A Midwestern 80s Moment: Kathleen, Meryl, Terri, Lesley

I'm sure it was because I lived in Michigan in the 1980s and that's when John Hughes movies were always in theaters but it seemed (to young me) that the Midwest was Hollywood-Hot back then. So this one goes out to all the Midwestern readers and to four fine actresses who are often associated with the 1980s though one of them has clearly transcended our puny mortal concepts of time.

So we'll start with her...

Indiana
If you're a Meryl Streep fan -- and who isn't? -- and you live anywhere near Indiana University you should know that there's a free "evening with Meryl" at the college next month. (Why Indiana? Her husband Don Gummer studied there in the 60s). Free tickets for the public are available on November 3rd in the morning (for the Nov 12th event). I'm sure the lines will be long to snag one but Meryl will be discussing her career with IU alumnus Jane Pauley and there's even a Q&A afterwards.

Missouri
Cinema St. Louis just honored Kathleen Turner with a lifetime achievement award on Sunday and We Are Movie Geeks was there to tell you about it. Can any Missouri-located readers answer me this: Does the Cinema St. Louis always have such good taste? Kathleen is in Missouri with her new play "High" which co-stars Broadway great Michael Berresse (Tony nominee, Kiss Me Kate). Kathleen was born in Missouri sowhile she's in town, why not throw an event in her honor?

Inset: in St. Louis for her lifetime achievement prize, Oct 2010.
Main: at the AFI Michael Douglas night (with CZJ) in June 2009.

I love Kathleen nearly as much as Roger loved Jessica Rabbit so I mean this with the utmost fondness, but she just so doesn't care about things that celebrities are supposed to care about. Note that she wore the EXACT SAME OUTFIT to this event that she wore to the AFI Michael Douglas event. Oh, Kathleen. You're just not even trying to be "showbiz". It's all about the art of the theater for Kathleen now which I'm not knocking. Her "Martha" in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was one of the greatest performances my eyes have ever witnessed and my ears have ever heard.

Michigan & Illinois
Teri just wanted to say "Hey."

Upon discovering that she didn't have her own label at TFE she let out a torrential stream of the brown word that we haven't heard since her multiple "sh**" freakouts in Tootsie ! No one speaks of Teri Garr anymore but I've always respected her as one of the only Hollywood types to publicly bitch about Category Fraud at the Oscars. You'd bitch about it too (at least in private) if you thought you could have won if the co-lead of your movie weren't competing in your category.

The dearly departed blog StinkyLulu once did a smackdown about the 1982 Best Supporting Actress race. Oscar went with Jessica Lange but Teri was hilarious in that movie and the Smackdown made it a tie. Still, my imaginary retrospective Oscar vote will always belong to Lesley Ann Warren in Victor/Victoria.

(Chicago) Illinois
Pookieeee. hhmwwhhmmiiiII'mhorneeeeeeeeeeey"



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Okay, now back to 2010.
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Marion Cotillard's New Endorsement Gig

LOL

Forehead Tittaes w/ Marion Cotillard from Marion Cotillard

I absolutely love the musical score (so perfect) and that we get a cameo from Lesley Ann Warren at the end. And that her tittaes are less perky, haha. Surely you know how I feel about Lesley Ann Warren.

In semi-related news, here's another short film entry in her actual endorsement deal (for Dior) that we first told you about in last May. This time she's singing (yay!) and getting sahxy in a hot red dress. Yum. No, I'm not ready to consider my feelings about La Vie En Rose. Leave it be!

Straight-Jacket Inspired Top Ten

This episode of Tuesday Top Ten is accidentally sponsored by Final Girl's Film Club

I'm a day late to this blog event but as a Crawford Fan (capital intended), my actressexual guilt forced me into caboose position here. I had to watch Straight Jacket all the way through and chime in even if I didn't really have the time.


Joan Crawford stars as Lucy Harbin, a woman who axed her philandering husband and his lover to death in a crime of passion. Cut to twenty years later and Lucy is released from the asylum and returns home to live with her now grown daughter (who had witnessed the murders). Is Lucy still insane? Hallucinations, mood swings, high speed knitting, dressing room breakdowns and attempts to seduce her daughter's fiance suggest that she's not exactly a picture of mental health. But is she still... (gasp) an axe murderer? Decapitated bodies start piling up.

Unsurprisingly, despite it's "bad movie we love" status, Crawford is terrific in the picture. But then she was always ahead of her material or, perhaps stated more accurately, ferociously committed to it no matter what it happened to be. It's this same steel and conviction that sometimes read as scary and stiff (and probably encouraged her mass dismissal later on once Mommie Dearest came around to mess with her legacy) It's also a key reason why she was so perfect for the surprise third (fourth?) act in her career in grotesques like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Berserk! and Straight Jacket. She was a crucial force in the decade-long run of the Grand Guignol horror film, a fad that gave plum opportunities to aging actresses if they were willing to let themselves go (emotionally and physically) onscreen.

I'd love to see this genre have a revival wouldn't you? But not with remakes! Why make another Baby Jane? for example. Part of the whole fun of this type of thing is seeing how inventively deranged a plot or a part can get. If you know the bloody situation and the feminine psychosis from other movies, where's the sick surprise and the (meat) hook?

10 Actresses Who Should Star in Grand Guignol Films

...minus Glenn Close, who's been playing gargoyles for years even without the excuse of genre. I also limited my selections to anybody 50 or under because you really have to have mileage on you. I'm intrigued by the idea of Jennifer Tilly in one of these type of pictures, with her ability to deliver a serious performance that also has stylized comic beats (see Bound) but she's still too young / young-seeming, even at 50.

10 Lesley Ann Warren (62) The way I see it the Grand Guignol is basically the Quentin Tarantino of curio genres, offering second chances to forgotten or dusty film stars. With the right director and screenplay, Warren --who often played girlish sexual women -- might curdle in interesting ways.

09 Cher (62) Admit it. You want to see her in a movie again. Bonus points if Eric Stoltz, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci appear as her troubled, concerned or abusive brood.

08 Dianne Wiest (60) Because she can do anything superbly.

07 Ronee Blakley (63) Only because her meltdown in Nashville (1975) is one of the most honest, idiosyncratic and riveting implosions I've ever seen onscreen. She hasn't acted in 20 years and if this genre can resurrect people...

06 Kathleen Turner (54) provided she played it straighter than her Serial Mom triumph. Turner is a bawdy and game gal. With the right director...

05 Debra Winger (53) I adore the documentary Searching For Debra Winger in both real and satiric ways. Wouldn't it be a hoot to fictionalize it / horrorize (word!) it and send a troupe of unsuspecting actress sycophants to her creepy self-isolating mansion in wherever. What they find might be shocking. We all know that Winger excels at buried fury (think of all those sexy/angry 80s lead roles) and layered subtext-ridden detachment (Go see Rachel Getting Married now)

04 Jane Fonda (71) Her last Oscar nomination, 22 years ago with The Morning After (1986), was born from the mainstream thriller genre. Since then she's barely acted wasting her enormous dramatic gift. Wouldn't it be a thrill to see her dishevelled and masochistic again: They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Redux!

03 Sally Kirkland (67) She fought for and won a welcome Oscar nomination way back in 1987 when "campaigning" for awards wasn't as corporatized as it now is. The film was Anna a character study about a despairing actress past her prime. Kirkland is probably in on the red carpet joke that she's been selling/making of herself for years but it's sad that another role as good as "Anna" never materialized. That moment when she watches the celluloid melt remains one of my most vivid memories from my nascent days of cinephilia.

02 Piper Laurie (76) I'm just gonna say it: I thought she was a-w-f-u-l in Dead Girl (2006), whilst basically reprising her Carrie role. Still... 32 years after Carrie her monster mother with blood-curdlingly funny sexual/religious baggage is still an unequalled master class in wacko grand guignol. It begs to be reprised (with a twist) if the genre is ever reborn. I'd give her that second shot at sequelizing herself.



01 Sharon Stone (50) For my number one choice I'm breaking the age rule. Or am I? You just know Sharon started lying about her age when she was 20: Ambitious girls think ahead! Stone is exactly the kind of frozen-in-time movie queen that this genre likes to thaw in order to take an axe an ice pick to what remains.
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"like the Fourth of July, every time!"

With you it's like pow! pow! pow! -- like the Fourth of July, every time!

TTT: Lesley Ann Warren

Since I don't have my normal access to time and photoshop, Tuesday Top Ten today is a pity party story of yours truly. I wasn't actually due @ Indianapolis until today but I flew in two days early because Lesley Ann Warren was going to be at this party for the 10th anniversary of Going All The Way (which also curiously marked my 10th anniversary of semi regular film festival attendance since I saw that feature at Sundance 10 whole years ago) So, yeah, flew in 48 hours early to meet Lesley Ann -- I'm that way when it comes to actresses. Anyhow... her being a celebrity she didn't show to the party. She didn't even show in Indianapolis. But perhaps it was for the best...

Ten Embarrassing Things Nathaniel Might Have Done Upon Meeting Lesley Ann Warren

awkward icebreakers

10 Told her about the festival volunteer who said "Who is Lesley Ann Warren?" in all sincerity when I expressed excitement about meeting her. Comfortable!

09 Waited impatiently for any anecdote from anyone at the party that included the line "too make a long story short..." so I could interrupting shout "TOO LATE!" like Lesley & I were reenacting Clue. Movie stars surely love to relive ancient movie jokes.

08 Confessed that I always play Miss Scarlett in "Clue". If some evil soul snatches her up first: I go with Green, White, Plum, Peacock, or Mustard...in that order.

07 Demanded to speak to her manager about her abundant "mom of...", cameos, and tv guest spots. Musicals are back --look into it. Get it together manager 'o' Lesley!

inappropriate & inebriated

06 Told her about the time my friend and I (parents safely asleep) tried to freeze frame a VHS copy of Choose Me to catch a glimpse of Keith Carradine's goodies. We were unsuccessful: maybe she can fill us in on what we missed?

05 Demanded a play by play of A Night in Heaven particulary the scene where Christopher Atkins (playing her student who just happens to be a local lusted after stripper and he's hot for teacher too -scandal!) shoves her hand down his pants. That was so not "simulated"...details, Lesley, details.

04 (Still drunk) Asked if she still gets mistaken for Susan Sarandon (an 80s problem) and for the charming follow up question: please rank your jealousy re: your divergent 90s careers on a scale of 1 to 10.

Descent into Victor/Victoria madness

03 Bombarded her with endless questions about Oscar night March 1983 despite our conversation taking place in April 2007. (Perhaps cried salty 40 proof tears when describing her loss. She so deserved it.)

02 Proclaimed in best Norma Cassady voice "Lesley--iiiIII'm Horny!"

01 Refused to leave her side until she agreed to call me "Pooky"

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Hump Day Hottie: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Whilst ordering the Boyfriend around this morning he mentioned to me that it was Administrative Assistants Day and I should pay him for his efforts...or at least send flowers. Never mind all that, I said, (i must be a joy to live with!) for my mind had already drifted from administrative assistants to Secretary to the perfect choice for today's Hump Day Hottie Maggie Gyllenhaal, and I suddenly had a blog post to write. (That's when I came across this bizarre picture to your left which I had to use)

I don't really recommend ignoring your boyfriend secretary / assistant to daydream about movies. And if you're at work it's particular unwise to dream about Maggie's secretary. Please don't chain your admin to their desk or make them fetch your mail with their teeth. Can you say lawsuit?

I really don't get all that S&M stuff (so, no, Secretary is not my fav Maggie film by a longshot). My knowledge of S&M is about on par with Judy Bernly's:

And if I want to have an affair,
or play sex games, or do M&M's, you can't stop me!

Speaking of indelible moments with Jane Fonda. I think Maggie is molten lava hot in a very specific early 70s Fonda 'don't f*** with me' way --particularly in movies like Sherrybaby and Stranger Than Fiction. So her submissive Secretary part isn't the turn-on. But she's a fine actress and getting finer all the time. And I don't mean to suggest that her charisma is limited to the more intimidating roles. There is a sweetness to her that peaks out to soften those edges at perfectly chosen moments. Plus there's the entourage adding luster: talented parents, superstar brother, new baby girl and Peter Sarsgaard (and they are adorable together).

I recently reread my 2005 actress of the aughts list which is now a year and a half old. It was intended as a halfway bookmark of sort for the 'best of decade' lists. Since it's tabulation, Maggie is the actress that's made the most enormous leaps and bounds forward. If she keeps this up she could be shaking up the top ten ranks when the decade closes. So here's to Maggie.


Back to Secretary to wrap this up and bring it back to me (me! me! me! god, I'm insufferable today. My apologies). Lesley Ann Warren co-stars as Maggie's mom in that provocative movie. Warren was a fixture of my training wheels stage in movie fanaticism (circa 1982-1985) and she's a special guest of the Indianapolis International Film Festival this weekend which I told you I'm doing jury duty for. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get the chance to meet her at the gala to thank her for Clue, Choose Me and Victor/Victoria in particular. If that happens, I'll share the moment with you right here.