Jodie Foster Anyone?
Saturday, November 3, 2012 at 8:50AM The HFPA, those star-groupies at the Golden Globes, recently announced that Jodie Foster would be the recipient of this year's Cecil B DeMille Award.
The Academy is stingy with women when it comes to honorifics but the less stuffy Globes indulge in their sapphic side quite a lot by way of lifetime tributes. What a treat for Jodie's 50th birthday! She hits the half century mark on November 19th. Now, one might say that a 50th birthday is much too early for a lifetime tribute... but when you consider how infrequently Jodie has deigned to act or even direct since her 45th birthday (that's only three films: Nim's Island, The Beaver, and Carnage in the past five years) it's probably safe to say that the bulk of her career is behind her, so why not?
I'd actually been planning a Jodie celebration right here though details had not yet emerged. We'll celebrate Jodie visually/verbally from November 13th through the 19th inbetween regular posting.
Tell me which films you're most interested in talking and reading about from those we're considering...
Rank Jodie's Oscar nominations
Tell me who you hope gets a Cecil B Demented DeMille celebration next.
Reader Comments (28)
Oh, how I love 70's/early 80's-era Foster. One of the best kid actors of all time.
I already wrote on your "What's on you cinematic mind?" post that I believe this award is premature and a bit excessive. Maybe they're trying to compensate that awful beaver joke delivered by Gervais, or maybe I just don't like her movies enough (Taxi Driver aside, of course).
I love Jodie Foster unless she's stealing Great Glenn's Oscar. :) She's smart, intelligent, powerful even in her earliest performances. She's a real delight anyway, I cannot be happier for her. Go Jodie!
I'm hoping that you mean November, rather than July, cause that's a long time for us to wait for Jodie!
And for me, Contact hats and feet above the rest-I've always loved that movie than your average filmgoer, however.
Can't wait for Jodie Foster week! Her peak period was when I was coming into cinephilia, and her second Oscar was my the first Oscar ceremony I can clearly recall, so she's my first Best Actress. She's kept a smart handle on her private life, and even when the movies are weak, her work is interesting.
The Globes are really making a play for me this year, from their outstanding choice of hosts, to the fact that this will happen... It's already hard to believe that the Oscars have any chance of putting a better show together than the Globes do this years. Hopefully it's just a one-year thing.
No "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore"? Such an unusual character/performance.
JODIE'S NOMINATIONS RANK
1) THE SILENCE
2) TAXI DRIVER
3) THE ACCUSED
4) NELL
My next DeMille Award: KIM NOVAK...just a wishful thinking, I know...but actually in the past was a star cherished by HFPA...who gave her a globe for best newcomer and another one as most popular actress...so why not an honorary award?
John T -- i did. what a BIZARRE typo. sorry.
Contact is my first choice. I know it seems dated, but all sci-fi films set in the present day do. And regardless of her workload in the last decade, Jodie's still going to go down as one of the greatest movie stars ever, male or female. Good choice HFPA.
I'm sorry, but the movies you listed are so dull. Can we discuss her Armanis instead? I love them!
Where the hell is THE BRAVE ONE?
I'm very happy for Jodie Foster. Big respect to her. And her two Oscar-winning performances are both terrific - especially The Silence of the Lambs, where she is so meticulous it's breathtaking. Well done to the Globes. It may seem early for a Lifetime Achievement award, but she started about 10 years before most other filmmakers, so it's kinda fitting!
I think she's a legend. She's a real actress and movie star at the same time. Some of her roles and films are already classics. She's very different from every other movie star. She has her limitations, but what she can do sets her apart. Her being the gold standard for former child stars, her Oscar winning performances and her iconic one in Taxi Driver are enough to make her a legend.
I was just watching her recently in Alice Doesn't Live Here anymore and she was hilarious and the most natural kid actor you ever saw. She was also amazing in Foxes and The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. You should talk about some of those films for her 50th birthday.
She doesn't seem as interested in acting anymore, but you know how I know she's a legend? Every single young actress who attempts something dramatic or of substance gets compared to a young Jodie Foster.
Where's the love for Candleshoe?
Kym-- That's a really good point about child actors constantly being compared to her. You're right, she's pretty much been the gold standard in that category for the last thirty years.
I voted for Contact, of course. But I'd really, really love to talk about Maverick as well. Not only is she good in the movie, but it's such a different kind of role for her. Very feminine and sexy and funny, and she pulls it off with aplomb.
Shame they couldn't do an older lady like fonda,burtsyn,dunaway,weaver,pfieffer whom they loved 88 - 93. or spacek but jodie is a fab choice.
I'm sorry but I am going to have to ask for some love for The Brave One, a criminally underrated movie I think.
I don't get how her performance was overlooked as one of the best. She was amazing!
I find her so hard to warm to or to care about in a significant way. Sure, I love The Silence of the Lambs as much as anyone. But would it be the worst thing if Michelle Pfeiffer had accepted the part? Foster is just so brittle and impossible to like, and her gifts seem so limited.
Like, Jodie Foster has Jodie Foster down the way Sally Field has Sally Field down. Both won two Oscars. Does one deserve eternal hyperbolic praise while the other gets derided for her simplicity as an actress? Foster has more in common with Field and Hilary Swank, if you ask me, than with Jane Fonda and Elizabeth Taylor.
My Votes: Contact, Freaky Friday, Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
Also Acceptable: Bugsy Malone, Little Man Tate, Home for the Holidays, Hotel New Hampshire
Nominations
1. The Silence of the Lambs
2.. Taxi Driver
3. The Accused
4. Nell
Foster is legend. Not many actresses have two films in AFI top 100 list and she has two Oscars. Not to mention impact she has among young actresses.
Hah, Chip, Candleshoe! I like the cut of your jib, sir. Also, people, Panic Room? That's one of your top choices? Nathaniel, I seem to remember, but I can't find it in the search engine, that this site did a piece on Foxes a few years ago. Am I right about that?
If The Brave One had been on the list, I would have voted for it as well. Good movie with good Jodie :)
@Hayden She's not a warm, fuzzy screen presence. She's something more interesting than that actually. She has the best mixture of strength and vulnerability and far more depth onscreen than the also great Michelle Pfeiffer. Sally Field is a great actress with a few iconic roles too. Not a bad comparison. Sally Field, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Jodie Foster are all unique in their own way and all legends. Hilary Swank- not a legend.
I voted for Maverick because, like Liz N. said, it is so atypical of her filmography but she was sexy and spunky in a way she never has been before (or since). Mind you, this was a role intended for Meg Ryan, and yet, I can't think of anyone better in that role now. Jodie is one for the ages.
My next DeMille Awards: Fonda (she's a legend), Sarandon (she never won before!), also my ladies from the 80s (Turner, Pfeiffer and Close) or a foreign star (Moreau, Deneuve, Maura, Huppert, Ullmann)
I think she's definitely deserving, but I'm stunned that Jane Fonda hasn't won this already. She should get it before Jodie. I love Freaky Friday, both Jodie and Barbara Harris are terrific in this romp. Flying off now on a tangent, I just saw The Seduction of Joe Tynan again, and Barbara just killed this part. How she didn't get an Oscar nom for this is beyond me. She blew Meryl right off the screen.
How odd to think that she gets her two years after her co-star from Taxi Driver does.
Hayden -- i sometimes get really sad thinking about what Pfeiffer would have been like in the part. Foster was so fantastic in the role that people can't imagine the movie without her, but Pfeiffer was at the absolute peak of her gifts at that time and would've been very different surely but would've absolutely killed it (and also won the Oscar!)
it's so weird to me that she so rarely repeats with directors even when they worship her like Demme & Scorsese did!