Ruehl, Close, Hunter, Grahame (Today in Supporting Actressness)

Mercedes Ruehl in The Fisher King (1991) on AMC
Glenn Close in The Natural (1984) on AMC
Holly Hunter in The Firm (1993) on AMC
Gloria Grahame in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) on TCM

"A Convenient Way to Get in Touch with Old People" (Quote of the ThursDay)

from edwired, post 1 & 2 - referred via AHA blog
click image to be routed to full post

Ouch.

Close, Dukakis, Hunter (Today in Supporting Actressness)

Glenn Close in The Natural (1984) on AMC

Olympia Dukakis in Moonstruck (1989) on TCM
Holly Hunter in The Firm (1993) on AMC

Lorring, Duke (Today in Supporting Actressness)

Joan Lorring in The Corn Is Green (1945) on TCM
Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker (1962) on TCM

To Dos Day

___ Item 1: CELEBRATE...
...the amazing Canadian Ken's birthday week by commenting wildly on his latest massive list: a full accounting of the 150 best female performances of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s...

___ Item 2: GIVE A MOMENT'S PAUSE...
...for the memory of 1957's Supporting Actress Miyoshi Umeki. Under normal circumstances, I would have tried to post on the occasion of Umeki's passing, as I consider her among the more fascinating movie actresses of her era. But, with all that's been a'poppin', a StinkyLulu tribute (like that for her Sayonara co-star Red Buttons) didn't manifest. Nonethe, do give a look to the comments by Alonso Duralde, Nathaniel Rogers, The Hyphen Blog and G.Allen Johnson. (Love ya too, Miss Jane Wyman...but Miyoshi's got my fascination.)

___ Item 3: ARRANGE YOUR CALENDAR...

...to accommodate the necessary preparatory taks for the Celebration of Sophia -- 'specially the posting of offerings. (Hyuck. I so shameless.)...

___ Item 4: CONTEMPLATE...

...the astonishing premise of Naomi Klein's new book via this stomach scrunching video preview. On a day like today, when we'll likely encounter an array of reminders of how much -- and how little -- has changed in the past six years (!). Klein and Cuaron both seem to me to enact the kind of rigorous honesty, clarity and curiosity so necessary right now... (via The Nation)

___ Item 5: JOIN STINKYLULU IN A PRIMAL SCREAM...
...at the news that the "master of subtlety" Gil Cates is, once again, producing this year's Oscar telecast. Some love him, but criminy the Gil simply peeves the Lulu. But at least we are now assured of at least one major racial cringe moment; the man just can't help himself.

___ Item 6: FORGIVE...
...StinkyLulu for the abrupt change in template. The old template had been grating my optical nerves for a while, and then some loading problems tipped me over the edge. But, alas, it'll be a while before I can get all the formatting on old posts corrected, so my apologies in advance for any visual discordances. (Also, if you're linking up to an old post, give me a shout and I'll correct it sooner rather than later.) But here's to a new era in StinkyLulu-land!

Have at it, lovelies...

Cooper, Linney, Fitzgerald (Today in Supporting Actressness)

Gladys Cooper in My Fair Lady (1964) on TCM
Laura Linney in Kinsey (2004) on IFC
Geraldine Fitzgerald in Wuthering Heights (1939) on TCM

Foch, Hyer (Today in Supporting Actressness)

Nina Foch in Executive Suite (1954) on TCM
Martha Hyer in Some Came Running (1958) on TCM

Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost (1990) - Supporting Actress Sundays - Slapstick Blog-a-Thon

StinkyLulu offers the following "Supporting Actress Sunday" profile as my contribution to The Slapstick Blog-a-thon instigated by Thom @ Film Of The Year. Be sure to check out all the painful hilarity over at The Slapstick Blog-a-thon HQ.

Some Supporting Actress wins stand out because -- while not necessarily a "first" -- they're one of the "few." One of the few times a performer of color takes the trophy home. One of the few times a performance from a genre picture -- murder mystery, fantasy, romantic comedy (...or a swirl of all three) -- gets the prize. One of the few times a broadly comic turn, loaded with slapstick no less, snags Oscar. Such "few" performances get easily, almost immediately, dismissed by Oscarphiles -- as novelties, as tokens, as apologies -- as a lapse of some kind in Oscar's judgment. Of course, one of the things that such Oscar commentary commonsense tends, ironically, not to consider is the level of accomplishment of these "few" performances, which -- almost invariably -- are much more than they might seem on first, dismissive glance. Case in point?

...Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost (1990).

approximately 30 minutes and 43 seconds
19 scenes
roughly 24% of film's total running time

Whoopi Goldberg plays Oda Mae Brown, a storefront psychic who boasts of a family history with "the gift" while hiding a personal history as a con artist. When the film introduces Goldberg's Oda Mae, she's got an efficient operation going, using sideshow tricks to hustle $20bills from superstitious widows as she feigns communication with their dearly departed.

No one's more surprised, then, than Oda Mae when she hears the voice of Sam (Patrick Swayze), an actual dead person who's struggling to figure out the rules of his afterlife. Sam taunts and torments Oda Mae, nagging and harassing her, until she finally agrees to convey a message to Sam's beloved, Molly (Demi Moore in an effective -- and deservedly iconic -- performance of a paper-thin role as Sam's grief-stunned love).

Such is the film's simple premise: Sam needs Oda Mae's help so that he can complete his journey to the other side, a situation that neither spirit nor medium particularly appreciates. This tension sets the stage for the series of surprisingly slapstick episodes (with Goldberg's Oda Mae at the center) that focus the main action of the film.

Slapstick, most simply, describes a form of broad physical comedy in which the exaggerated spectacle of a character's physical pain becomes the source of great humor. Slapstick generally requires pristine precision in execution and timing, necessary to create the effect both that the pain was real and that the performer was not actually hurt in the process. And while there are no banana peels, loose floorboards, revolving doors, or kicks to the fanny to announce "This Is Slapstick!", Ghost's director Jerry Zucker (also of Airplane and Naked Gun fame) stages each of Goldberg's episodes along a consistent coordinating principle: for different reasons, and in different ways, each of Sam's arrivals causes Oda Mae incredible distress, which she feels -- and manifests -- physically.

At first, Sam's like a buzzing gnat -- a presence that won't stop annoying Oda Mae. Before long he's put her in contact with all kinds of folks, living and dead, who are just complicating her life with their demands and their guns. Then, Sam makes Oda Mae really uncomfortable by first demanding that she run the biggest scam of her life and then insisting that she give the money away (click images below to enlarge for detail).

Perhaps the most effective demonstration of how Goldberg and Zucker use the pleasures of slapstick to advance both Ghost's plot and Oda Mae's character can be seen in the film's two surrogation scenes, in which a spirit takes over Oda Mae's body to communicate with the living.

In the first scene (click images above to enlarge for detail), a wandering spirit jumps uninvited into Oda Mae's body. Goldberg manifests this process physically, rising a little from her chair, making funny faces like she's just swallowed something, and then expelling the spirit from her body. The core action of this scene is the comic spectacle of Oda Mae's distress. Goldberg plays each gesture of the spirit surrogation for hilarity, while emphatically conveying the unpleasantness of the experience. Of course, this first surrogation scene is a set-up for Ghost's most legendary scene to come later in the film, wherein Goldberg's Oda Mae (somewhat) willingly submits to another surrogation so that Sam and Molly can have one last kiss.

The difference between the two surrogations underscores how Zucker and Goldberg use the broad slapstick scenes to set up the beats of Oda Mae's character arc. Oda Mae's physical pain is the visually entertaining cue of the character's slow, painful transformation from a selfish two-bit hustler to a woman who finally appreciates her gift and the intangible rewards of doing the right thing. While the rest of the film's characters are absorbed in simple, sequential discoveries and revelations, Goldberg's Oda Mae gets to be the single character to grow and change, thus providing an essential, experiential anchor for the film's fantasy of a love everlasting.

Goldberg's accomplishment in the role of Oda Mae is formidable. Not only does she maneuver every one of the film's discordant styles (fantasy, comedy, thriller) with aplomb, but she also does it with some pretty heavy baggage overlain by the film's production team. Goldberg's performance survives the ill-conceived, tone-deaf costuming which thoughtlessly jokes at Oda Mae's expense. Goldberg also transcends, in a very subtle homage to the genius of Mantan Moreland, the film's predisposition to old, racist comedy tropes of the "scared black people are funny" variety. Most substantially, Goldberg's Oda Mae emerges intact from the film's naive willingness to flip the slapstick from unreal to real, in a cheapening attempt to raise the stakes by making Oda Mae feel the force of actual violence.

It's the combination of Goldberg's preternatural charisma and formidable comedic gifts that redeems this role, creating solid work at the heart of the film. Yet, like so many slapstickers, Goldberg's Oda Mae is dismissed more often than she's appreciated.

But, somehow, methinks that Goldberg'll be just fine. She did, after all, beat a "few" odds: a black woman in a comedy performance with slapstick overtones taking the Oscar? Slip on that banana peel, Hollywood...

Blanchett, Hunter (Today in Supporting Actressness)

Cate Blanchett in The Aviator (2004) on FX
Holly Hunter in The Firm (1993) on AMC

Madsen, Hunter, Blanchett (Today in Supporting Actressness)

Virginia Madsen in Sideways (2004) on FX

Holly Hunter in The Firm (1993) on AMC
Cate Blanchett in The Aviator (2004) on FX

"Fruitful yet..." (Homo Heritage Fridays)

from OUT
April 1994, page 131.
For details, click the image; then click again to magnify

"Best for Arranging Sentences" (PhotoQuote Thursdays)

capturing the back to school spirit at Oddee
click image to be routed to full post

To Dos Day

___ Item 1: AVOID TEACHER'S DIRTY LOOKS...
...with Nathaniel's diverting contemplation of Back To School movies at Zoom-In...

___ Item 2: BOOKMARK...
...the genius of FABULON immediately. Hours of entertainment. Daily. If you've any doubts, just consider the adventures of Tab and Roddy...

___ Item 3: PREPARE...

...for the annual observance at the altar of Sophia. Offerings not refused. Hee...

___ Item 4: READY YOUR POST...

...for the upcoming Slapstick Blogathon....

___ Item 5: CHECK OUT...
..ModFab's new look. Tres elegante...

___ Item 6: TELL US...
...how frequently you NEED to hit the movies? Here on StinkyLulu, we often talk muchly about actressing but... Verging Writer's recent despair & (of all things) an idiotic Andy Rooney rant have gotten Lu to thinking about "movie-going frequency." So, lovely reader, how often do you need to go to the movie 'afore you start going a little bonkers? This time of year, 'tis especially tough for StinkyLulu to maintain the preferred 1-2 cinema screenings per week ratio. (Remember, we're not talking home viewing, but actually hitting the googaplex.) And 'tis strange -- StinkyLu actually starts gettin' a little bit evil if it passes the two week mark. Which makes me wonder -- is cinema-going a form of meditation, of prayer, of healing? Whaddaya think, lovely reader?

Have at it, lovelies...