Saturday 20 February 2010

Performance of the Decade


12 comments:

  1. Excllent choice, though my own is Julianne Moore for FAR FROM HEAVEN.

    The three runners-ups that push closest are:

    Galina Vishnavskaya (“Alexandre”)
    Laura Dern (“Inland Empire”)
    Bjork (“Dancer in the Dark”)

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  2. Yeah, there's really no contest. It's such a multilayered performance, one that gets richer and better every time I see this movie. Great still choices, too.

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  3. Thanks, Sam.

    I haven't seen "Alexandre", I'm afraid. Time and again Lynch has the ability to bring out the best in his actresses.

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  4. Thank you Ed.

    I've only just noticed that Miss Watts in Mulholland Drive is your 'avatar'.

    "Great still choices, too."

    Thanks. I'm especially happy with the wink.

    It is a multi-layered performance that never feels like an actor's showcase, choosing different colours from their palette just to show their versatility.

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  5. Well, nothing to argue about here, I guess.

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  6. Now just imagine where she could've taken this character if the pilot had gone to series...

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  7. "Well, nothing to argue about here, I guess."

    Hahaha!

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  8. "Now just imagine where she could've taken this character if the pilot had gone to series..."

    Oh absolutely, Bob.

    I've only recently come across deleted scenes from that putative pilot and mighty interesting they are too.

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  9. A suitable choice. I couldn't disagree, though it's certainly difficult to find one performance to top them all. Watts is phenomenal in Mulholland Dr.: she somehow manages to make a smooth and absorbing transition from cartoonish overacting to devastating naturalism.

    I also agree with Sam about Galina Vishnayevska in Alexandra and Laura Dern in the other Lynch masterwork from this past decade, INLAND EMPIRE.

    "I'm especially happy with the wink."

    Haha, I thought the same thing.

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  10. Thanks, Carson.

    "...she somehow manages to make a smooth and absorbing transition from cartoonish overacting to devastating naturalism."

    Yes, very well put.

    I found Laura Dern a bit on the 'actorly' side, skating on the surface of the character showing off her pirouettes.

    Capturing that wink is my proudest achievement!

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  11. Quite undeniably the best actress of our times. In many ways, Naomi Watts is one of our greatest living artists. Lynch's films often are inert and designed, because of the actors not being powerful enough, because of which we are just left to unpuzzle the narrative, rather than feel the weight of Lynch's intentions. But Naomi? Oh boy. She is well and truly the Watt-age of this surrealistic nightmare.

    She says in her interview to John Lipton -
    I gave David the part of myself I felt I'd been hiding for so long, that didn't need to be hidden

    And this image-o-tribute. Applause.

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  12. Thank you, Satish

    "But Naomi? Oh boy. She is well and truly the Watt-age of this surrealistic nightmare."

    Haha. Well said.

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