too close to home. It’s coming from deep within but she’s playing a person we all know very well. A lonely innocent girl needing more love.

There's Gena Rowlands incredible command of her physical acting resources to communicate what Mabel feels at times when she's too unsure or intimidated to say. Just who’s crazy – one no understands the world of family or relationships except those directly involved – everyone else should mind their own business. Nothing wrong here. Brilliant. Hilary and Cherlize should hand over their Oscars and give them to Gena. Cause they it all to her.

DIANE KEATON as Annie Hall in ANNIE HALL (1977)

DIANE KEATON

DIANE KEATON as Annie Hall in ANNIE HALL

Diane Keaton is ANNIE HALL (1977), which Allen wrote specifically for her (her real last name is Hall, and her nickname is Annie), and what an impact she made in modern cinema. In really examining what she accomplished - It’s historic and unprecedented. She won the Oscar and the British Academy Award for Best Actress and she started a fashion trend with her unisex clothes and was the poster girl for a lot of young males. Her mannerisms and awkward speech became almost a national craze. The question being asked, though, was, "Is she just a lightweight playing herself, or is there more depth to her personality?". Well we know from the her dramatic work and life – we know there’s great depth. Fitting all the criteria for a true anti-acting Signature Role - this is the one. There’s rarely a scene or frame that Diane is alone without Woody. Not sure if he’s wanting to share the experience or let you know that this is his find of the century.

Diane did the exact opposite what Goldie Hawn did with her career. Instead of playing into the hand she was dealt - Diane played hard Hard against it, with Allens help. Directly to INTERIORS and then MANHATTAN Different harder edged scripts then to the end of their relationship but not the end of their tight connection. Woody shows early cuts of all his films to Diana / Annie and no one else. A partnership of spiritual – lasting endurance.

This film raised the standard of the American Romantic Comedy and changed the way women could be seen on screen. They can really let it all hang out. She said That “Of course I recognized myself in the roles Woody wrote. I mean, in ANNIE HALL (1977) particularly. I was this sort of novice who had lots of feelings but didn't know how to express herself, and I see that in Annie. I think Woody used a kind of essential quality that he found in me at that time, and I'm glad he did because it worked really well in the movie." Ok she’s playing herself or a version of herself or what woody wanted or perceived, but it’s all her. Even that look. No Oscar nomination for costume design, because all that came from Diane. Woody told the designer to “leave her alone – she’s comfortable. I don’t want to bother her, let her wear the hats and goofy large tie”

The word I use when describing this role is “effortless” I tell actors all the time stop acting, ‘Just Be you – It’s you – coming from you – don’t hide how you would react. Just listen to the other person on stage and be you – start with you – Worry about character late’” We are watching Diane / Annie – this is her at that time.

Annie Hall is a comedy, yes, and there are moments in it as funny as anything Woody has done, but the movie represents a growth from her earlier films on Allen's part. From a filmmaker who would do anything for a laugh, whose primary mission seemed to be to get through the next five minutes, Allen has developed in Sleeper, Love and Death, and this film into a much more thoughtful and (is it possible?) more mature director.
Maybe that's why Annie Hall is called a "nervous romance": because Allen himself is a little nervous about this frankly nostalgic, romantic, and sentimental material. He throws in a few gags (like the hilarious walk-on by Marshall McLuhan) almost to reassure his old fans that all's well at the laugh works. But he wants to do a lot more this time than just keep us laughing. By looking into some of his own relationships, some of his own patterns, he wants to examine how a personality works. And so there are two Woody Allens here: Our old pal the original Woody, who's given to making asides directly into the camera, and a new Allen who creates Alvy Singer in his own image and then allows him to behave consistently, even sometimes at the cost of laughs. It's this new Woody who has the nervous romance, the complicated relationship with the would-be nightclub singer Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton with an interesting mixture of maternal care, genuine love, and absolute craziness. She is everything that the film is – we know – inspired by her . She is Witty, neurotic, quick whited one liners – pop out of the scene funny – serious, bad driving – everything in the movie we know is Diane Keaton. Science says with ‘every action they should be an exact opposite reaction’ – with Diane Keaton she does it all by herself. She says something – She listens to her partner, Allen, and then herself saying what she has said, laughs self-effacing at the scene and herself saying it – She then plays it back again in her head in a self deprecating laugh – analysing her own self absorption / self consumption and silliness. Shakes it off “La- dee Da, la la” , very smart yet goofy again laughs at herself again – readjusting and we somehow follow along without a misstep. Fiery and alive every single moment.

“Diane starts apologizing when she wakes up, that’s just the way she is”, says Allen.

A genius modern female talent arrives to help women who don’t necessary have to act like man to have power. You can be exactly who you are – with all your craziness and wit and personal style and still be counted. A very reassuring feminist character. Who wouldn’t fall in love with that.

Brilliant filmmaker/actor meets brilliant actress - Diane Keaton.

JODIE FOSTER as Clarice Starling in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

JODIE FOSTER

JODIE FOSTER as Clarice Starling in SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

The superbly crafted suspense thriller that director Jonathan Demme has made from Thomas Harris's taut best-selling novel The Silence of the Lambs slams you like a sudden blast of bone-chilling, pulse-pounding terror. Clarice Starling, played with heartfelt tenacity by Jodie Foster, is an FBI trainee on the trail of a serial killer. Her search ends in the suburban home of dressmaker Jame Gumb.

Foster's Clarice is not only an orphan but a disadvantaged backwoods girl who has worked hard to get where she is, and has less self-confidence than she pretends. Noticing the nail polish on one of Bills' victims, she guesses that the girl is from "town," a word used only by someone who is not. Her bravest moment may come when she orders the gawking sheriff's deputies out of the room at the funeral home ("Listen here now!"). Her voice shakes – quivers – as she takes a stand. This is some major acting going on. Thoughtful and complex is this Starling. First considered for the role was too sexy Michelle Phieffer – Foster turns this role into herself and transcends past any physical attraction that Hannibal may have first had to her – But keeps them spiritually bound – a deeper connected due to Ms Foster’s performance. People get all excited talking about Anthony Hopkins as Lecter and it’s an outstanding achievement but doesn’t come close to the what happening inside the movies heroine.

The first confrontation scene between Lecter and Starling is the real heart of the picture, and Hopkins and Foster play that first meeting with perfect connectedness. Not an easy feat, and as it turns out one of the best sparrings ever. Jodie Foster is flawless. Right on the heels of her Oscar-winning work in The Accused – Hopkins and Foster play off each other with enormous skill. Demme subjects them to long, searching close-ups. With lesser actors, such scrutiny could wreck the film by exposing theatricality and cant. But Foster and Hopkins don't make a false move. Starling knows Lecter is testing her, trying to wear down her self-confidence.

Ms. Foster provides an expert counterpoint for her co-star's psychotic manipulations. She refuses to play victimized fly to his predatory spider, but she feels the terrifying brush of his web-spinning all the same. Every choice she makes is just right -- from the throaty twang of her West Virginia accent to the low-key intensity with which she goes about doing her job. She's tentative yet tenacious, vulnerable yet rock-solid.

The ending is a great piece of film making and superbly shot and sound effects frightening but without Jodie Foster building up the tension just right and terrified and frightened to the core. The film would have never hit the high crescendo peaks it did without her. Starling sizes him up and reads the situation before she shouts "Freeze!". We are frightened both because of the film's clever manipulation of story and image, and for better reasons--we like Clarice, identify with her and fear for her.

Beyond terror, when Clarice follows Jame Gumb into his basement, it mixes her frightened panting with the sound of Bill's heavy breathing and the screams of the captive girl--and then adds the dog's frenzied barking, which psychologically works at a deeper level than everything else. I remember people running up the aisle – hyperventilating themselves – panic strickened movie goers watched from the lobby. Then it adds those green goggles so he can see her in the dark.

She’s a female warrior. You can feel her pride in Starling for rallying against her male demons. For all the unbridled savagery on display, what is shrewd, significant and finally hopeful about Silence of the Lambs is the way she plays being mercilessly scared and mercifully humane at the same time. The film belongs to Jodie Foster as FBI trainee Clarice. She is a thinker on screen – ‘Courage’ personified – She seems to have a depth and loneliness that reaches to the heart of the viewer. As in CONTACT during those final moments before reaching her father or in THE ACCUSED when telling off her attorney at the dinner party. So difficult to play a someone searching for answers – she ends up personifying drive and intelligence as well as experiencing the real fear and the bravery to overcome it. It’s the kind of ability few actors can achieve and is the stuff legendary films are made of.

She ‘ate’ this one up – well done Jodie!

Faye Dunaway as Diane Christensen in NETWORK (1976)

FAYE DUNAWAY

FAYE DUNAWAY as Diana Christensen in NETWORK

The entire cast, five of the six members of which were nominated for Oscars, were all excellent: Faye Dunaway as a ruthless programmer; William Holden as a conscientious newsman; Robert Duvall, (only one not nominated) as a shark-like v.p.; Ned Beatty as Evangelistic board chairman; Beatrice Straight as Holden's suffering wife; and Peter Finch as the mad prophet whose message, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore," struck a chord with the American public in 1976 and immediately entered into classic movie lore. Finch won a posthumous Oscar for his outrageous role. My gay film buff comrades would point to CHINATOWN as her signature work, some even, MOMMY DEAREST, but in terms of quality and driving the story forward and signature work I have to go with her 'Diane Christensen'. It’s a one of a kind, at the time, futuristic portrayal of a woman who uses her softness and all the tools in her arsenal to be stronger than her male counterparts. I’m not sure when Faye went by way of Sally Kirkland – in terms of losing it – but I can’t punish her too much for chasing what was once because, I mean, she really did run Hollywood at one point and turned in one hell of a performance here.

Brilliantly directed by Sidney Lumet, the master of American cinema, drama.

Some felt at the time that Faye Dunaway's role as Diana Christensen, a ruthless, power-hungry television executive in Network, is more of an abstract, or type than a realistic character. But Paddy Chefesky was looking into his crystal ball and as we know there are women running around corporate America and network “Reality TV” that are very Diana esk. Many felt Network was pure satire – way over the top but as we know – It’s the fact of the matter in our world today. Nothing but truth in NETWORK. It’s eerie how accurate they were. Diana’s fall line-up with her development team includes suicides, Mafia executions and terrorist bombings. "The American people are turning sullen. They've been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam, Watergate, inflation, depression, they've turned off, shot up and fucked themselves limp and nothing helps ... the American people WANT someone to articulate their rage for them." This was outrageous in the '70s. Today, with "Cops" and "Real Life Home Videos of Bloody Disasters" on every channel, it isn't even ironic. Eerie how beyond perfect Faye Dunaway played the over the top ‘Mad max Diana!’

The UBS network is in financial straits and needs higher ratings and more advertising revenue. Which is where the network's new program director, Diana Christiansen (Faye Dunaway), comes in. She's a cold-blooded, calculating, scheming, devious, driven, dedicated businesswoman who will do anything to attract viewers. She sees dollar signs written all over Howard Beale. She believes "the American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them...they want angry shows," and she sees an angry old man in Howard. "For God's sake, Diana," exclaims Hackett, "we're talking about putting a manifestly irresponsible man on television!" And both of their faces light up in mutual delight. Money is everything.

In fact, some believe that Dunaway was rewarded with the Best Actress Oscar for being a good sport, poking fun at her own screen image as an ambitious career woman. Diana's chief goal is to upgrade the network's ratings, as she unashamedly boasts: "All I want out of life is a 30 share and 20 rating," for which she is willing to use illegitimate, disreputable means, like a program featuring a terrorists' organization.

Obsessed with her job, which permeates every aspect of her life, Diana talks about her work non-stop, even during a sexual encounter. Diana is further ridiculed when she sets the tone and speed of this encounter with a sensitive married executive (William Holden). She sits on top of him and reaches orgasm prematurely, thus imitating what is considered to be a typical masculine sexual practice. Efficient and rational, she is cold and incapable of any human feelings. Faye does thurst herself in every scene in a very unapologetic manner and it’s captivating and unbelievable to witness. She seems to be cutting the heart at what is wrong with America.

Great authors who write about the future invariably stumble onto prophecy. Paddy Chayefsky, in "Network," the greatest screenplay ever to remain un-destroyed by Hollywood and make it intact to the screen, hits the Orwellian mother lode. I doubt that such a movie could ever be made today: America the corporation is now too comfortable with its evils, far too powerful and omnipotent not to slap down and bury with its tentacles any attempt at a "Network II."

Some feminists were upset by the film's use of a woman's drive toward fame or success as the embodiment of sickness and everything else that's wrong in our society, claiming that if a man played Dunaway's role, he wouldn't have been such a caricature. I don’t feel Dunaway was a caricature at all – Dunaway goes for broke and does not apologize or seeks pity with any moment. Her walk through the office is feminine and confident and that of an insensitive steamroller "or I’ll sack the lot of you” and continues her business and never lets anyone question her drive or ambition. Faye may be a whack job in real life and is probably playing close to home but she’s doing it is such a savage bravado – all you can do is cheer is her blunt hardcore “maleness”. Well-done Faye! This performance I call the first the of the true blue ball crusher roles. She plays it at an extremely high adrenaline, step on your face if you get in my way level but that’s who this character is and it’s nuance and realized within that intense speed. She successful in making touching and funny a woman with psychopathic ambition and total lack of feeling.
It’s truly amazing. I think Ms. Dunaway was looking into her crystal ball as well.

Geraldine Page as Eve in INTERIORS.

GERALDINE PAGE

GERALDINE PAGE as Eve in INTERIORS

As F. Murray Abraham said when he presented her with her long awaited OSCAR for Best Actress in A Trip to Bountiful “Ladies and Gentlemen I consider this woman to be the greatest actress of all time, Ms. Geraldine Page” – It’s a good argument. Geraldine Page is hardly an acquired taste. She’s probably not on the tip of anyone under forties tongues and that’s a shame. She should be studied in all Master Acting Classes. The fact that young actors, people born after 1980 probably don’t know who she is – is criminal. Yeah, Megan Fox doesn’t know who Geraldine Page is – rest assured. Geraldine Page was a master craftswoman who seemed to bring out the most inner detail of the character she was playing. Her dedication to her craft has earned her the respect of many of today's great actors including Meryl Streep and Michelle Pfeiffer. Like Lange, (Lange would be the Michael Corleone to) Geraldine Page's God-Mother of mental frailty. She always seemed to go south when all roads pointed north. But south turns out to be the right way after all. Her choices seem odd and unusual. Like when she grabs the blouse from the box at her birthday party. The way she flings it out of the box holds it up and feels the fabric. No other actor in the world would have made that choice. They would have held it up and indicated to all the gift. Not Geraldine Page – He gift as an actor was subtly and being piercingly sharp and true – always. And the best listener. All truly great acting is about being open and available to your partner. Even though Geraldine Page was an oddball persona – she listened like the strongest microphone available. Complete dedicated and absorbing the other actors words and physicality. She was affected by each little moment and buried moment – reading what the characters really saying, what’s really happening beneath the line. Observing their body language a responding accordingly. Like the scene in the Church when her husband tells her the marriage is over and that he's meet someone else. You can feel her sense it, hear it finally and then the devastation that come with the acceptance of the inflicting information. Like a laceration. It's the final straw for Eve. Her hope is gone. You know that this is the end for her. And then she thrashes the churches candles and runs out.

Beyond pained, emotionally drained, disturbed characters at the end of their rope were her speciality. But emotionally, even though tossed away, she was always “tough as a bar of iron” but also at the brink of a nervous breakdown. She could play many emotional opposites in the same moment. Her Eve in INTERIORS was in emotional center of the film, the New England life, her well schooled background and cold and empty rooms, “Interiors”, suggested that there was a deep hollowness in her soul that couldn’t give warmth. The tightly coiled hairstyle slowly comes undone and put back up and by the end washed away. Everything Geraldine Page does physically in this movie is terrifying and heart wrenching. Her need to keep it all together even the relationship is long gone - we’ve all been there - is the spine of the film. No one goes further than Geraldine Page. Geraldine goes further than any of them could imagine. Meryl and Lange have gotten there - but Geraldine was the first.

The blank stares-erratically kind, impossibly demanding, pathetic in her loneliness and desperate in her anger.

Her need to reconcile spinning over and over in her head and eyes flutter and her face contorts. We watch Eve melt right before our eyes. It’s an insane performance. True blue acting at it’s best.

She seemed to take great comfort in repressed rage and anguishing depression – crippling depression. That Irish rough and ragged voice. Trained and rumbled across theatres big and small all over the United States. Geraldine Page was an actor’s actor.

And INTERIORS she played another disturbed creature, Eve not your typical Page role, it was written for Ingrid Bergman but Geraldine Page got it and created some of the strongest moments ever on cinema. All of her choices are symbolic and thought provoking as the film itself. The hair comes down and the wine held tight. Every scene and the audience perk up and pay attention. Something is going to happen. Unnerved and dangerous – Page demands attention. People debate over which scene is the most devastating, but all her moments in the film are brilliant. It’s one of the smallest screen times, nominated for Best Actress in the history of the Academy awards and a performance that wasn’t discovered until VHS and DVD’s came of age. It’s a performance to be studied by actors’ years from now- Look here kids this is how it’s done. It’s been over twenty years since her death and she’s still as vital and contemporary as any female actor on screen today.

GOLDIE HAWN as Judy Benjamin ion PRIVATE BENJAMIN (1980)

GOLDIE HAWN

It’s hard to truly appreciate a daft comedic performance. We’re all too quick to excuse the comedic and embrace the dramatic. We forget what a terrific actress Goldie Hawn truly is cause she’s so identified with making us giggle and she makes it all look so gosh darn easy. My brother gets mad at me every time I talk about how genius Goldie Hawn is in this film but it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to.

She’s Goldie, as common as our refrigerator or new cell phone. We know what we are getting when we go see a Goldie film. We expect it. We want it. And no Goldie performance crystallized why she made us fall in love with her than this film. She makes all her choices around: 'my character will have fabulous bangs' and works from there, but so what. What she does with a line and to her other actors is pure magic.

Starting from 'Laughin' to 70’s bedroom romp comedies, FOUL PLAY to SHAMPOO. When we hear that she wanted consideration for 'Sophies Choice' and 'Frances' – we smile - we laugh but not to her face. She still wants one more leading lady opportunity, and I'm sure she'll get it someday... with her bangs and all her other charms. We snicker at the notion, even the consideration, that she could have been Sophie. Really Golds? But Goldie Hawn is a truly gifted talent never-the-less, in comedy and drama. Look at the two dramatic moments in Private Benjamin: when talking to the girls at the campfire or showing her dead husband in heaven one of their wedding gifts. She can bring a tear to the eye and put a lump in your throat faster than any player out there. Signs that it’s not all gags and winks and eye-brows… and ass (she would want me to mention her ass – she loves her ass).

Nominated for an OSCAR – she must have known she didn’t stand a chance next to Sissy Spacek and Mary Taylor Moore for their two powerhouse signature roles but she already won for Catus Flower but it’s still a big achievement. The first comedy nomination in a leading category in years.

Vincent Caby said “Miss Hawn, even when she must look sort of wilted, like the figure on the top of a week-old wedding cake, is totally charming as the bemused suburban princess who forsakes a house with a live-in maid, her membership in the country club and her role as man's best friend to find life's meaning in the service. She's an enthusiastic farceur, but her characterization is so firmly based that she can slip from slapstick to romantic comedy and back without losing a beat.”

Judy Benjamin is a Barbie Doll-like bride whose attempt at a second marriage (she was divorced after six weeks in the first) is cut short when her new husband is felled by a heart attack while making love to her on their wedding night. Judy's domineering father (Sam Wanamaker) treats her like a child so she turns to a surrogate dad who just happens to be an army recruiter. Before she can blink her eyes, our heroine is in basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi. Can Judy find herself at age 29 ( Ok we’ll let that line slide) and win some self-esteem through achievement? Or will she fall back into old patterns of reliance upon men as savior figures? The men who want to make all her choices for her like dear old dad, Colonel Clay Thornbush (Robert Webber), and Henri Tremont (Armand Assante), a French doctor. Even, Captain Doreen Lewis (Eileen Brennan) pressures Judy to conform to regular U.S. Army standards.

Those early scenes when Judy arrives on base you want them to last forever. Which maybe why they tried turning the basic training camp into a series.

The signature scene – a scene that I have probably watched a 100 times easy ( Im cuing it up at this very moment I loved it so much) is the moment where she stands to tell Captain Lewis that Army must have made some mistake. It just kills me. Like the best Woody Allen or Laurel and Hardy. From Chaplin to the brilliance of the best comedies ever. These two gifted actors: Eileen Brennan and Goldie Hawn fight and relish each little moment and listen to each other and absorb and ignore and react and go for what they want harder and quicker than any pair ever on screen. It’s true movie magic, 'lighting in a bottle' as they say. Scenes that like don’t just happen – they happen only between gifted comedians and serious dramatic actors. That truly can do both.

The spoiled little girl goes up against a woman who’s most likely fought and chewed her way to every post, every promotion. It’s a match made in comedy heaven those two Captain Lewis and Private B and the movie loses it luster when we lose our antagonist Captain Lewis. But those battle with the two of them together are priceless. They seem connected. A gifted comedian in a scene has to be both generous and selfish. Available to the other actor but hard pressed about what he or she wants. When Judy gets up and refuses to sign herself back over to her father (and big sunglasses wearing sobbing mother – fantastic cameo by Barbara Barbie) – and stands a salutes Captain Lewis - We feel the change happen deep within Goldies

Very funny, very talented – shes not afraid to the be the butt of the jokes or lead the way. All hail Goldie Hawn. Take a close look at the ending too: Goldies face. Beaming as she throws up her veil into the wind. Her face goes through the entire film. Beginning, middle and end. Hitting very clear all the points she just traveled. Crystal clear and shiny. Underneath, it's her also commenting on her own persona, and her characters journey. It's a very pro-feminist piece of film-making. And then there she goes walking off into an unknown future...a better world without marriage. Something Ms.Hawn took to heart. We may never have another like her. Her daughter may be talented and follow closely in her mothers shoes and even share the same DNA – but she doesn’t come close. No one ever will.


I can see her now, reading my script with Kurt laying next to her. I call her up, "So Goldie what do you think?" 'Well I know know one thing...She'll definitely have bangs. Mustard bangs in little pieces'. I wish...