Happy 74th birthday to Liza Minnelli!
“New York, New York, Scorsese’s splashy, cynical, and masterfully-made postwar musical, was egregiously cold-shouldered upon its release, as was the singular star turn of Liza Minnelli, doing an adoring yet galvanizing variation on Mama Judy Garland’s legendary A Star is Born role. As Francine Evans, an aspiring 1940s singer who falls under the influence of De Niro’s callous, captivating saxophonist, Minnelli is perpetually in motion, propelled by an insatiable need to please audiences and lovers alike. Minnelli is, of course, a stupendous, show-stopping singer-dancer with a walloping and finely honed talent that decidedly belongs to the bygone studio era in which her mother rose to otherworldly stardom. Minnelli’s artistic mastery is startlingly reminiscent of Garland’s yet differentiated by the pure, jubilant passion she exudes at all times when performing; has any artist ever radiated more graciousness for an audience’s gaze than Minnelli, as if the enormity of her abilities didn’t already demand our undivided attention? But, more than anything else, it’s the actress’ tough-minded, deeply-felt emotionality—culminating in an elevator descent of tremulous, heartbroken stillness—that proudly places her Francine beside Garland’s Vicki Lester, Julie Andrews’ Maria von Trapp, Barbra Streisand’s Fanny Brice, and Minnelli’s own Sally Bowles in the eternal pantheon of preeminent, pitch-perfect musical performances.” — Matthew Eng
The 10 Best Female Performances in Martin Scorsese Films
(Source: TribecaFilm.com)
“To play it safe is not to play.”
The moviemaking maverick Robert Altman, seen here on the set of his mind-blowing 1977 psychological drama 3 Women with actress Janice Rule, passed away on this day in 2006.
One of the most moving performances ever committed to film is today’s subject in our Black Actress Canon, a two-month celebration of great performances by black actresses throughout history.
As Stan’s wife, Kaycee Moore uses searching eyes and yearning frame to conjure a haunting aura of marital sorrow that pulses through her every unvarnished movement in Charles Burnett’s 1977 classic Killer of Sheep. Her heart has been bruised, but it loves all the same.
“It’s important to note that in her first few moments ever on screen, Meryl Streep — modern-day acting heroine, patron saint of thespians, Greatest of All Time — gets as cold a shoulder as one can humanly imagine.”
Take a look back at the excellent Meryl Streep’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it screen debut opposite Jane Fonda in Julia, as part of the new weekly series Months of Meryl, by John Guerin and Matthew Eng
(Source: TheFilmExperience.net)
Stroszek (1977. Dir. Werner Herzog. Cin. Thomas Mauch.)
The entire crew of Stroszek disliked the final sequence so much that director Werner Herzog had to shoot it by himself. Incidentally, he still considers it the best scene he has ever filmed.