EXPRESS
By BECCA LONGMIRE
PUBLISHED: 14:01, Wed, Jun 3, 2015 | UPDATED: 14:20, Wed, Jun 3, 2015
DOWNTON ABBEY actress Michelle Dockery is set to return to the stage, starring alongside Dominic West in a stage version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
The 34-year-old, best known for playing Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV period drama, will play Madame de Tourvel while West will portray her would-be seducer Vicomte de Valmont at London's Donmar Warehouse.
The story, based on an 18th century French novel, is a tale of sex and power in pre-revolutionary Paris.
It's going to be the 30th anniversary revival of Christopher Hampton's award-winning stage adaptation which provided the basis for the 1988 film version, called Dangerous Liaisons, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close and John Malkovich.
Best Film Albert Nobbs, Alan Moloney, Bonnie Curtis, Julie Lynn, Glenn Close Charlie Casanova, Terry McMahon Stella Days, Jackie Larkin, Leslie McKimm *The Guard, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Chris Cark, Flora Fernandez Marengo
Best Director Rebecca Daly, The Other Side of Sleep * John Michael McDonagh, The Guard Terry McMahon, Charlie Casanova Thaddeus O'Sullivan, Stella Days
Best Screenplay John Banville, Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs * John Michael McDonagh, The Guard Terry McMahon, Charlie Casanova Antoine O'Flaherta, Stella Days
Best Actress Aoife Duffin, Behold the Lamb Antonia Campbell Hughes, The Other Side of Sleep Marcella Plunkett, Stella Days *Saoirse Ronan, Hanna
Best Supporting Actor Liam Cunningham, The Guard Brendan Gleeson, Albert Nobbs Ciarán Hinds, The Debt * Chris O'Dowd, Bridesmaids
Best Supporting Actress Maria Doyle Kennedy, Albert Nobbs * Fionnula Flanagan, The Guard Brenda Fricker, Albert Nobbs Amy Huberman, Stella Days
Best George Morrison Feature Documentary Award *Bernadette: Notes on a Political Journey, Lelia Doolan Knuckle, Ian Palmer Men of Arlington, Enda Hughes Off the Beaten Track, Dieter Auner
Best Special Irish Language Award *Corp + Anam, Paddy Hayes Mobs Cheanada, Dathai Keane Ray McAnally – M'Athair, Brian Reddin Seacht, Colin O'Donnell
Best Animation 23 Degrees 5 Minutes, Darragh O'Connell *The Boy in the Bubble, Kealan O'Rourke The Last Train, Alex Sherwood Origin, James Stacey
Best Short Film Award The Boy in the Bubble, Kealan O' Rourke Cluck, Michael Lavelle Downpour, Claire Dix *Foxes, Lorcan Finnegan The Shore, Terry George
Best International Categories Best International Film Bridesmaids Drive Senna *Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy directed by Tomas Alfredson
Best International Actress * Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin Kirsten Wiig, Bridesmaids
Best Television Drama categories Best Drama Corp + Anam, Paddy Hayes Game of Thrones, Mark Huffam *Love/Hate, Suzanne McAuley, Steve Matthews The Borgias, Neil Jordan, James Flynn
Best Director * David Caffrey, Love/Hate Neil Jordan, The Borgias Brian Kirk, Game of Thrones Daniel O'Hara, Being Human
Best Writer Neil Jordan, The Borgias * Stuart Carolan, Love/Hate Ronan Bennett, Hidden Daire Mac Con Iomaire, Corp + Anam
Best Actor in a Lead Role Diarmuid de Faoite, Corp + Anam * Aidan Gillen, Love/Hate Chris O'Dowd, The Crimson and the White Petal David Pearse, Trivia
Best Actress in a Lead Role Maria Doyle Kennedy, Corp + Anam Michele Fairley, Game of Thrones * Ruth Negga, Shirley Aisling O'Sullivan, Raw
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Brendan Coyle, Downton Abbey Aidan Gillen, Game of Thrones Robert Sheehan, Misfits * Tom Vaughan Lawlor, Love/Hate
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Eva Birthistle, Strike Back Bronagh Gallagher, The Field of Blood * Denise McCormack, Love/Hate Ruth Negga, Misfits
John Michael McDonagh's "The Guard" was the big winner at the ninth Irish Film & TV Awards on Saturday evening at Dublin's Convention Center, taking five prizes including best film.
McDonagh won for director, script and the Rising Star award, while "The Guard's" Fionnula Flanagan was named best supporting actress. Flanagan also received the Lifetime Achievement Award.
But "The Guard" didn't have everything its own way. Michael Fassbender took the actor prize for "Shame" ahead of Brendan Gleeson, while Ryan Gosling won the international actor award for "Drive" ahead of Don Cheadle.
Saoirse Ronan was named best actress for "Hanna." Glenn Close won the international actress prize for "Albert Nobbs," which also took awards for makeup and hair, sound and original score.
Best supporting actor went to Chris O'Dowd for "Bridesmaids," while "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" won the prize for best international film.
John Michael McDonagh’s comedy The Guard , already the most successful independently released Irish film at the domestic box office, could be in for further acclaim at the ninth annual Irish Film and Television Awards (Iftas), next Saturday.
The film is up for nine awards, including best picture and best director, though two other films are also in contention for nine awards: Stella Days , Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s drama about a cinema in rural Ireland, and the Oscar-nominated Albert Nobbs , starring Glenn Close as a woman forced to cross-dress in 19th-century Ireland.
The performers competing for best lead actor in a film are Michael Fassbender ( Shame ), Brendan Gleeson ( The Guard ), Ciarán Hinds ( Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ) and Martin Sheen ( Stella Days ); the best lead actress race is between Aoife Duffin ( Behold The Lamb) , Antonia Campbell Hughes ( The Other Side of Sleep ), Marcella Plunkett ( Stella Days) and Saoirse Ronan ( Hanna ).
The 84th Academy Awards will be held on February 27.
Best Picture
The Artist Thomas - Langmann, Producer
The Descendants -Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Scott Rudin, Producer
The Help - Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
Hugo - Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
Midnight in Paris - Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
Moneyball- Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
The Tree of Life - Nominees to be determined
War Horse - Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
Actor in a Leading Role
Demian Bichir in A Better Life
George Clooney in The Descendants
Jean Dujardin in The Artist
Gary Oldman in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt in Moneyball
Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill in Moneyball
Nick Nolte in Warrior
Christopher Plummer in Beginners
Max von Sydow in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis in The Help
Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams in My Week with Marilyn
Actress in a Supporting Role
Berenice Bejo in The Artist
Jessica Chastain in The Help
Melissa McCarthy in Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer in Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer in The Help
Animated Feature Film
A Cat in Paris - Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
Chico & Rita - Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
Kung Fu Panda 2 - Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Puss in Boots - Chris Miller
Rango - Gore Verbinski
Art Direction
The Artist - Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
Hugo - Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
Midnight in Paris - Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Helene Dubreuil
War Horse - Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales
Cinematography
The Artist - Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo - Robert Richardson
The Tree of Life - Emmanuel Lubezki
War Horse - Janusz Kaminski
Costume Design
Anonymous - Lisy Christl
The Artist - Mark Bridges
Hugo - Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre - Michael O'Connor
W.E. - Arianne Phillips
Directing
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants - Alexander Payne
Hugo - Martin Scorsese
Midnight in Paris - Woody Allen
The Tree of Life - Terrence Malick
Documentary (Feature)
Hell and Back Again - Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front - Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory - Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Pina - Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
Undefeated - TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas
Documentary (Short Subject)
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement - Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
God Is the Bigger Elvis - Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
Incident in New Baghdad - James Spione
Saving Face - Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom - Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen
Film Editing
The Artist - Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
The Descendants - Kevin Tent
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker
Moneyball - Christopher Tellefsen
Foreign Language Film
Bullhead - Belgium
Footnote
In Darkness - Poland
Monsieur Lazhar - Canada
A Separation - Iran
Makeup
Albert Nobbs - Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
The Iron Lady - Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland
Music (Original Score)
The Adventures of Tintin - John Williams
The Artist - Ludovic Bource
Hugo - Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Alberto Iglesias
War Horse - John Williams
Music (Original Song)
Man or Muppet from The Muppets - Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
Real in Rio from Rio - Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett
Short Film (Animated)
Dimanche/Sunday - Patrick Doyon
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore - William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
La Luna - Enrico Casarosa
A Morning Stroll - Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
Wild Life - Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
Short Film (Live Action)
Pentecost - Peter McDonald and Eimear O'Kane
Raju - Max Zahle and Stefan Gieren
The Shore - Terry George and Oorlagh George
Time Freak - Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
Tuba Atlantic - Hallvar Witza
Sound Editing
Drive - Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Ren Klyce
Hugo - Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
War Horse - Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom
Sound Mixing
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
Hugo - Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
Moneyball - Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
War Horse - Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson
Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 - Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
Hugo - Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
Real Steel - Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Descendants - Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
Hugo - Screenplay by John Logan
The Ides of March - Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
Moneyball - Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Story by Stan Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Screenplay by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan
Writing (Original Screenplay)
The Artist - Written by Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids - Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
Margin Call - Written by J.C. Chandor
Midnight in Paris - Written by Woody Allen
A Separation - Written by Asghar Farhadi
As the title character in Albert Nobbs, a woman impersonating a man in late-nineteenth-century Dublin, Glenn Close has cropped, orangey hair and a voice that rarely rises above a croak. Outdoors, she’s painfully ill at ease in an overlarge, three-piece black suit and a bowler hat. Inside the high-toned hotel and restaurant in which she lives and works as a waiter, she behaves with robotic obeisance, her lips pressed together, her searching eyes her only naturally moving parts. The performance is extraordinary, literally: Close resembles no man I’ve ever seen, or woman either. She’s the personification of fear—the fear of being seen through, seen for what she is.
This hushed, almost unbearably sad film is based on a story by George Moore published in 1918, long after its events had supposedly taken place. By then, readers could look back on poor Nobbs as a martyr to a more benighted view of women, and see the story’s other major character, Hubert Page—a woman who leaves her husband and children and becomes a (male) housepainter—as a kind of working-class version of Ibsen’s Nora. Close played Nobbs in a theatrical adaptation in the early eighties, just before her star-making appearance as a militant feminist in The World According to Garp, and has been working for the past two decades to repeat the role onscreen. The script she co-wrote with John Banville and Gabriella Prekop adds some melodramatic flourishes but sticks to Moore’s masochistic trajectory. Inspired by Hubert Page (Janet McTeer), who lives a cozy, blissful domestic existence with a dressmaker “wife” (Bronagh Gallagher), Albert dreams of opening a tobacco shop with a pert blonde housemaid, Helen (Mia Wasikowska), who’s already stepping out with the handsome boiler man (Aaron Johnson). Helen sees “Mr. Nobbs” as a ludicrous suitor but a potential source of money to escape with her man to America. Albert sees Helen as sweet salvation.
Is Albert Nobbs a “gay” film? I don’t think Eros enters into the equation. It’s more a matter of Albert and Hubert’s finding somewhere safe in a society that treats all poor people badly but poor women worse.
The director, Rodrigo García, helped Close give a buoyant, tender performance (her least histrionic) in the final segment of his omnibus film Nine Lives, and in Albert Nobbs he combines his gift for creating intimacy (he directed many episodes of In Treatment, as well as the wrenching Mother and Child) with a new attention to wide-screen bustle. The movie has no tight close-ups: Even in isolation, Albert is surrounded by people—chief among them the hotel’s mingy-minded mistress (the superb Pauline Collins)—who’d toss her into the street with the rest of the unemployed if they knew her secret. (The exception, Brendan Gleeson as a kind, drunken doctor who might have stepped out of a Chekhov play, has no idea who she is until it’s too late.) There is nowhere for Albert to be “herself,” if such a thing exists anymore. Even in her bed, she’s gnawed by fleas.
The often-trying situations in which women find themselves has been a regular focal point for Rodrigo Garcia, from his first feature, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her (1999), through to Mother and Child (2009). Now comes Albert Nobbs.
Set in late 19th-century Dublin, cruelly divided by class and economic circumstance, it's an adaptation written by Glenn Close and John Banville of a short story by Irish novelist George Moore, first published in his 1927 collection Celibate Lives.
Close also stars as the reclusive title character, who works as a butler at Morrison's Hotel, a role she first played off-Broadway in French playwright and director Simone Benmussa's theatrical adaptation of the story in 1982 (for which the actress won an Obie Award).
It's clearly a role the 64-year-old has long treasured: credited as a producer on the film, she's been nurturing the project for more than 20 years, and had originally planned to make it with Hungarian director Istvan Szabo before the financing fell through.
It's an affecting tale about sexual identity and people pretending to be other than they are, not only in their everyday dealings but also in ways that go to the very core of their being. It's not by chance that all of the key characters attend an elaborate costume party at the hotel early in the film.
Albert is an innocent, which makes him ready prey for those whose motives aren't always evident, but he's fascinated by people who refuse to play by the rules, in particular the gregarious Hubert (Janet McTeer). Employed to paint the hotel laundry, Hubert ends up sharing the butler's room and becomes his friend. Like Albert, Hubert has a secret but he deals with it differently.
Around them, Garcia's film gathers an upstairs-downstairs ensemble who all prove to be dissemblers of one kind or another, such as the maid Helen (Mia Wasikowska) and handyman Joe (Aaron Johnson), or the doctor (Brendan Gleeson), who seems to understand this world better than most, and the hotel manager (Pauline Clarke), who rules her domain with an iron fist.
Glenn Close delivers a splendid performance in this cinematic adaptation of a short story by Irish novelist George Moore. Set in 19th century Dublin, the heartbreaking Victorian drama chronicles the courage of woman who - for 30 years - took the identity of a man in order to gain respectable work at Morrison's, an opulent, yet intimate hotel.
Albert Nobbs
(Roadside Attractions)
Shy Albert Nobbs (Close) is a butler, quiet and attentive to the needs of the elegant, privileged guests (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Brendan Gleeson). A proper servant, Nobbs is always unobtrusive and impeccably attired, living in a solitary upstairs room, where he secretly stashes his earnings under the floorboards. His dream is to save enough money to buy a tobacco shop.
But one night, the proprietress, Mrs. Baker (Pauline Collins), informs Nobbs that he will have to share his tiny room - and bed - with a laconic, chain-smoking housepainter, Hubert Page, who will be working at the hotel. Before the night is over, Nobbs is stunned to discover that Page (Janet McTeer) is not only a woman-disguised-as-a-man but that he/she is also living with a woman (Bronaugh Gallagher) to whom he/she is, ostensibly, married.
Meanwhile, Nobbs is courting Helen Dawes (Mia Wasikowska) a flirty young member of the hotel staff who is involved with dashing Joe (Aaron Johnson) and hoping he'll take her with him to America.
Back in 1982, Close won an Obie for portraying Nobbs in Simone Benmussa's off-Broadway stage production and she co-wrote the movie script with Gabriella Prekop and John Banville. This has been Close's passionate project for 29 years, which is why she entrusted helming to femme-centric Colombian Rodrigo Garcia (son of novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez), who previously directed her in "Nine Lives" (2005) and "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her" (2000).
Problem is: it's far too difficult to believe that either Glenn Close or Janet McTeer could pass as men for more than a cursory glance.
And since our fave race of the Academy Awards is (duh!) the Best Actress slot, we decided to narrow down which par-tick babes we think will make the tough cut. Now that we've analyzed the SAG and Golden Globe noms for further clues, we realize our first hunches were right on target: We've settled on a list that's inspired by such iconic chicks as Marilyn Monroe and Margaret Thatcher.
Talk about beauty and the beast, eh?
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady:
While the legendary actress has 16 Academy Award nominations and two wins to her credit, Meryl hasn't taken home the Oscar since 1982. That is simply a crime, people, a crime! Gal's most definitely due in for some more modern recognition, but, we're not entirely sure Streep's precise portrayal of bullish British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is more Oscar-worthy than her previous noms.
Streep's simply perfect star-deliveries in Devil Wears Prada and Julia & Julia, et. al, just keep on getting ignored by the Academy, albeit she always manages a nom. Will Meryl be Susan Lucci-ed out yet again in 2012? Come on, even Hilary Swank and Dianne Weist have two Oscars. Shouldn't our most talented living actor today have at least one more little statuette? Don't worry, she will—soon.
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn:
Williams has at least two strong factors going for her: one, while Marilyn isn't exactly getting rave reviews, Michelle's eerily sexy-lonely turn as Marilyn Monroe (while she made the film The Prince and the Showgirl in England with Laurence Olivier) certainly is—across the board. Plus, more on the sentimental side, Michelle has been Oscar-nominated twice before (Brokeback Mountain and Blue Valentine), and for a pretty young, former Dawson's Creek gal, Michelle's damn respected by the Academy. Lastly, do not forget Williams represents the possible continuation of Heath Ledger's tragically halted career talents, as she is the mother of their daughter, Matilda. Those are two pedigrees Oscar never sniffs at, in fact, just the opposite.
Viola Davis, The Help:
Let's be very clear and on the record, we lived for many of the performances in The Help, particularly those of Davis and Jessica Chastain (who could easily get nominated in the Supporting Actress category for one of her many stand-out acting jobs this year). And even though Davis's gut-wrenching, bravura performance as a put-upon 1950s maid in the racist deep south is utterly beyond compare, it just sort of sucks that it took a white woman (Emma Stone) to inspire Viola's character to do something about it. Come again?
Yeah, it would be akin to writing Rosa Parks's story, but, making her trailblazing inspiration some do-gooder, white housewife in pearls. Laughably insulting, but, Davis's uniformed trajectory is so stunningly moving, you kind of forget about all that nonsense, which is often what winning an Oscar is all about.
Rooney Mara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo:
OK, quit gasping and just realize you've gotten to the total wild-card portion of the tabulation. Glenn Close playing a sad woman playing an even sadder man in Albert Nobbs is just as likely as Rooney to nab an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, we say.
Both women deliver knock-out emotionally brittle performances that make you shudder and shake—in very different ways. One's all about tatts and blood and revenge, the other's all about bleeding to death from a heartless existence on the inside. A-plus to both superiorly talented actors, we're just saying Rooney has a slight edge, despite Close's myriad prior Oscar nominations.
Only because the Academy (sometimes) seems obsessed with going for a younger demographic. So, since Billy Crystal got the hosting gig, poor Glenn stands a tiny less chance—though, remember, Close, not Mara, got the SAG nomination, always a good indicator.
But, on the third hand, go and watch Tilda Swinton (also a SAG nominee) go and swoop it from both women for We Need to Talk About Kevin, which we really should but, we'd rather say Tilda totally got robbed not even getting nominated for last year's absurdly heart-breaking I Am Love. Never under estimate the power of make-up Oscar noms and wins!
Elizabeth Olsen, Martha Marcy May Marlene
OK, so Elizabeth (yes, younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) is the real long shot—especially since she hasn't earned any recognition from the SAG or Golden Globe voters—but we're still saying that the newbie actress could manage an ascendancy from nowhere and steal a nomination for her first big screen role.
She wasn't completely overlooked this award season (she managed to score a Spirit Award nomination against William's Marilyn) and there was tons of award season buzz about her performance as an emotionally wounded young woman escaping a violent cult when the film first hit (select) theaters. To be frank, she's damn good in the role and deserves the credit.
The only question is whether the lack of campaigning will cause her to be seriously overlooked. Or, ya know, if the Academy isn't willing to honor two younger gals (along with Rooney) in their first leading roles. Sure, they always love to gush over a fresh face (think Gabourey Sidibe in Precious), but two of those rosy pusses may be a tad too much young blood for the Academy's elite tastes.
Let's hope we're wrong.
Meryl Streep, who at 62 is still in the ascendant. Photo: Simon Schluter
Meryl Streep's sterling performance as former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady is set to pit her head-to-head in the race for Oscars glory with women three decades her junior. Streep is 62 in an industry that idolises youth and rations roles routinely for women over 40. So why is she — and a clutch of ascendant older actresses — suddenly defying time and the critics?
PERHAPS it’s too early to be talking about the 2012 Oscars but what the hell: we’re here now. Mostly, we’re talking about Meryl Streep. Nominated 16 times — five of them this century — she last won for Sophie’s Choice in 1983.
Now her new film, The Iron Lady, in which she plays Margaret Thatcher from her political ascendancy as prime minister through to a failing, forgetful old age, is being released just at the right time for the awards season. And rightly so. Yet again, she has exceeded herself in a performance that is empathetic but hard-edged, an exact impersonation of Thatcher’s speech and gestures but richly inventive as a dramatic construction of her character. Streep is 62 and her career, if we can legitimately compress her oeuvre into that word, is still in the ascendant.
Conventional wisdom has it that an actress’s career is effectively finished at 40, that there are no roles around for older women. But look at Streep. Look at Helen Mirren (66) or Judi Dench (77), two great British stage actresses who have only recently been getting the broad recognition in the movies they clearly merit. Mirren won an Oscar for The Queen at 61 and has just branched into action with Red and The Debt; Dench, a Bond regular as M, won her Oscar for portraying an earlier Queen Elizabeth in 1998’s Shakespeare in Love. The indie Oscar hit last year was The Kids Are All Right, starring Annette Bening (53) and Julianne Moore (51). And this year’s Oscar race offers the prospect of a battle between veterans: Streep versus Glenn Close (64), who takes on a bravura cross-dressing role in the historical drama Albert Nobbs, to be released Boxing Day.
Streep's Oscar-winning turn in Sophie's Choice.
Are we in the midst of a golden age for older women on screen? Not according to the popular perception. In a recent survey of more than 4000 filmgoers conducted by the UK Film Council, seven out of 10 women between the ages of 50 and 75 said they felt their age group was under-represented in films. Phyllida Lloyd, who directed The Iron Lady, agrees. ‘‘I know Meryl has been constantly surprised that roles keep coming her way,’’ she says. ‘‘But I still think there aren’t nearly enough representations of older women on screen.’’
Admittedly, the figures support this view. Two years ago, a survey by the Screen Actors Guild in Los Angeles found women aged 40 and over landed only 11 per cent of all the available film and television roles, while male actors of the same age nabbed about 25 per cent. Older women just aren’t supposed to be interesting, even as minor characters. Lloyd thinks this echoes real-life attitudes.
‘‘Nobody takes any notice of an old woman in the street,’’ she says. ‘‘You don’t know if that woman had an immense life, if she made a difference; you just assume she didn’t. From a feminist point of view, this was something we were passionately interested in. We were insisting on the value of an old lady.’’
Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady
But there aren’t many women of any age in Hollywood’s recent plethora of comic-book adaptations, bromances and gross-out comedies, such as The Hangover and its identikit sequel. The few women who appear at all in these films are either killjoy wives sticking their rhinoplastied noses into whatever happened to their husbands in Vegas, or hotties who may or may not have talent but are cast solely for the excellence of their departing rear ends.
Almost a decade ago, Frances McDormand (54) was mulling over the wisdom of having agreed to be in a documentary about the plight of ageing actresses, Looking for Debra Winger. (Winger is 56 and, it is true, hard to find; she has recently been on In Treatment.) The problem, McDormand said, was not so much that there were no good parts for mature women as that there were no decent parts for women, full stop. Indeed, one reason we are now noticing middle-aged character actors such as Patricia Clarkson (almost 52) or Melissa Leo (51) is that they get to do things; they are not just there to succumb prettily to the hero.
Indeed, according to Hollywood’s unwritten rules, they can’t; they are too old to have sex. But is this actually a rule any more? Threeyears ago, three men vied for the hand of Streep, then 60, in the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!. That film was the biggest-grossing British film that year; as Streep said at the time, the greatest star of the supposed heyday of the ‘‘women’s film’’, Bette Davis, would be rolling in her grave. Certainly she would: Davis was 42 when she played fading Broadway star Margo Channing in All About Eve.
Helen Mirren. Photo: Michael N. Todaro
Now the reigning queen of the Hollywood rom-com, Jennifer Aniston, is 42. When Davis was 54, she had moved on to become the embittered old witch of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? Not so long ago, Diane Keaton was luring Jack Nicholson away from younger women in Something’s Gotta Give; she was 56.
Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated, which starred Streep doing much the same thing to Alec Baldwin, were both directed by Nancy Meyers. Only 17per cent of directors, producers and writers in Hollywood are women, according to a recent survey. Almost inevitably, most of the other 83per cent make films in their own image or, more often, an image that accords with their more upbeat fantasies: this is the entertainment business, after all. Judd Apatow, whose invigoratingly in-your-face comedies invariably cast women in the straight roles to let Seth Rogen get the laughs, admits that he gives men the funny lines. ‘‘I’m a dude ... so I lean men, just the way Spike Lee leans African American,’’ he told The New Yorker.
This year, however, the funniest film out of Hollywood was unquestionably Kristen Wiig’s brainchild Bridesmaids — she wrote it and played the lead, while Apatow produced — featuring a gang of gals who could fart, spew and generally gross-out as well as anyone in an Apatow movie. It only did a third of the sludgy The Hangover Part II’s box-office in its opening weekend in the US, which was taken as gloomy evidence that audiences don’t want or expect to laugh at women’s jokes. But Bridesmaids was also witty and intelligent where The Hangover Part II was formulaic and ham-fisted; perhaps audiences just like dumb.
Glenn Close. Photo: Reuters
Moreover, to be fair, we have partly the gross-out genre — specifically, the fabulously foul American Pie — to thank for the acknowledgement of sexy mothers and, by extension, the rise of the cougar rampant. This really is a remarkable reversal in specifically older women’s screen fortunes. I remember going to see The Ploughman’s Lunch, a British film written by Ian McEwan in which thrusting young reporter Jonathan Pryce (then 36) was visited in his bed by his hostess, played by Rosemary Harris, 20years his senior. When he switched on his bedside light and we saw who his visitor was, a cry ‘‘errr, yuck’’ of righteous revulsion swept through the cinema.
This characterisation of the feminine grotesque has an undeniably rich cinematic history. In the 1967 film The Graduate, MrsRobinson’s (Anne Bancroft) illicit appetite for the son of her husband’s business partner Benjamin, played by Dustin Hoffman, was an affront to the natural order that threatened to ruin his young life. But Bancroft was only 36 at the time, a mere six years older than Hoffman. Likewise Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, a mad old bat who shamelessly pays for a younger man to keep her company, was played by Gloria Swanson when she was only 50; William Holden, who played hervictim, was a scarcely defenceless 32.
Well, we’re not there any more. This year Sigourney Weaver (62) appeared in the comedy Cedar Rapids as a schoolteacher involved with a 37-year-old former student who once had a crush on her; his problem is that she won’t commit. The film was something short of a smash but it is hard to imagine anyone saying ‘‘yuck’’ to a screen with Weaver on it. Mirren pumped out a very convincing sex scene with 35-year-old Sergio Peris-Mencheta in last year’s Love Ranch; Michelle Pfeiffer was 51 in Stephen Frears’ Cheri, where she dallied with a besotted Rupert Friend, then 28. Courtney Cox (47) is top cat in Cougar Town; she’s not exactly long in the tooth but it is television.
It is also true, of course, that we live in a time when women are able — one might say obliged — to look younger than they are. It is hardly a victory for middle-aged romance when the knife, Botox, fillers and weird injectables, combined with crafty lighting and a liberal use of body doubles, keep the middle-aged simmering at a perpetual thirtysomething. Plenty of immobilised faces such as Cher’s stand like Easter Island statues as testament to the violence done to women’s flesh in a quest to remain marketable. And there is certainly a small lurch of loss every time you hear that one of the dowager icons — Mirren or Julie Christie (70), say — has been surgically adjusted northwards.
Realistically, however, this is the entertainment business. It has never been at the pointy end of any kind of social change. It can’t be. Most films must run to a formula and work with stereotypes, as Ariel Levy, the author of Female Chauvinist Pigs, told The Guardian newspaper recently ‘‘to generate the energy necessary in the short amount of time they have’’. The continuing vigour of this clutch of older women, however, has the solidity of an encouraging trend.
And it would be neat, not to say something of a triumph, for all of us who are women over ... well, over a certain age, to suggest that this year’s best actress Oscar competition was bound to be a race between the veterans, Streep and Close.
Actually, it won’t be. Albert Nobbs, originally a play, is a weak film; Close’s performance is thus less visible than it would be in a better vehicle. That performance, moreover, is necessarily restrained; Nobbs is a woman trying to pass as a man, locking up her feelings and keeping her face blank, which is not the sort of thing that attracts the Academy members’ attention.
At this point, Streep’s closest competition would seem to come from Michelle Williams, star of My Week with Marilyn. Williams is 31.
There are some striking similarities between Streep in The Iron Lady and Williams’ latest role. Like Streep, Williams is imagining a private world for a real person who was largely defined by her public persona. Marilyn Monroe’s sex-kitten act was, indeed, the performance of a lifetime.
Casting Williams, whose scrupulous lack of vanity is in everything she does — the trashy wife in Brokeback Mountain, a homeless woman in Wendy and Lucy, a sweating 19th-century pioneer in Meek’s Cutoff — was inspired.
And like Streep, Williams has an overriding seriousness. She may be young but, like the older generation now in the ascendant, she is here to stay. As to who will eventually take home the Oscar, however — well, as usual, that’s anyone’s guess.
How do you forecast what nutty notions might be floating around in the heads of the 83 full- and part-time entertainment journalists who constitute the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., a group that, for last year’s Golden Globes, labeled “The Tourist” a laugh riot and “Burlesque” one of the year’s best movies?
Easy. Think ratings. It’s why the foreign press association invited Ricky Gervais back to host the Globes, even though last time around he “joked” that the group’s members take bribes and nominate A-listers for shoddy work. So when predicting, if there’s any doubt, go with the celebrity. Julia Roberts for “Larry Crowne”? Why not? Mel Gibson for “The Beaver”? Maybe he’ll punch Gervais in the face? Worth considering. With that in mind, here's how things just might shake out with the nominations on Thursday.
Motion picture, drama
1. “War Horse”
2. “The Descendants”
3. “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
4. “The Help”
5. “The Ides of March”
6. “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
7. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
8. “J. Edgar”
9. “Hugo”
10. “Moneyball”
Bubbling under: “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2,” “The Iron Lady,” “Tree of Life,” “Albert Nobbs,” “Shame.”
Analysis: George Clooney’s full-scale charm offensive pushes “Ides” into the nominee circle. “Moneyball” whiffs with international journos still puzzled over why on-base-percentage is so important.
Lead actor, motion picture drama
1. George Clooney, “The Descendants”
2. Leonardo DiCaprio, “J. Edgar”
3. Brad Pitt, “Moneyball”
4. Ryan Gosling, “The Ides of March”
5. Michael Fassbender, “Shame”
Bubbling under: Gary Oldman, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”; Daniel Craig, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”; Woody Harrelson, “Rampart”; Ralph Fiennes, “Coriolanus”; Martin Sheen, “The Way”
Analysis: Four movie stars and a German guy who soon will be one. It is possible, though, that Gosling wins his nomination for “Crazy, Stupid, Love” and Oldman or Craig sneaks in.
Lead actress, motion picture drama
1. Meryl Streep, “The Iron Lady”
2. Glenn Close, “Albert Nobbs”
3. Viola Davis, “The Help”
4. Rooney Mara, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
5. Tilda Swinton, “We Need to Talk About Kevin”
Bubbling under: Kirsten Dunst, “Melancholia”; Elizabeth Olsen, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”; Emma Stone, “The Help”; Keira Knightley, “A Dangerous Method”; Michelle Yeoh, “The Lady.”
Analysis: Wouldn’t be surprised if this one expands out to six (the foreign press group likes to do that) with Olsen and/or Dunst joining the party. Stone, a nominee last year for “Easy A,” remains a factor here and over in comedy for “Crazy, Stupid, Love.”
Albert Nobbs (played by Glenn Close) is a woman stuck in a man’s role, living and working in a man’s world as a hotel butler.
Aside from having to hide her true identity, there is an overall sense of fear amongst the hotel workers – both male and female – when it comes to job security. Albert doesn’t want to end up in the poor house so she feels forced to trade her female identity for that of a male butler and take up work in a hotel. Albert longs for freedom and holds dreams of running his own business in town but any movement in this direction must be done in secret lest he be found out and lose it all.
Adapted from a short story by Irish author, George Moore, Albert Nobbs has been near to Glenn Close’s heart for several decades. This is a role that Close first played in the early 1980s in an off-Broadway play – a role which scored her an Obie award and rave reviews. Since then she has hoped to one day play the role in a film and at last her dream has become a reality, though I personally don’t know where her affection lies.
Close is excellent in this role, though. There’s no denying that the woman can act. Fellow actor Brendan Gleeson says, ‘The piece is not showy – Glenn’s not that way’. On this point, I agree. However when both he and Close go on to proclaim the story to be one of humour and fun, I’m lost. ‘Through all these years of working on Albert Nobbs I knew that there was humour in it, even if other people didn’t see it,’ Close has said. Perhaps it was just a little too highbrow for my taste.
This is not a feel-good movie. Nor is it terribly though-provoking or moving. I had trouble liking any of the characters and therefore found it difficult to sympathize with their complicated lives. I also found it difficult to detect if there was any underlying moral themes being communicated. Was it a metaphor for women’s rights, I asked my theatre buddy afterwards? He thought not. In fact, he figured there wasn’t much of anything going on in terms of the storyline whatsoever and I tend to agree.
This is not to say that Albert Nobbs is about nothing. On the contrary, quite a lot happens in the life of old Albert and his colleagues at Morrison’s Hotel. It’s just that my lack of sympathy for the characters made it so that I couldn’t have cared less. And that’s a problem for me, to be honest.
Another thing that bothered my theatre buddy was the unrealistic sets. The story is set in the 1800s but filmed in modern day Ireland so if you have a keen eye you’ll be sure to spot a few 21st century elements – including a rather significant building interior made of high-density fibreboard (or so I’m told). And, although Morrison’s hotel is billed as a ‘luxurious’ destination for the rich and semi-royal, nothing sparkled or shined. There was also an undercurrent of sexual crudeness throughout the film that somehow seemed to tarnish the characters for no apparent reason.
Aside from Glenn Close, the film also stars Alice in Wonderland’s Mia Wasikowska and young actor, Aaron Johnson (perhaps better known as Sam Taylor Wood’s toy boy).
I can’t honestly recommend this film as I simply didn’t like it. But, then again, my tastes include Fantastic Mr. Fox, Pineapple Express, and Revolutionary Road, so take from that what you will.
Albert Nobbs is in NZ cinemas from 26th December.
The Guard star Brendan Gleeson has joined Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, Susan Sarandon, Julie Christie, Brit Marling and Anna Kendrick in the Redford-directed The Company You Keep. Gleeson will next be seen opposite Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs, in the John Cusack-starrer The Raven, and with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds in the Daniel Espinosa-directed Safe House for Universal. He’s repped by Principal Entertainment and Ireland-based The Agency.
Best Picture
Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs. 
Albert Nobbs
Meryl Streep, who at 62 is still in the ascendant. Photo: Simon Schluter
Streep's Oscar-winning turn in Sophie's Choice. 
Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady
Helen Mirren. Photo: Michael N. Todaro
Glenn Close. Photo: Reuters
