Horror Actressing: Eva Green in "Dark Shadows"
Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 7:40PM by Jason Adams
I don't think before today that I've written of a terrific performance trapped inside a truly terrible movie for our "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series. (No Frankenhooker is actually a terrific movie, don't you dare.) But we do what we have to in order to bow down to a stellar queen like Eva Green here on the occasion of her 40th birthday, and unfortunately for me that meant suffering through for a second time Tim Burton's 2012 big-screen flop of a reboot of the Dark Shadows television soap opera. Oh the exquisite agony, but she really is that good...
In a movie chockablock with smear-banged vampires and their painted-on abs, disco-dancing werewolves, Jackie Earle Haleys, it's somehow Green's fabulous Angelique Bouchard who's played up as the movie's big villain. And yet... she is Eva Green, so we know better. She is life, its sharp beating heart, its grand guignol shriek of funhouse pitter patter. The movie dawdles aimlessly around in the scenes where Angelique's not on-screen, the trilling song of a pre-popped jack-in-the-box puttering in our ears, until POP there she is, and the movie's suddenly worth watching again. (Sidenote lest Nathaniel bust my head open: I do not include Michelle Pfeiffer, permanent goddess, in this critique -- she is exempt and as always fabulous, though given criminally little to do.)
In order to steel myself for this re-watch I also went back and re-watched the wonderful second episode of Eva's wonderful show Penny Dreadful, the one with the seance -- and if you know what I'm talking about you know what I am talking about; you could never forget the one with the seance -- and it was funny to see how much sly overlap there is in Eva's fraught physicality for the both roles. Because who the hell needs CG when you've got Eva Green's crazy malleable face?
I don't know if there's any actress out there who knows her angles quite the way Eva Green does -- or maybe she's just got more angles? All of the angles. She can slide her astonishing beauty into goggle-eyed grotesquerie seemingly at will. A snap of the head, a small shift of the light -- she brought the dark shadows with her, and they bend to her command. It's as if demon possession is a single flick of an eyebrow away with her at all times.
She waltzes on through Dark Shadows with the scenery dragging behind her from between her grinning fangs, and everybody, me included, just stands there in awe letting it happen. Hell even a second time, for her. I did it all just for you, Eva Green!
Reader Comments (15)
Green is spectacular in this movie. She has a gift of knowing exactly what the movie needs even if all the other actors and even the director don't seem to. Without her would anyone ever talk about this movie? Apparently she was second choice for Catwoman in Dark Knight Rises and after Anne Hathaway was cast Green was free to do this movie. The roles are similar, the seductive purring voiced femme fatale and I'm constantly wondering how Green would have done in that part. Hathaway was great but was probably going to win the Oscar that year anyway. If Green is in the biggest movie of the year does her career change? Does she get more work, or at least offered better movies?
I tried to watch this but I couldn’t even make it half way. I love these actresses but this is a boring mess and Depp is completely unbearable.
I had NO IDEA Eva Green was almost Catwoman and now my brain is BROKEN, imagining what we missed out on. I mean I'm biased since I hated TDKR and thought Anne was totally forgettable in it -- even though I liked her most of the time! I'm not a Hatha-hater -- but what I'd give to see Eva's take! She would have ONCE AGAIN been the best thing about a bad movie, haha
It's an OK film but... Eva stole the fucking show in that film as she was just fun to watch.
Kate Mara was third choice for Catwoman.
Eva Green as Catwoman would have been PERFECTION.
Dark Shadows, 300: Rise of an Empire, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Dumbo. They are examples of Miss Eva Green's extraordinary work in poor films. She has a presence and a talent that always stands out but it is unfortunate that it is in poor films, why would it be?
Tom G: I'm...I REALLY don't see Eva Green working in Nolan's stable of performers, though?
Harmodio: I'd actually call 300: Rise of an Empire a good film (not a great one, but a good one), SOLELY because of her, and she'd be my personal pick for the Best Actress of 2014. Without her, it's as good or slightly weaker than the original movie.
They should have never cancelled "Penny Dreadful"
Eva Green is the real deal; extremely talented with a mesmerizing screen presence, and never afraid to commit. Plus, her favorite actress is Isabelle Adjani, so she has great taste.
Penny Dreadful was a terrific showcase for her and the rest of the wonderful ensemble; I was so bummed when it ended.
Love Eva Green but as Tim Burton & Depp have both long since become unbearable I have avoided seeing this. I also love the original show and my loyalty to it is still strong.
Has any actress I love been in fewer films worthy of her talent?
I think she just has Casino Royale and The Dreamers as the ones where she is not holding up the whole production like Atlas. Am I forgetting anything?
Michael C: No, I think that's about it. And that's really...pathetic. Imagine her in, say, The Theory of Everything. Or...ooh. Gone Girl. If they leaned into Eva Green with...honestly minor rewrites... she'd be at least AS GOOD as Pike, if in a different way.
Nolan’s Catwoman was Catwoman in Name only. Anne wasn’t convincing and didn’t have a good chemistry with Bale at all. If it was Batgirl then it may have fitted the character better. Eva would have definitely brought the femme fatale angle that the character needed.
Golden: 1. Its Bale. NO ONE'S really had good romantic chemistry with him. 2. That movie absolutely needed Batgirl (and...didn't...need either Catwoman OR Robin John Blake), but I'm also not sure Anne Hathaway would have worked that well for Barbara Gordon Batgirl either. She's not a femme fatale, but she's also not the brainy girl. Would Warner Bros. really allow Nolan to use Bette Kane to better fit casting Hathaway? Would Nolan assent to Warner Bros. forcing him to use Ellen Page (who, sorry, does make more sense for Barbara Gordon) again?