This week's Ask Nathaniel session didn't get as many questions as usual -- you were intimidated by the request for donations surely which sucks because life ain't free and we work hard here -- but here are 9 questions anyway because I'm such a giver. Let's start with a trip back to 1995 and move on to smackdowns, actressexual directors, Nicole Kidman in Paddington, and Hollywood's love of pairing older men with younger women...
Golden Globe Comedy Wins Don't Always Lead to Oscar Noms
COCO: I'm in a very 1995 mood. Were you obsessing and predicting twenty years ago?
NATHANIEL: LOL. Yes, I was. I've been obsessed since I first discovered the Oscars 82/83 (my family was mystified since none of them had interest) and started making list of "dream nominations" each year when I was a kid even though I didn't see most of the actual nominees since they were rated "R" (VERBOTEN!) so I was madly scribbling things like "Best Actress: Daryl Hannah for Splash !!!" and such early on. But honestly I can't remember when I started "predicting" in the classic sense but it was definitely before The Film Experience.
We'll be discussing 1995 at length in the July Smackdown so I'll save most of my comments for then but my biggest nail-biter and raucous-cheering and breath-holding was for Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas (who was my personal choice for the Oscar that year) since there were basically seven women with what seemed like actual traction for five spots. The oddwomen out were, of course, Jennifer Jason Leigh (Georgia) and Golden Globe Actress in a Musical or Comedy winner Nicole Kidman (To Die For). Nothing against Leigh and Kidman but I knew there was only room for 1 of them since Sarandon, Stone, Streep, Thompson were locked up for various reasons some valid some not. That year's Best Actress race was so overstuffed and incredible which is why it comes up so often in Oscar circles as a point of discussion.
On some posters (not this one) the tag line is "Raises screen acting to a new level of sexual knowingness" (!!!)PEDINHRO: What are your favorite movies with a female name in the title? My all time favorite is The Marriage of Maria Braun!
Well, you took the best one! Wait do you mean Best Title or Best Movie that just happens to have a female name in the title? If you mean best movie obviously I have to have things like Carrie and Annie Hall. But if you mean "Best Title" that's more fun so let's make it a whole top ten after the jump...
- The Marriage of Maria Braun
- Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
- To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar
- Pepi, Luci, Bom (and Other Girls Like Mom)
- The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
- All About Eve
- The Sin of Madelon Claudet
- The Story of Adele H
- The Unsinkable Molly Brown
- Run Lola Run
That's in no particular order but Germany is the MVP. Thanks Deutschland.
BJ: What performance are you most looking forward to revisiting among the remaining Smackdown years? What performance are you least looking forward to revisiting at some point?
From this summer's selected years I'm most excited to see Mare Winningham in Georgia (1995) and Nina Foch in Executive Suite (1954) because I loved both performances when I first saw the movies but I've only seen each once and probably not since the mid 90s in both cases! Least looking forward? That's mean. Um... I guess Jean Simmons in Hamlet (1948) because Shakespeare bores me from overfamiliarity and because I've never quite understood her appeal.
Speaking of Shakespeare I'm currently so disappointed that the Shakespeare in the Park, which used to be so adventurous here in Central Park each summer (they didn't used to only do Shakespeare plays) has been so 'Bard Only!' for the past few years. This summer they're doing The Tempest and Cymbelline neither with a cast I'm interested in. (sigh)
MORGANISAQT: If you could summon up a dream smackdown panel of people dead or alive (no shade on the awesome ones you have come up with), who would be on it and why and what year would you make them do?
George Cukor with "The Women"
If we're going strictly fantasy I know my answer immediately. I'd want a panel with famous actressexuals so I gotta have Tennessee Williams (a personal obsession) & George Cukor (a famous wit and great director). Then two actresses I could listen to talk all day about anything but about other actresses would be even better: Emma Thompson & Bette Davis. And because I'm obsessed with wondering how they talk to each other about movies / showbiz / art, The Beatty & The Bening. Voila. If any of them cancel at the last minute I sub in either Pauline Kael or Alfred Hitchcock to provoke them.
You greedily asked two questions and I don't want to reward this naughty behavior but as it turns out I really do want to answer the other one, too.
MORGANISAQT: What did you think of Nicole in Paddington? I thought she was excellent and it was a step in the right direction for her in terms of warming people up to her again and winning back public affection. If you were her agent where would you encourage her to go in her career now?
I am saddened to report that I didn't think much of her work in Paddington. Sally Hawkins really elevates the film but none of the other actors are doing much more than what's required. The film is cute but it's at war with itself, not content to let its quaint whimsical fable-like charms carry it (and they could because its often very charming) and continually erring on the side of more "excitement" (CGI slapstick action usually but sometimes just fussy business) which nearly always ruins the mood by muddying the tone and the pace. Kidman's boo-hiss cartoon villain role could've been done by anyone really and I need her to be more challenged.
If I were her agent I would be encouraging immense focus at this stage. She says yes to everything (it seems) but it might be wiser to spend time developing one really great project or just lay low after all this non-stop working for one year and come back with some killer showcase, when people start missing her (I suspect that tactic is going to work well for Anne Hathaway). It'd be great if the comeback role was meaty enough (like a Rabbit Hole) that it could distract people from their obnoxious focus on discussing her face and age. I feel like paying for a nationally televised PSA: "Everyone ages. Including beautiful actresses. Get used to it."
CHARLES O: Do you have a favorite Oscar category (besides actresses)? One that you specifically adore and pay extra attention to?
I think it's obvious given the charts I cook up each year that Foreign Film is one for me. Mostly I find it fascinating because of the selection process both outside Oscar and when it comes to Oscar and since I far prefer foreign films to American indies. Foreign films used to be a big deal for the arthouses but for whatever reason the breakout of the American indie scene stole their thunder in the 90s and it's been a decline ever since in terms of their place in the US marketplace which is maddening. Because they actually provide alternative points of view and filmmaking aeshetics far far more often than American indies do which can be as safe and generic as Hollywood albeit within their own subset of particulars.
Other categories? I deeply love what we've been referring as "The Moulin Rouge! Categories" for years. Production Design and Costuming are infinitely more important to the success of a movie than most people realize or that they ever get credit for. That's your 'world building' right there. If the world convinces you and fascinates you and invites you in to its specificities and aids the actors they're doing outstanding work.
3RTFUL: What would Meryl Streep's career look like if she were not cast in Sophie's Choice?
Sorry for all the Streep Detractors but I think it would pretty much be the same. While it's true that Sophie's Choice did cement her in the American consciousness as "The Greatest Living Actress" very early in her career (she'd only been in movies for 5 or 6 years!) and she's been able to coast on that title ever since (when she was genius and when she wasn't) her consistent diverse output in one critical darling and popular hit after another from the late 70s through the mid 80s (essentially The Deer Hunter through Out of Africa) would have still granted her this title. It was an undeniably classic run. And the rest of her 80s output, while less popular, continued to wow people with the chameleonism. If anything Sophie's Choice sucks up too much of the oxygen in the myth of Streep because she's better, I'd argue, in Silkwood (1983) and at the very least the film is a much greater film. Her other work in the 80s is often sublime, too, if not quite on Sophie's Choice level.
I think in retrospect people like to pretend that she was in a tight battle for The Actress Crown with Sissy Spacek and Jessica Lange in the late 70s early 80s, but that wasn't totally the case. Jessica and Sissy's films (with one indisputable exception each) were never the giant smashes / instant classics that Streep's regularly were. And by the time Kathleen Turner (to whom Streep is almost never compared) and Glenn Close (to whom she is almost always compared) ascended with major hits and critical esteem in the latter half of the 80s, Streep had already claimed the title for good.
JOHN T: An actress almost never discussed on the blog here: thoughts on Marsha Mason and what is a favorite performance?
I feel like we're always discussing her but that might just be because of the comments section and our communal Best Actress preference and that recent post on Cinderella Liberty (1973). But I guess not. I missed the Mason fanaticism -- I was too young when she was popular and her leading lady career was over by the time I was aware of movies -- she barely worked at all in the 1980s! My favorite performance of hers was in Chapter Two (1979) but I haven't seen it since somewhen in the 1980s on VHS I think so I don't remember it at all.
PAUL OUTLAW: I was thinking about A Fish Called Wanda... There was a 19-year age difference between Cleese and Curtis (11 between Kline and Curtis). Are there any major films where you don't find this icky or otherwise sexist?
I actually love Cleese & Curtis together in that movie but that's not normally the case with age-differences. I don't find it as distracting in older movies - maybe it's the black and white remove? No offense to integenerational couples but it's clearly an example of sexism the way Hollywood does it. I was so angry hearing about this new movie co-starring Hugh Jackman (46 but looks older) and Rooney Mara (30 but looks younger) and I hope against hope that they're not romantically paired. I mean did anyone buy that Rooney Mara was old enough to be Joaquin Phoenix's ex in Her (that took me out of the movie, that 11 year age difference - did she drop out of high school to marry him?) I think when you stretch much beyond, I don't know, 10 years age difference it can be distracting unless the age difference is an intrinsic part of the story or maturity level of the characters (which is why it works so well in Gone With the Wind). Male actors need to check their egos and tell the studios they want equal screen partners, not just beautiful girls. It would end up benefitting their careers and actually doesn't emphasize their age as much as seeing them with a dewy young thing. The biggest romantic dramas and most popular romantic comedies nearly always featured similarly aged actors. Let's look at the most successful movies of all time that depend heavily on their romantic sparks to work and become the behemoth blockbusters they were.
- Gone With the Wind (1939) 12 year age difference
- The Sound of Music (1965) 6 year age difference... (and any more would have tipped the already precarious power balance and made that coupling more uncomfortable.)
- Titanic (1997) 1 year age difference
- Doctor Zhivago (1965) 11 year age difference
- The Graduate (1968) 3 year age difference... though hilariously "Mrs Robinson" who was 'the older woman' was only 6 years older than Hoffman and only 9 years older than her screen daughter
- Grease (1978) 6 year age difference - the woman is older (!)
- Love Story (1970) 2 year age difference - the woman is older (!)
- Spider-Man (2002) 7 year age difference
- Cleopatra (1963) 7 year age difference
- My Fair Lady (1964) 21 year age difference (...and it's gross even though it's part of the story)
- Superman (1978) 4 year age difference - the woman is older (!)
- Tootsie (1982) 12 year age difference
- West Side Story (1961) same age
- Ghost (1990) 10 year age difference
Anyway we'll stop there because we could go on all day but obviously being closer in age reads better visually and often helps with chemistry as this "most successful" sampling should underline. Need more proof: consider Kevin Costner's insane chemistry with Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham (she's 6 years older) or Joan Allen (in Upside of Anger, she's 1 year younger). Consider that Daniel Day Lewis often reads asexual onscreen but he was suddenly all sexually sparky with a woman his own age (Michelle Pfeiffer & Madeline Stowe both only one year younger). Consider that Mel Gibson was always sexiest with an older woman as co-star (Sigourney Weaver & Diane Keaton & Tina Turner). The list goes on.
They were all born within a 13 month time frame from January 1974 through January 1975
I mean Channing Tatum is currently co-starring with women his own age but in 10 years time we can safely bet he'll still be paired with women from his current age range. Male movie stars age but their onscreen partners don't and I'd argue this is one of the reasons male stars are less exciting as they age. They need an equal screen partner to up their game. Hell, the only reason the Bradley Cooper / Jennifer Lawrence thing has been working is because her star presence is so huge as to obliterate the normal concerns that come with visible age difference but even so the best chemistry in American Hustle is Amy Adams in any direction (within 1 year of both Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale).