To Nicole on Her 46th Birthday
Thursday, June 20, 2013 at 8:45PM Tim here. The career and talents of Nicole Kidman have been well-examined at the Film Experience through the years, but never by me. So I hope you’ll forgive the indulgence if I take advantage of her birthday to launch into a little celebration of my favorite working actress, one of the only people in the world with a legitimate claim to being both movie star and serious artist. For every big bit of Hollywood nonsense she deepens and improves with her steady presence, there’s an adventurous, even dangerous film that she makes with some of the most interesting directors out there, and she’s equally great in both modes, the odd Stepford Wives remake notwithstanding.
To celebrate, I'd like to share my 5 favorite Kidman performances, in chronological order:
Grace Stewart, The Others (2001)
I yield to no one in my love of Moulin Rouge! and Kidman’s performance therein, but this has always been my pick for her best performance of 2001, and not least because Alejandro Amenábar is less interested in ceding huge chunks of the film’s landscape to her than Baz Luhrmann. Providing the human core to an abnormally handsome, ultimately generic haunted house movie couldn’t have been anyone’s idea of a rewarding assignment, but Kidman dives with intelligence and restraint into the role of a stern matriarch, terrified by the empty old house she lives in. She turns out a leading performance that is deeply sensitive and wounding (that meeting with her husband!) while also paying scrupulous attention to the mechanical needs of the horror script. She’s especially good at converting the twist ending from something ludicrous into a genuinely moving moment.
Grace Mulligan, Dogville (2003)
I’m a naughty cinephile, having never much cared for Lars von Trier’s films generally, least of all this profoundly (if not, indeed, pointlessly) austere evisceration of small-town hypocrisy. Just about the only thing about it that works at all for me is Kidman’s portrayal of the main character; but what a portrayal! Self-resolve mixes with the desire to fit in, and both are etched into sharp relief by her complex and wholly unexpected responses to being humiliated by the local townsfolk; in a laboratory of human behavior, it’s Kidman’s remarkable cross-breeding of strength and impotence that emerges the clearest and keeps the film focused. And just like The Others, the climax works almost entirely because Kidman forces it to by strength of her cast-iron will. (By the way, who else never noticed how many characters she’s played named “Grace”?)
Anna, Birth (2004)
I ranked these chronologically so as to avoid committing myself to any absolutes; but if I did want to pick Kidman’s single best performance, it wouldn’t take more than a moment of deliberation to arrive at her gorgeously cryptic anchor for Jonathan Glazer’s second feature. For one thing, there’s no clearer example of Kidman’s artistic bravery than this unnerving depiction of romantic longing between an adult woman and the pre-adolescent boy claiming to be her reincarnated husband. For another, this purposefully opaque film relies extensively, even exclusively on the tiniest details of Kidman’s performance, relying on all things she’s not saying, and the physical precision of how she’s not saying them to flesh out the film’s psychological space. Her marathon-length close-up at an opera, fluctuating between countless emotions, is one of the pinnacles of cinematic acting in the 21st Century.
Margot, Margot at the Wedding (2007)
There are few female stars of Kidman’s profile who’d role the dice on such an unlikably icy figure, particularly when that star was being so frequently labeled an ice queen herself at the time. And certainly, the fortitude with which Kidman refuses to ask us to like her is one of the reasons that I’m so taken with this brittle character.
But it’s more complex than that. Even in the hands of a never-more-acidic Noah Baumbach, it can’t all be dark and mean-spirited, and into this awful mother and worse sister, the actress weaves a thread of tragic humanity, the awareness that Margot is not cruel because she likes it, but because she doesn’t know how to be loving and kind. She brings a measure of weary humanism to a thoroughly misanthropic movie, significantly enriching it and making more endurable.
Becca Corbett, Rabbit Hole (2010)
Finally, if briefly, returning her into the welcoming arms of mainstream cinema, in the form of a long-deferred third Oscar nomination, Kidman’s collaboration with John Cameron Mitchell might seem, on the face of it, to be a break with her longstanding “interesting auteur vehicles” habit. From a directorial standpoint, Rabbit Hole is mostly notable for being far more sedate and straight than Mitchell’s previous work. But however “normal” a film it might be, it showcases a depth of character creation that modern films generally shy away from, preferring simple emotional journeys to the all-encompassing pit of despair that Kidman digs for her grieving parent of a dead 4-year-old. Her self-laceration, venomous anger at anyone and everyone around her, and a frustrated, inarticulate lack of ability to express herself are as brilliant to behold onscreen as they are punishing.
And now, I turn it to you, dear readers. What are your five favorite Nicole Kidman performances?
Reader Comments (47)
I absolutely adore Nicole. She's so good at playing the "unreadable" character.
Favourite performances:
Rabbit Hole
Birth
The Others
Eyes Wide Shut
To Die For
(The Hours)
SO WEIRD. I just finished reading this and then Come What May came on my iTunes! Haha.
With that, my fav Nicole performances are Moulin Rouge and Rabbit Hole. Honorable mentions go to The Others and The Hours. I haven't seen as many of her performances as I would've liked, in fact I really want to watch Birth now so I might do that tonight.
To many more stunning performances from this fantastic actress who always delivers!
I have a weird admiration for her performance in TO DIE FOR. What a gutsy, charismatic, complete characterization that is! My other four favorites: Birth, Rabbit Hole, The Others, Margot at the Wedding.
I don't like all of her performances (I think she was dead wrong for The Golden Compass, for instance) but when she's on fire, she's a marvel to watch!
Picking five is a Sophie's Choice (if sophie had had a huge litter of awesome children) and wow that analogy was in poor taste but the point is there's so much great stuff to choose from.
in chrono order I think i'd go
THE OTHERS
MOULIN ROUGE
BIRTH
RABBIT HOLE
and
THE PAPERBOY
but with apologies to her fine 90s work (but just warming up really when others would love those as peaks!)
All wonderful choices, even if I completely disagree on her turn in MR!, which I consider far superior to a perfectly wonderful performance in The Others. The Hours had some truly great moments as well, and while she wasn't my top choice that year, her win is among my favorite Actress picks. She was glorious in The Paperboy, to die for in To Die For, and I really need to revisit Eyes Wide Shut. Really happy you mentioned Margot - wonderful work. Dogville and Birth are truly fearless turns. Even in something like Stoker, she turned a single monologue into a fascinating performance. LOVE her. Excited for everything she brings to the table.
My top 5:
The Hours
To Die For
Dogville
Eyes Wide Shut
Rabbit Hole
Rabbit Hole
The Others
Birth
Dogville
Margot at the Wedding
My pick would be:
1. Birth - it's a masterpiece, period.
2. Dogville - it's another masterpiece... but Birth is still my favorite.
3. The paperboy - It's complete character turn few people would imagine she could nail...and hell, she did it!
4.Moulin Rouge - It's a star turn. I guess few contemporary actresses can claim such old hollywood vibe in a movie.
5. Margot at the wedding - I still cannot believe in that monologue she delivers at the bookstore. It definitely a a scene to remember.
And then I guess that her top ten is really something that deserves a medal of honor or a festival retrospective.
6. The others
7.Rabbit Hole
8.The hours
9.To die for
10.Eyes wide Shut
Her Anna in Birth is probably one my top 10 performances ever. I'm one of those people who tries to force the film on anyone that will listen, and sometimes it works!
Picking a Top 5 is hard but I think I'll go with (in no order):
To Die For
Moulin Rouge! (SUCH a movie star performance, and I feel it'll be considered her most "iconic")
Birth
The Paperboy (still not over the balls-to-the-wallness of this performance)
Margot at the Wedding
But it could be a very different list tomorrow. I even find her super enjoyable in silly fluff like Practical Magic and Batman Forever lol. She's a gift of an actor.
My favourites (in no particular order) are: Moulin Rouge, Rabbit Hole, The Hours, To Die For, The Paperboy.
Nicole Kidman is one of my favorite actresses of this generation, i think she's gonna rank higher when it comes to list of bes actors/performances and she' goin to be a legend, my favorite movie, and performance of her is by far To Die For, one of my ultimate female performances.
So the moral here is that I need to finally get around to seeing To Die For, clearly. Also, I'm so happy that everybody else loves her in The Paperboy too: it was thiiiiiis close to being on my list.
I think "Birth" is her best, but when ever people ask me for my favorite I actually say "The Portrait of a Lady" not just because it's super close to edging out Birth as her best work, but also because people seem to forget she ever gave that performance (and what a performance it is!)
I also love "The Hours" much more than people around the Film Experience do! Maybe she didn't reach the heights of Moore or Huppert in 2002, but she certainly is a worthy-winner.
Great post, by the way.
THIS ONE´S EASY; IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER:
TO DIE FOR
MOULIN ROUGE!
THE OTHERS
THE HOURS
DOGVILLE
In no particular order:
- Moulin Rouge
- Dogville
- The Hours
- The Others
- Rabbit Hole
To Die For shows what a smart comedienne she is. There are so many moments in that film that have me rolling with laughter. Her slow walk towards the cameras outside of her house (where she instinctively makes sure her hair is in place) always cracks me up.
One of the (many) reasons I'm super intrigued to see The Bling Ring is because Emma Watson stated that she was going for a Suzanne Stone vibe with her performance.
I feel like Nicole is struggling to find the right outlet for her work. Audiences don't get her and her plastic surgery has made her unrelatable. I read today that Grace of Monaco is being released at Thanksgiving, and August: Osage County is moving to Christmas.
Not in order because that is way too much stress:
Moulin Rouge (She sings! She dances! She dies!)
Birth
Dogville (for the ending alone)
Rabbit Hole
with an impossible choice of To Die For or The Paperboy for the last spot.
To Die For was pitch-perfect while The Paperboy could've been a hot mess but she created an actual character out of Charlotte Bless.
Nope. Not choosing between those last two and you can't make me. I hope she still has loads more to add to the list. Not so sure about Grace but hopefully she finally gets The Danish Girl off the ground.
My list (no particular order):
Birth
Moulin Rouge!
Dogville
The Others
To Die For & The Paperboy
my picks:
The Others
Moulin Rogue
The Hours
A Future Performance I know I will Love.
Batman Forever
I like Batman Forever because I say it as a child and I loved Batman as a kid. She was probably cast because she was hot (good gravy they showcased her boobs in that movie) but she rose above the script and made a character that seemed real. Of all the batman women Chase was the one he should end up with and stay happy in the long run- someone stable, and his intellectual equal. I got all of that from Kidman
Happy Birthday Nicole! Just two months older than me.
Vietnam (TV miniseries)
Bangkok Hilton (TV miniseries)
The Others
Moulin Rouge
Rabbit Hole
HM- Batman, The Hours & Birth
Happy 46th? How random!
"Her marathon-length close-up at an opera, fluctuating between countless emotions, is one of the pinnacles of cinematic acting in the 21st Century." so true and so perfectly said.
That film + performance are like nothing else I have ever seen and they keep getting better and better each time I revisit.
and oh, honorable mention to The Golden Compass. I love her entrance and that "don't fuck with me" extended glare she gave to the headmaster when he was reluctant to give her Lyra. I really wished the movies could've panned out because she was perfect.
BIRTH
TO DIE FOR
RABBIT HOLE
THE OTHERS
EYES WIDE SHUT
in chronological order:
TO DIE FOR
EYES WIDE SHUT
MOULIN ROUGE!
THE OTHERS
BIRTH
In chronological order -
To Die For
Dogville
Birth
Margot At The Wedding
Australia
I feel like I'm in a great minority here, but her performance in Australia is clearly a thing of wonder - people talk about her little-known comedic talents, yet Australia is the finest example. The fact that she takes a shrill, conceited, haughty character and develops from a 2D caricature into a warm, loving woman (as the character herself does) is a joy to behold. Taking into account that the film was probably not shot 'in order', and her work becomes all the more extraordinary. One day people will appreciate just what she accomplishes in this film!
Kermit -- i think people would have appreciated Australia much more if Baz had been a smidge less ambitious. It's so many different films and as such it's kind of exhausting. I still think if you chop of the entire final third people would've loved it a lot more and it'd still be a complete film. It's like he didn't realize he was making a miniseries and not a movie.
Oh, I agree that Australia (the film itself) is a bit of a mess. I adore it and can watch it over and over again, though I can't defend it against the many (largely warranted) accusations it receives! I didn't see it until after the (anti) hype, so I guess I was expecting a terrible movie and actually found one that took me back to childhood and of watching glorious epics with my grandmother.
Kidman, though, is just perfect - she takes everything she's asked to do and makes it 100 times better... I much prefer her work in this to her work in Moulin Rouge...
I'm now off to giggle at the memory of her singing 'Over The Rainbow' and to call a random passer-by 'drover' (use of that word in the film makes a great drinking game, by the way...)
"The Hours", then pick four. I forgot that she had done noteworthy work for Aussie TV -has any of this aired in the States?
Her work in The Others is so perfectly pitched. I remember there being a lot of chatter at the time that she had a better chance of getting nominated for Moulin Rouge, but a better chance of winning for The Others. Satine is probably the more impressive performance, but Grace the better one. I don't think I've ever not at least liked her onscreen (although I haven't seen everything), which is a pretty impressive feat for an actress. If I had to pick a Top Five, it would be (in alphabetical order):
Dogville
Moulin Rouge!
The Others
Rabbit Hole
To Die For
With honorable mention to Australia (for Over the Rainbow ALONE!), Margot, and The Paperboy. I know I need to see Birth. I've been putting it off for YEARS and I don't know why.
Let's see...
To Die For
Eyes Wide Shut
Moulin Rouge!
Birth
Rabbit Hole
There are at least 5 other performances that could weave in and out of this list. Love this fearless creature that is The Kidman!
three cheers for Margot at the Wedding! what more proof does one need to see this actress is a master?
When Kidman rocks, she REALLY ROCKS
Dogville
Birth
Eyes Wide Shut
The Others
Moulin Rouge
On the other hand she was miscast in: Cold Mountain, Stephford Wives, Birthday Girl, The Interpreter
She was originally cast as Meg in Panic Room. Though Im happy with Jodie Foster, I just started to wonder what Kidman may have done with that role
top 5 ever in order
1 - To Die For
2 - Moulin Rouge
3 - The Portrait of a Lady
4 - Birth
5 - The Hours
I don't think i could make a list of her worst!! although i know cold mountain and the interpreter would be on there
The Others, Birth, Dogville, The Paperboy, and Stoker in that order. The Others features one of the best leading performances in a horror film since Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby. Birth is a brilliantly realized performance. Dogville is her film, but the subject matter makes me question if I'm moved to such anger because of the context of the story or Kidman's performance. The Paperboy should have won Kidman the Supporting Actress Oscar for such a brave but all too short performance in a wild and exciting film. Stoker would easily top the list if the role were more substantial; her performance as the distracted and bitter mother is astounding.
Only five choices?
:(
THE OTHERS
EYES WIDE SHUT
TO DIE FOR
MOULIN ROUGE!
DOGVILLE
Moulin Rouge!
The Others
Rabbit Hole
Eyes Wide Shut
Birth
To Die For, Dogville, The Hours, Moulin Rouge!, Ranbit Hole. What happened to the last round of reader questions ... were they thrown out during a sudden airport security screen? Kisses from Milan.
Nicole Kidman is one of my top 5 favourite actresses (of course) and my top five performances for her are:
Dogville
The Hours
The Others
Rabbit Hole
To Die For
Runners Up: Birth, Cold Mountain & The Interpreter
Aw, come on! No Dead Calm with that crazy hair?
I choose To Die For when she still looked real.
also in chronological order:
1995 - "TO DIE FOR" (the charismatic performance who made clear Nicole Kidman was going to be a huge star and, in this one, she's the center, the side, she's everything who holds the movie)
2001 - "MOULIN ROUGE!" (iconic performance and one of the most charming ones; she plays the romantic female figure perfectly and there's something really hipnotic about a "red" Nicole Kidman singing, dancing, crying and loving)
2003 - "DOGVILLE" (a simply beautiful performance)
2004 - "BIRTH" (simply hipnotic, she's the heart of the movie and this is one of the most underrated Kidman performances... an Oscar nomination should have happened for her for this great performance)
2010 - "RABBIT HOLE" (you can feel all her agony, all her sadness and you feel sorry for her)
5. Dead Calm and Flirting - A tie, just because I kept thinking in both, "Who is that actress?" and I couldn't really find any information because it was before the internet (you young'uns will never understand).
4. The Others - This one was where I started thinking that she's gonna be one of the greats.
3. The Hours - Her calmness in this, despite the inner demons, spooked me even more than The Others.
2. Moulin Rouge - This was when I knew she was a star that would never be less than, no matter what happened to her career afterwards.
1. To Die For - This is where I started to really pay attention. The fluff she had been doing before this had me believing she was just another Sharon Stone (bad roles, but big successes that would keep her moving forward), but this one told me she had it. She was willing to take risk and be unlikable in an indie with an interesting director and a script with a tonality that many of the general public would not get. Just being shocked by someone is enough to make me pay attention and this is where her real career started.
1 - The Others
2 - Rabbit Hole
3 - Moulin Rouge!
4 - The Paperboy
5 - Dogville
Even if The Hours is my favorite movie from the 00's i still can't understand why Meryl Streep lost to Kidman and, even worse, didn't even got nominated for her part. But Kidman's Virginia Woolf is a very close 6th favorite. I also can't help myself loving her performance in Cold Mountain ...... so vibrant and sensual.
Have the same name as her!!! Happy birthday, Nicole!
I actually did the same birthday tribute to her in my blog and ranked 12 of her best performances. Anyway, my five are.
5. The Others
4. Moulin Rouge
3. Rabbit Hole
2. To Die For
1. Birth
I woke up thinking about "The Others" one day this week. I thought about how much I liked it, and how good Nicole was in it. Then I thought: wasn't there something about one's three favorite Nicole Kidman performances on TFE lately? So I researched.
Okay, it was top 5. That's kinda harder, but here we go:
1. The Others - love it
2. The Golden Compass - evil, in a unique way, and classy
3. To Die For - I even read the book, only because I liked the performance in the film
4. Birthday Girl - it's funny
5. Birth - I guess it's superior to my other choices, though the movie is more about creepy Cameron Bright for me...
Now I gotta confess, I'm not the biggest fan, and the only other movies I've seen with Nicole are: My Life, Batman Forever, Eyes Wide Shut, The Human Stain
Among the movies I haven't seen, the one I most want to see would be: The Paperboy. That role sounds so sick and crazy... I think I would love it!