Beauty vs Beast: I'm Not That Innocence
Monday, November 17, 2014 at 1:00PM 
Howdy folks, Jason from MNPP here with Monday's weekly dose of "Beauty vs Beast" -- you might be forgiven for having mistaken this series for an episode of G.L.O.W. as of late (please tell me that some of y'all are my age and know and love that reference) - it seems like it's been a lot of lady match-ups, I mean. So when I saw that today is Martin Scorsese's 72nd birthday, at first I was all, "Finally I can inject some testosterone in here! Pesci! De Niro! Guns and phalluses and junk!"
But then I looked at Marty's filmography I saw the first thing I always regrettably see these days - namely his last movie, The Wolf of Wall Street. And I haaaaaaated WoWS. And my stomach tumbled. And so in my indignation I turned against the testoterone, and where did that leave me? Lady fight!
I know aksing The Film Experience community to even consider a vote against Michelle Pfeiffer is akin to blasphemy, but know this: my vote is for May, May all the way, May got her man and didn't slink away without a fight. All the prime years of Daniel Day-Lewis were hers; nyah nyah nyah Countess Loser.
PREVIOUSLY And speaking of hauling ass to the ladies, last week we trained our eyes on the cutthroat world of high school girls, which also involves a lot of whispers in hallways and note-passing - in the battle for the Queen of Clueless, it's Cher Horowitz who gets the seat at the center of the lunch table. Said Ben:
"Have to go with Cher, due to our shared love of Beavis & Butthead and Snickers. And can you believe they still haven't put R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty? As if!"
Reader Comments (18)
Did you just deprive us of Geraldine Chaplin's face?
Countess Olenska was way ahead of her time, a pioneer against vicious social mores. And she endured a false life despite getting a glimpse of a real one. Hasn't she suffered enough? She gets my vote.
I was gonna say, Cris...
Usually not one of the Pfaithful, but this is one of my favorite roles/performances of hers. I just realized, thinking of this, Dangerous Liaisons, Hairspray, Stardust and Chéri, that I tended to prefer her in period/costume pieces over contemporary stuff.
That scene in the carriage, though...
Team Ellen for everything. May's hat game is strong, though.
Everyone: Pfeiffer is phenomenal, but the script (especially Stapleton droning on about stuff that should be narrated by the actors to make them feel textured and a little more interesting to watch) is far from good (I'd go and the visual framing of that last scene is WEAK. We don't even get to see how Newland Archer reacts to what got revealed. It's just walk away, back to the camera, and scene. Riveting.
One of my fav Scorsese's and Pfeiffer is astonishing, even more than usual!
There's a great moment in this video (which is mostly about Wolf of Wall Street, but also considers all of Scorsese's work) that looks at shot construction and editing in The Age of Innocence:
http://vimeo.com/111415469
You have to put up with a lot of shouting stockbrokers to get to Michelle, DDL and Winona, but for film geeks, it's good stuff.
Pfeiffer gave such a subtle, lovely performance here. I'd say she deserved a nomination over Winger that year, but it was such a tough field, holy cow!
Her five best performances... hmm...I'll say...
1. White Oleander (steely cold, a real departure, master class acting, IMO. A criminally underrated star turn. And don't give me shit about her hair looking too good in the prison scenes, come on people, she was superb!)
2. A Thousand Acres
3. Stardust....so damn fun!
4. Married to the Mob
5. Age of Innocence
Justice for May! Winona is SO GOOD in this movie. My favorite Scorsese.
TB, I agree, Winona was great. I never understood the hate from some towards her performance, people calling her miscast, wooden, I thought she was perfect.
I'm on Team Ellen. I'm not just voting on the basis of Pfeiffer's performance, which is exquisite, but having read the book, you just fall in love with the character as written by Edith Wharton.
Ellen! May was boooooring. My least favorite Winona performance probably.
I'd want May on my side -- she knows how to cut a bitch.
Team May. I adore Ellen, but May has "New York" on her side, including the Van der Luydens. It's just too much to say no too. One of my absolute favs. Just beautiful from top to bottom.
You had me at "Wanton Wrist Barer"!
You had me at "Wanton Wrist Barer"!
Did you ever see the documentary about GLOW? It was great. LOGO ran it at 3 in the morning so I DVR'd it. I find it so interesting that only one GLOW girl found mainstream success, and that was ten years after it folded.
"wanton wrist barer" is officially my new favorite euphemism for homewreckers!