Pfeiffer Pfridays. Should We Salivate Over "Malavita"?
Friday, June 1, 2012 at 9:12AM It was recently announced that the one and only Michelle Pfeiffer is considering a substantial role in the new crime drama Malavita as the matriarch of a mafia family (Robert DeNiro plays the patriach) under witness protection who begin to act out in old violent ways. The film is based on the book "Badfellas" and it leans toward black comedy. The last time Pfeiffer was Married to the Mob, she was brilliant (and Golden Globe nom'ed) and the movie was delightful even in the non-Pfeiffer scenes. Is it wrong that I started to hyperventilate at the notion of Malavita, despite "Robert DeNiro" not doing anything at all for me onscreen since 1997?
Malavita will be directed by Luc Besson and while his films aren't exactly "performance showcases" in the 'actors' movie' sense nor particularly skilled with their comedy elements, he has delivered movies with memorably dangerous female star turns (think Natalie Portman in The Professional, Anne Parillaud in La Femme Nikita, and Milla Jovovich in The Fifth Element). So sign on the dotted line, diva. Make that movie!
Bruce Wayne: You've got a bit of a dark side, don't you?
Selina Kyle: No darker than yours, Bruce.
If the sight of Pfeiffer blowing enchanted attackers to smithereens with a shotgun in Dark Shadows didn't make you smile a little than we can't be friends; Pfeiffer is always most thrilling when she plays a bad girl.
<-- Just after reading the news I was catching up with Mad Men --holy smokes that episode! -- and while scrolling through the commercials this very welcome image appeared (courtesy of People Like Us).
Everytime La Pfeiffer threatens to return to us I remember that she's very skittish about her fame and you never know if she'll vanish again for another 3-5 years. But does this recent burst of activity (New Year's Eve, People Like Us, and Dark Shadows all in a seven month stretch!) suggest that she wants it again? You have to want it and I always hope she'll get hungry again. The internet has been tossing around her name around (along with dozens of other under-employed mature actresses) as ideal casting to play the crazy long-missing mother of Emily Van Camp on Revenge which is a great great soap --holy smokes that finale! -- populated by chilly bad girls. Pfeiffer herself has expressed a love for the quality television of this era but despite the multi-orgasmic notion of watching Pfeiffer throw down with the resurgent delicious Madeleine Stowe, I'm hoping she doesn't actually do any TV. She's one of the great female movie stars who hasn't really gone there post fame. If she ever decides to act full time again, the big screen totally deserves and needs her.
- would you like to see Pfeiffer married to the mob again?
- did she thrill you in Dark Shadows?
- and, sort of Off Topic, who would you die to see as Emily's insane (we hope) mother on Revenge?
Reader Comments (21)
I'll take any Pfeiffer I can get, big screen, small screen or lumbered with De Niro as it may be.
As for 'Revenge' - I can't help hoping for the comeback of another great actress from Stowe's heyday, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. She could bring both the formidable and the crazy.
Am stoked bout this new project!! Have wanted the two of them to work together for ages!! I mean how can she have worked w Pacino twice n Nicholson twice, yet never shared a single scene w Deniro?! lol
She more than thrilled me in Dark Shadows which I have now seen more times than I'd care to admit...n the image of her brandishing a shotgun is one that will never leave me...lol
Haven't really gotten into revenge so i wouldn't be too into her doin it...kinda inclined to agree w u bout her sticking to films...although part of me wishes she had accepted the debra winger part on the final season of in treatment...
According to some pfan who interviewed her recently during the DS junket, she said she wanted to keep working; no more 3 year breaks!!
Hallelujah!!
1. I'd love to see her as an iconic Luc Besson heroine in one of those films you watch over and over again. Robert DeNiro is a big energy suck though. I'd rather see her play the part opposite Jack Nicholson again. Now that would be FUN.
2. Sorry, I missed Dark Shadows.
3. Yes, it's a delicious game imagining who would play Emily's mom. I hope she gets as lucky as Jennifer Garner did in Alias getting Lena Olin, the actress and the character. The suggestions that I've seen that I find appealing at the moment are Geena Davis, Patricia Clarkson, and Elizabeth Mitchell (of Lost and V).
I'm torn on Madeline Stowe coming back. I love the character but I don't want the show to weakly backpedal on it's important decisions. I mean, Ned Stark isn't coming back on Game of Thrones is he?
I understand the refusal to budge on a complete zero policy on television appearances at this crucial time of transiting back to a business whose sexist and ageist policies prevent even the most successful women from maintaining their hard earn stature.
David O Russell is a host of four letter words while also being brilliant with veteran female talent performance wise and not on set conduct which had it been Michelle I would have joined you in finishing him off.
It's become abundantly clear that Pfeiffer enjoys working with de Niro, and I say, let's make lemonade here-Pfeiffer was magic with Marty in Age of Innocence, and de Niro was magic with Marty in basically everything they ever did together. Get the three of them together again and see what happens!
And for those of you who want Pfeiffer back in the Oscar game again, Marty's probably your best bet as far as directors of actresses go (see also Ellen Burstyn, Diane Ladd, Jodie Foster, Cathy Moriarty, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Lorraine Bracco, Juliette Lewis, Winona Ryder, Sharon Stone, and Cate Blanchett). Is there any living director who can beat that? If I counted right, which is possible I didn't, only Woody ties it.
She was nothing special in Dark Shadows, sorry. Eva Green acted circles around her. Thankless role.
I like Pfeiffer ... mostly in the early roles she did.... but for some reason her recent movie selections have not been too wise.... I thought Dark Shadows might do it for her, but for me, it didn't. Other roles she has taken just faded away ( the movies, that is ).
I haven't seen Dark Shadows yet, but there isn't a single Pfeiffer performance I haven't at least enjoyed (haven't seen Grease 2, though). So, if this finally happens I'll be more than happy to see her working for someone as unexpected as Besson. Well, anyone who's not Garry Marshall is a huge improvement, actually.
I think she or her agent have finally understood that to get good roles at her age, she has to be present, so that directors can remember how good she is. You're worth what your last movie was worth... or something like that, is still as valid today as it was in the golden era.
- She was phenomenal in Married to the Mob (why can't she go back to THAT days, THAT kind of fire, THAT fearlesness?) so why not Malavita? Hope Luc Besson will find the weight of his work during the '90s.
- I went to see DARK SHADOWS only for La Pfeiffer. I was thrilled when she first appeared - such an honour for pfans in this last decade. She is unmistakable, her screen persona is still SO powerful that you can't watching anything else when she's on screen. She did a great job, most of all in the first part of the movie, but, yes, the role was sooo underwritten... The script did not give her character so much to do.
- I still have to watch the last two episodes of Revenge. I love this show and Pfeiffer would be absolutely fabulous as Emily's mother. She and Madeleine Stowe? it would be a dream.
Other actresses? One for all: the forgotten diva Melanie Griffith.
"Revenge" is good? I saw some previews and thought it looked BORING.
You know, I've always like The Pfeif but I'm more thrilled hearing you talk about her comeback than the actual projects she's picking. However, three high profile movies in a seven month period IS excellent for someone who's been off the radar for years. I really hope some reliably talented director (Coen Bros! Jonze! Aronofsky! Campion!) scoops her up for a project sometime soon because you know she's got her admirers in the film world, it's just a matter of when they'll give her something to sink her teeth into.
Do not tell me all that fawning over at the Golden Globes this year was for nothing, Hollywood!
1) Yes, of course
2) Haven't seen Shadows, but will be giving it my full attention as a rental
3) I don't watch Revenge, but now I'm wondering if it's time for me to catch up
Back to another topic where you didn't ask a question, but, yes, I did see THAT episode of Mad Men. It's the best of Season 5 so far and perhaps one of the best of the series. Loved, loved, loved it. Am I the only one that thinks Season 5 has been one of the strongest seasons? Why are the ratings at an ALL TIME LOW? Crazy.
De Niro + Luc Besson = eew!
I haven't seen Dark Shadows. I don't think I will.
I've tried to love Revenge, but I just don't like it, not even as a guilty pleasure.
Cinesnatch -- well, low ratings tend to happen when a series disappears for years. you lose the momentum.
and I just realize that my comment was about Mad Men but it might just well as be about Michelle Pfeiffer and her Hollywood Groove.
Cal -- if you'll recall from my Dark Shadows review, I agree that Eva Green acted circles around everyone.
ADRI -- yeah, a reunion between Nicholson & Pfeiffer would be great. But hell, even a Pacino/Pfeiffer reunion for Malavita would be preferrable to DeNiro.
But my dream is always a Jeff Bridges reunion. And why couldn't he play a mafia man? Every casting director in Hollywood and every director and both stars themselves are stupid for not letting that happen. Has she ever had better onscreen chemistry with anyone? Missed opportunities time and time again.
Also: god, i can't stop commenting. I'm starting to lean toward Sharon Stone as ideal casting for Emily's mom. She's SO watchable. but her movie career is dead so why not?
David O Russell could do wonders for Sharon Stone, and since she likes to fight with directors all the more reason these two should collaborate.
Jodie Foster made a foreign film and nobody cared, not even the foreigners. Kathy Bates' series has been canceled and, now she co-stars with Helena Bonham Carter for the same foreign auteur who cast Jodie Foster in a movie nobody cared for her in. I liked the performance and the natural texture of her French accent.
She was wasted in Dark Shadows. Unfortunate. Eva Green had so much more to work with, more room to play. Pheiffer needs to chase auteurs feverishly; can you imagine what someone like Tarantino or Luhrmann or Reichardt could do with her???
YES, I would be perfect in REVENGE!!! HIRE ME!!!