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Any other Gwyneth Paltrow fans here?
ednbarby:
Or is it just me?
I just watched "Sliding Doors" again. Found it in the Target discount bin for $5.50. I ain't jokin'. I'd only ever seen it once years ago and loved it, but that was back when I only watched movies once and I was good. What was I thinking?
I realized after watching this again tonight that I've never seen her in anything where I didn't end up caring *so much* about her character that I just wanted - no, yearned - for her to be happy in the end.
I think she and Maggie are the best young actresses we've got. I find I yearn the same for all the characters Maggie plays. They both just come right through the screen. Of course Judi Dench will always be my queen. Screw Helen Mirren. I mean, she's great. But Judi Dench is God.
And Gwyneth. I just adore her.
fernly:
I haven't seen that many of her films (yes, I have been living under a rock ;D), but the one that made the biggest impression on me was her role as an unsympathetic character in "Flesh and Bone." I hadn't heard of her at that point (1993) and her performance in that one was just like you describe, it came "right through the screen".
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: ednbarby on April 13, 2007, 10:58:33 pm ---Of course Judi Dench will always be my queen. Screw Helen Mirren. I mean, she's great. But Judi Dench is God.
--- End quote ---
Careful. Tonight I just watched the first disc of Elizabeth I, with Helen Mirren. She was superb. She made a much better Elizabeth I than Judi Dench (as in Shakespeare in Love). The best Elizabeth I since Glenda Jackson in the 1970s.
Judi was wonderful as Victoria in Mrs. Brown, however. (But--something I thought impossible--she was awful, I mean painfully awful, in The Importance of Being Earnest. Must have been bad directing, it couldn't have been Judi's fault. ...)
So I'll take Helen for Elizabeth I and Judi for Queen Victoria. ;D
ednbarby:
I haven't seen The Importance of Being Earnest. Perhaps I'd better continue to avoid it...
Mrs. Brown was when I first came to worship her. I still hold (yet another) grudge against the stupid Academy for awarding Helen Hunt that year for a "performance" in which she couldn't even properly maintain a Brooklyn accent, let alone make me care about her character.
Judi made Victoria's grief palpable. Her face in some of those early scenes is still burned on my memory. And she's who made me weep uncontrollably for five minutes just by the way she spoke one line - one word, really - in a play I saw her in years ago. Only she and Heath have ever done that to me.
I'll have to check out Elizabeth I. I really loved how Cate Blanchett played the young Elizabeth, but I'd like to see a depiction of the latter days of her reign (haven't seen the Glenda Jackson one, either).
Jeff Wrangler:
I seriously recommend that you do continue to avoid The Importance of Being Earnest. All-in-all it's one of my most favorite plays, but the whole take on it in the film was just ... so wrong.
Don't know if you know the play, but Judi played Lady Bracknell. In the play, there is a wonderful line where Lady Bracknell is described as being "a monster without being a myth, which is unfair." Well, in the film, Lady Bracknell wasn't a monster, she was a terribly ordinary person, and that's just not right.
Judi was soooo wonderful in Mrs. Brown. That was the first thing I ever saw her in. She did, indeed, make Victoria's grief palpable.
In retrospect I realize I was very unfair to Cate Blanchett when I wrote last night. (J.W. slaps self up side the head and dictates memo to self: Don't write movie criticism while drinking scotch and water.) She did make a good young Elizabeth. I allowed my loathing for the unbelieveably bad history in that film to warp my judgment of her performance.
I'm afraid I can't help that. Tudor history is one of my passions, and the history as portrayed in Elizabeth is just ... wrong. The old BBC/Masterpiece Theatre Elizabeth R miniseries with Glenda Jackson is available on DVD (I own it on tape). Some dramatic license with history was taken there, too, of course, but less than in Elizabeth I (Mirren) and much less than in Elizabeth (Blanchett).
While I'm on the subject, I might as well put in my recommendation for the old Six Wives of Henry VIII, also a miniseries from the 1970s, which, obviously, preceded Elizabeth R, and is also available on DVD. Keith Michell, who played the king, gave the definitive screen portrayal of Henry VIII. Since I don't have premium cable channels, I'm not watching The Tudors, and from what I've read of it I probably wouldn't watch it anyway. Jonathan Rhys Meyers may be able to capture Henry emotionally, but he quite literally doesn't have the physical presence to be Henry VIII.
Sorry, this has strayed awfully far from Gwyneth Paltrow. I adored her in Shakespeare in Love. Her mother was and is a great beauty, and Gwyneth is, too.
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