Thursday, May 14, 2009

"I only have tender feelings for you, only love!"

Hi, everybody! JA from MNPP here. Y'all know who's turning 40 today, correct? I mean, besides Danny from New Kids on the Block (not that I don't wish Danny from New Kids on the Block a happy birthday, I do, but this is not the place for that, the time and place for that is when I'm lighting candles at the foot of my NKOTB shrine hidden in my closet at home like I do every night before I go to bed and yes I have said too much)...

That's right, it's Cate Blanchett's 40th today! If I were Nathaniel I might interject something here about that's one year for every seventeen films she's made, but I am not Nathaniel, so set those worries aside my fellow Cate lovers. We're here to love unequivocally, quibble-free, the lady deserves every Oscar she can get her frosty fingertips on as far as I'm concerned.

For Miss Blanchett's birthday just last year I did a post listing my five favorite performances of hers and my list hasn't changed since then (let us not speak of Benjamin Button ever, please), so I'll refrain from any listing spectacle of that sort. Instead, let's just soak for a moment in her visual splendor since the camera's always doing that sort of thing...


My god! Her face! Her face! Sorry to spazz out, but... well, her face! Sublime, she is sublime. End geek-out. I could just stare at that face for hours on end. So here's to forty more years of haunting us with that bone structure lady! And another forty on top of that! Blanchett forever!
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25 comments:

NATHANIEL R said...

Blanchett at 120 years of age? You are a real slave driver.

still, i bet the bone structure holds up

Jason Adams said...

And just think - she'll have made approximately five billion movies by then, and won about 300 million Oscars, if everything goes the way it has been going!

adelutza said...

What it is about today? First I get a dancing lesson from Penelope and Nicole and now I take a smoke break with Cate? Please keep this day going!

Catherine said...

God, seeing that picture of Galadriel just brought back a flood of memories. I'm pretty sure that character is the reason I love cinema.

mrripley said...

my fave blanchett perf is probably he least liked the shipping news "nibble nibble little mouse"

Anonymous said...

I love her, not only she's an amazing actress, she's also glamorous and her bone structure is great. My faves Cate Blanchett performances are:

1. Elizabeth
2. Little Fish (Underrated film and performance)
3. Heaven
4. I'm Not There
5. Notes on a Scandal

Tory said...

I disagree and thought she was fantastic in the Curious Case of Benjamin Button! My top 5 are:

1-The Aviator
2-Elizabeth
3-Little Fish
4-Notes on a Scandal
5-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I love her more than I can say. I SO WANTED to see her in A Streetcar Named Desire or Hedda Gabbler. Extremly talented, gifted, and layered actress with a hint of "she's not doing it right" type of feel. She's incredibly original and I just love watching her play in every film. My list would include I'm Not There, which she was the best part of the film, but the movie was just a damn mess. I got it, and then I didn't, and then I didn't care...

Tory Smith

PS: Looking forward to Robin Hood

Karen said...

She's a goodie!

Cross said...

Finally, some overdue Cate lovin'.

You give me hope and warm fuzzies, JA. :)

abstew said...

thanks for including one my favorite cate performances as meredith logue (yes, of the textial logues...) she just bursts into that movie with such a refreshing energy.
and OSCAR AND LUCINDA. i love that movie. when the church made of glass goes down the river, and when she cries in it later... my heart(like the glass) breaks a little.

Benji said...

I love her too. Happy birthday, Cate!
And take note, Nathaniel: Your Ms. Ubiquitous has not a single (*gasp*) film coming out this year!

Fernando Moss said...

She gave her best performance to date in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Happy Bday Cate.

Murtada said...

Love her, love her, love her.

She's fantastic. Maybe my fave role of hers is Meredith Logue in The Talented Mr Ripley. She was so casually snobish; don't think I've ever seen that character portrayed so vividly.

Here's to you Cate the Great!

Deborah said...

I have loved her ever since I saw Elizabeth, which I DID NOT LIKE, and yet I knew she was magical, beautiful, and stunningly talented.

Everything I see her in, whether or not it's a good movie, I love her more.

My Gods, Bandits. She is so amazing in Bandits.

NATHANIEL R said...

my favorite Cate performance is also THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY

Guy Lodge said...

Yes, "Bandits" indeed -- thank you, Deborah.

Her first scene there -- cooking/dancing to Bonnie Tyler -- is one of my favourite pick-me-ups. I wish she'd do more comedy.

Anonymous said...

I love her sooo much...and I'm not the only one...or so it seems...
my Blanchett top-10
1) I'M NOT THERE my favorite supporting performance of 2007...the best Dylan of the movie
2) ELIZABETH what a glorious (international) breakthrough
3) LITTLE FISH simply the best in a too much underappreciated gem!!!
4) THE LIFE ACQUATIC WITH...she should have win the Oscar with this one...just my humble opinion
5) THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING...her Galadriel is so perfect that she deserved at least a nomination...academy didn't agree...
6) BENJAMIN BUTTON...And some people, dance
7) THE TALENTED MR RIPLEY....such an intriguing presence...much more than her movie...
8) THE AVIATOR...I'm not a great fan of this perf (am I the only one?) but I can't deny Kate Hepburn is a challenging role
9) COFFEE AND CIGARETTES...fantastic in a double role...my favorite segment of the movie
10) BANDITS...so charming in a comic role...she even makes me love a Barry Levinson movie...not an easy task, definitely...

so, happy birthday, dazzling siren...and thanks for everything!!!

mirko s.

NicksFlickPicks said...

But yep, my favorites are also Ripley and Jude/Dylan. The Gift, as much as I hated the movie, and her defiantly weird characterization in The Missing, another movie that's impossible to really love, are probably close at 3rd and 4th.

Also love her in An Ideal Husband, where she plays the archetype of the loosened-up Victorian wife in a way that you finally believe she's an upper-class Victorian wife and she feels credibly loosened up. Funny and touching.

Wayne B. said...

Re-watched "Elizabeth: Golden Age" last night and was pleasantly surprised to find I'd judged the movie too harshly; Blanchett is ferocious at times. It deflates though after Mary Stuart's storyline is completed; where were some prizes for Samantha Morton?

Love the following performances:

*The Aviator - She livens up the show and it loses spark after she discovers Spencer. Love how it seems like she's performing for Howard when they first meet and she peels away layers til you see a person underneath.
*Elizabeth - The arc she goes through from being fresh romantic Elizabeth to austere virginal Queen is interesting to watch. The journey is in her eyes; how she slowly becomes more accepting and resigned to her fate.
*The Gift - This one was a complete surprise; until this point always pictured Blanchett as a "corset queen." Her intelligence and strength of heart really comes through in how she tries to help her town.
*The Missing - I never understood why this movie got such an apathetic reaction. It's a decent continuation of the western genre; I love how they include Native medicine as part of the plot. Blanchett is aces as a tough healer whose little girl wounds are opened once again.
*The Talented Mr. Ripley - So charming as Meredith Logue; an intriguing personality underneath that well-dressed shell. Apologies to Jack Davenport but I'd pull a Ripley and choose her over him.

Anonymous said...

OMG, hopefully this means her career is over now?

Andrew David said...

Thanks for the post! Probably the high point of my life when I saw her playing Richard II on stage!

Glenn said...

Bandits doesn't get enough love. It never did. She was so good in that! As she is in basically everything. Talented Mr Ripley! The Good German! The Aviator! Elizabeth! I'm Not There! Heaven! etc!

Guy Lodge said...

I should add that, my "Bandits" love aside, I still think her greatest performance is in "Heaven." That whole film needs a reappraisal.

Anonymous said...

A great actress is like a chameleon - she changes her characters so brilliantly. Three actresses who fit this scenario are Meryl Streep, Bette Davis, and Katharine Hepburn. Cate has managed to achieve this same level of greatness with every performance that she gives.

Happy birthday Cate!!

Jesue V // FILM MUSIC ART blog said...

Happy birthday to Cate!
40 and still looking beautiful. But I have to agree, her performance in Benjamin Button was a let-down for me if you compare that with her past works. But she never loses her mesmerizing screen presence which not a lot of actors have. Can't wait to see her in Robin Hood next year.