Q&A: Magnani, Cameos, Oscar Ties, and Homoeroticism
Sunday, July 17, 2016 at 11:30AM 
I promised a second round of Q&A this week so here we go. Seven more reader questions answered...
Mr W: Do you have any thoughts on Anna Magnani? She's one of my Top 10 Actresses of all time, but I don't think I've ever read anything on her from you.
I do not. Embarrassing to admit but I've only seen her in The Rose Tattoo (1955) which she was wonderful in. Any suggestions as to where to start?
/3rtful: Is there one unsung veteran actress you would like to see get an award season career boost through Ryan Murphy?
There's very few veterans I wouldn't want to see good a career boost. But i'll just name a dozen (and anyone reading should know I could list another 5 dozen with ease -- I shoulda been a casting director). Given that Murphy usually pulls from the 80s and 90s actressing packs (which, one assumes, reflects his formative fandoms) I wish he would throw a bone to Shelley Duvall (though maybe given her rumored mental health this isn't a good idea), Ally Sheedy, Daryl Hannah, Holly Hunter, or Lesley Ann Warren any of whom might be brilliant within his unusually creepy heightened worlds...
Because said universe needs more diversity I'd also suggest Lynn Whitfield or Debbi Morgan (from Eve's Bayou), Grace Jones, Pam Grier, and Jennifer & Meg Tilly (Together! What fun that would be). And this might sound weird but I could see him pulling something unexpectedly interesting from Gwyneth Paltrow who has almost never indulged her evil side onscreen. But if you've seen her amazing turn in Flesh and Bone (1993) you'll know that amorality suits her, even if she never wears it.
Also: Jason has another really good idea...
Do you guys think Sean Young hunts Ryan Murphy around Hollywood? If she doesn't SHE SHOULD pic.twitter.com/gN76RqFenl
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 14, 2016
MARK: What do you consider is the difference between a cameo and a supporting role?
A cameo refers to a brief appearance, as in one scene. Hitchcock made cameos in his films -- Blink and you'll miss him. Sometimes cameo performers get a showcase scene with several lines. Usually it's a celebrity if the cameo is particularly juicy but sometimes, in well cast movies, it's just a hungry young actor making a mark like Annette Bening who is explosively great in her one scene in Postcards From the Edge or Meryl Streep in Julia (technically in two scenes but only really noticeable for one). But any character that reappears in multiple scenes is basically a supporting player. The reason I call one of my acting awards "best actor in a limited role or cameo" is because this all gets very blurry.
Remember William Hurt's Oscar nod for A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE (2005)
There are some cameos that are so long they feel like supporting roles and there are some supporting roles that feel like cameos that actually show up in more than one scene. Some cameos/limited roles completely take over the movie for a long scene or irreplaceable film altering act, usually near the end, so they can feel like full supporting roles. Some examples: Oscar nominated William Hurt in A History of Violence, Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement, Jane Fonda in Youth, or Viola Davis in Antwone Fisher.
PEGGY SUE: I'm kind of obsessed with Tyler Hoechlin in Everybody Wants Some!!! Which are your top five unconsciously homoerotic pictures?
NATHANIEL: Who isn't? Yum. But I don't know how to answer this because of the 'unconsciously' part. I think most homoeroticism is intentional. The only example I can think of is possible the group shower scene in School Ties (1992). The main image that comes up is the volleyball sequence in Top Gun (1986) -- which I don't even love -- and I say "unconsciously" for that one because Tony Scott never seemed like the kind of filmmaker who homoeroticism would have occurred to. His brother, though, Ridley Scott is too much of a visual sensualist to have accidentally included anywhere and he definitely knew what he was doing with the glorious image of the young Brad Pitt in Thelma & Louise. It's possible that I haven't seen enough bro or sports movies that accidentally go there, though, to answer this question.
But from this question and a few others recently I'm sensing y'all are requesting some sort of beefcake top ten list.
KEN: When would you have most liked to engineer a tie in the major Oscar categories?
NATHANIEL: The first thing that always comes to me with "ties" is IF ONLY about 1950 with Gloria Swanson (Sunset Blvd) and Bette Davis (All About Eve) sharing. But for a more accurate response where I actually think it over, I would prefer to answer this in a top ten list at a later date! I'll think it over.
FORSTER: In this Best Actress line-up who receives the award? And let us say that each of the performances is a tour de force.
Annette Bening
Glenn Close
Viola Davis
Laura Dern
Michelle Pfeiffer
NATHANIEL: This is the cruelest question ever! But at least it's pure fantasy since AMPAS would never nominated 5 actresses this perpetually good all-at-once. I have to eliminate Laura Dern, The Face first. She's great-great-great but there isn't a specific year in which I would have handed her the actual Oscar though her nomination count is too low at only 2. The others should have already won. Assuming, as you said, that these are all worthy tour de forces I have to go with Michelle Pfeiffer. Why? Well, she's my all time pfavorite (so you knew this would be the answer) but also for other reasons: she's the second oldest of this group and works the most infrequently and the older and less frequently you work the harder it is to win; she should already have two Oscars (Fabulous Baker Boys - best actress / White Oleander - supporting actress) -- I could be talked into a third for either Batman Returns (1992) or Scarface (1983) but in both years it's kind of a toss up given the other brilliant performances that feel just as deserving -- since 1989 and 2002 should've been standing ovation cakewalks, honestly; and this final point seals the deal - she's never going to be given an Honorary Oscar. She doesn't care enough and to receive those you really have to care... unless you're an old man who other old men idolize like Jean-Luc Godard. Glenn Close and The Bening both feel vaguely plausible as Honorary recipients someday, especially as the Academy adds more women and hopefully their stinginess about giving women honorary Oscars fades. The ratio of men to women who are given those is absolutely absurd.
Viola Davis would be a close second in your torture scenario of sacrificing my loves because we need to move on from #OscarsSoWhite with actual progress (and another Best Actress win for a minority performer would be perfect - especially for a tour de force performance!). In my dream scenario Viola becomes a headliner like Meryl Streep so she can be an Oscar perennial and quits that TV series she's too good for.
HOW ABOUT YOU, DEAR READER? Which of those five do you give it to (assuming the performances are equally brilliant). And which of your beloveds do you hope joins the Ryan Murphy troupe?
Reader Comments (42)
Glenn Close loss to Jodie Foster is the BIGGEST outrage in Oscar history. Actually it should've been her third win, after Supporting for "The world according to Gap" & Actress for "Fatal Attraction".
Thanks Nat,like the Youth mention for Jane whose my supporting winner for last year.
I agree with stjeans about Glenn Close's loss to Jodie Foster. There's one scene where Close is talking to Malkovich and she's sitting in front on the mirror applying make up or powder or whatever. Malkovich gives her some kind of very disturbing news and all you can see is Close's reflection on the mirror and the change in her expression. It's chilling. What a masterful performance!
One particular cameo I remember was Vanessa Redgrave making a brief appearance as Anne Boleyn in A Man for All Seasons. I believe she had no lines. According to the imdb she's the last person on the credit list.
I haven't seen a lot of Anna Magnani's work, but Sidney Lumet's The Fugitive Kind, with Marlon Brando, Joanne Woodward (playing against type as a bad girl - it is Courtney Love's favorite performance), Maureen Stapleton, and Magnani is definitely worth seeing.
I would give that Oscar to Bening. She may win an Honorary someday absent a competitive statue but that's just not a good enough reason to discount her race for a competitive statue - an Honorary Oscar doesn't mean as much!
Ryan already gave Paltrow an Emmy to go with her Oscar for Glee. Now if he produces a comedic Broadway play for her a Tony win is plausible.
I do see Murphy benefiting Kidman for an Emmy.
Holly Hunter would benefit from a juicy role in a David O Russell vehicle.
Michelle Pfeiffer is better off without Ryan Murphy. She should work with Louis CK instead.
Wes Anderson should utilize Glenn Close and Sigourney Weaver. I know he's partial to the men because Bill Murphy has to be in everything he does as long as both men are alive. But I can see the two of them easily fitting into his aesthetic visually and acting wise.
Where to start with the incomparable Anna Magnani? I'll gite you four unmissable suggestions:
ROMA CITTÀ APERTA
L'ONOREVOLE ANGELINA
BELLISSIMA
MAMMA ROMA
She is the greatest italian actress of all time
Hands down. Glenn Close
Personal nomination count:
Bening: 1 (Valmont)
Close: 1 (Fatal Attraction)
Davis: 1 (The Help)
Dern: 6 (Smooth Talk, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Citizen Ruth, We Don't Live Here Anymore, Inland Empire)
Pfeiffer: 7 (Scarface, Married to the Mob, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Frankie and Johnny, Batman Returns, A Thousand Acres, White Oleander)
Glenn Close.
Would never have thought of it, but now that you've mentioned it I can totally see how Lesley Ann Warren would be a great fit with Ryan Murphy. And I kind of like the Lynn Whitfield idea as well.
Anna Magnani. What an actress.
The Rose Tattoo certainly isn't a bad film to start a journey to the world of Anna Magnani (after all, it was a part written especially for her by Tennessee Williams). If you want to look further, I'd suggest to look at Pasolini's 'Mamma Roma' next, my favorite performance by her, and one of my favorite lead actress performances of all time (right up there with 'Streetcar' and 'Opening Night'). She's monumental here, and this is the film that made me want to watch everything she ever appeared in. As a contrast to that, you might want to watch her in a lighter movie - say 'The Golden Coach' (her first English language performance, directed by Jean Renoir), or Visconti's 'Bellissima'.
Watch a few more films with her then - e.g. her the Rosselini one-two-three punch 'Rome, Open City', 'L'amore' and 'Vulcano'. And, of course, enjoy her cameo in Fellini's 'Roma' - she earned it with a great career.
Her performances in English language films are not bad, either - 'The Fugitive Kind' and 'Wild is the Wind' may not be the greatest movies ever made, but Anna Magnani gives her everything in them.
(Side note: I still have my gaps, as well - most notably 'L'onorevole Angelina' and'The Secret of Santa Vittoria'. I'm working on it though.)
Two of the greatest performances I've ever seen: Magnani in "Bellisima" (1951) and Magnani in "Mamma Roma" (1962). Two absolutely tremendous movies, as well.
Glenn Close. AMEN
Quite impossibile for me to choose between Pfeiffer and Close, two of my favourite actresses of all time.... but if I really have to:
1. Close
2. Pfeiffer
3. Bening
4. Davis
5. Dern
There are A LOT of us who don't love Glenn Close, you know? And I specifically know people other than myself who disagree on the supposed greatness of that Dangerous Liaisons performance? That's far from being a given and I stand by Academy's choice of Jodie Foster.
In this scenario, I'd vote Davis but only if she were directed by a great filmmaker, like Todd Haynes. I hate to give prizes to bad tasted performers who work in movies like The Help.
Acting is not only deliver a great performance; acting is collaborate to a director to achieve art. A great performance by itself in a shitty movie amounts to nothing.
On Magnani, I'd suggest Bellissima.
Didn't you love Penélope Cruz in Volver? Raimunda watches this movie on tv because Almodóvar was inspired by Magnani when he was writing the part and directing Cruz. He wanted this larger than life wholesomeness taht you can see in most of Magnani's performances. And Cruz sure delivered it!
Jodie Foster best actress forThe accused? No !!! In a competition with Glenn Close for Dangerous Liaisons , Meryl Streep in A Cry in the dark and Sigourney Weaver in Gorillas in the mist ? No !!! A forgettable Perfomance in an awful movie . Shame on you, Academy !
The assumption in that Best Actress bake-off is that they are all still Oscarless when it happens. If so, all things being equal in terms of film and performance, I'd pick Davis. Then Dern. Then Bening.
Then Close. Then Pfeiffer.
But this particular list of actresses was clearly designed to perplex Nat, not me.
Beefcake top ten list sounds like a good idea- interesting point about accidental homoeroticism- "Top Gun" is a clear example of a straight macho adventure movie with a strong gay subtext- and two classic images- the volleyball game and Tome Cruise who the camera is practically licking in every frame he appears.
You've been given lots of good Anna Magnani ideas. Definitely start with the Italian classics plus The Fugitive Kind. The Secret of Santa Vittoria is a fantastically delightful book with one of those Memoirs-of-a-Geisha meh movies, where they do everything right, but...meh. I don't recommend it, especially if you've never read it.
Yeah I think a Ryan Murphy Emmy counts as already having a career boost from him, no? Although I guess you're thinking along American Horror Story lines. I love the Lesley Ann Warren and Debbi Morgan suggestions, though. Underused greats both. And yes to Sean Young!
A Tie for Oscar just off the top of my head: Swank in Boys Don't Cry and Bening in American Beauty. Two absolutely classic performances. If I looked at the list of nominees in all categories in all years, I could give you about fifty!
I like /3rtful's suggestions, too. I agree Pfeiffer is too good for Ryan Murphy. (And also very wrong. Catwoman is the only stylized performance of hers I've ever liked. She's better with naturalism.) While Louis CK sounds a bit random, it's also pretty intriguing. And an absolute second for Holly Hunter and David O. Russell! What a great idea!
There are A LOT of us who don't love Glenn Close, you know? And I specifically know people other than myself who disagree on the supposed greatness of that Dangerous Liaisons performance? That's far from being a given and I stand by Academy's choice of Jodie Foster.
THIS PORTION OF THE COMMENT HAS BEEN DELETED DUE TO INAPPROPRIATE NATURE. - EDITOR.
In this scenario, I'd vote Davis but only if she were directed by a great filmmaker, like Todd Haynes. I hate to give prizes to bad tasted performers who work in movies like The Help.
Yet you're a Streep Stan!
Acting is not only deliver a great performance; acting is collaborate to a director to achieve art. A great performance by itself in a shitty movie amounts to nothing.
Over half of Streep's filmography has consisted of her "greatness" being the saving grace of a mediocre vehicle. And don't get me started at actresses usually been the lone acting nominees for their movies because great American auteurs rarely use actresses in substantial ways as they do men.
Unintentional (?) homoeroticism may never surpass Chariots of Fire. Let's set aside the iconic opening sequence for a moment. We need to talk about Nicholas Farrell's character Aubrey.
When the movie starts Aubrey seems to be set up as the protagonist (writing a letter to mother). The whole rest of the movie he basically stares longingly at all of the other men. He is there to gaze upon Abrahams during the awkward scene in which the filmmakers try to convince us that Abrahams is kind of an asshole. When Lord Lindsay (Nigel Havers) bursts onto the scene to challenge Abrahams, Aubrey looks as though Lindsay has just abandoned him from a closed-door rendezvous. So. Much. THIRST. After that I was waiting for what felt like his inevitable homosexual subplot. But instead, they attempt to convince us that Aubrey is in love with Sybil before the (anti-) hero Abrahams steals her away at the theater. Rather than expressing any deeply wounded feelings about Sybil though, Aubrey later SITS AND WATCHES while Abrahams gets a MASSAGE. For no apparent reason!!!
When the movie ended I was absolutely dumbfounded. That character more or less faded into the background. The already confusing dual-protagonist situation gave us two climaxes, yet, if I remember correctly, the movie still goes back to Aubrey at the funeral and writing letters home. Seriously, wtf is with that character! It's not like sports and colleges weren't hotbeds of overt homoeroticism and actual queer acts in 1920s Britain (they were). I have never been more confused watching a movie. And, for good measure, let's just reflect on Lord Lindsay gloriously sticking out his tongue and eating up the mud tracks from the other men. Come on.
Okay just stop dears. No need to love one actress and hate another.
GLENN CLOSE 4EVA!!!
stjeans -- agree that Jodie losing to Glenn was an outrage. That's one of the years when they most enraged me since Jodie was the least of the nominees that year in a strong category-- kinda like Swank winning #2 as the worst of the 2004 nominees in another strong category. But I am of the belief that strong categories often yield strange winners.
catbaskets - it sounds like this movie needs to be rewatched as a group and discussed. early 80s cinema is almost never discussed it seems (every other part of the 80s is)
everyone - appreciate the Magnani suggestions. and apologize for forgetting all about Glee when i recommended Paltrow fro Ryan Murphy (oopsie)
All for a collective re-watch and discussion. Interestingly, Gallipoli (also early 80s) also rates highly on the unintentionally homoerotic scale.
@vladdy
Despite his coarse comedy Louis CK is a serious and sensitive artist. His two series: Louie and Horace and Pete are showcases for their bit players. Melissa Leo won her first Emmy for Louie; Laurie Metcalf is nominated for Horace and Pete; and Jessica Lange who guest starred on both shows wants to work with him again. He'd benefit Pfeiffer greatly.
I am kind of curious to know what what 3rtful wrote about me. This is the first time I see a comment being deleted here. On a second thought, I don't wanna know. I like TFE because it's friendly and it's the only blog I comment. Let's keep it that way.
Thank you Nathaniel for editing whatever he said.
Cal -- i have to start. i've warned people enough. this will hold true for everyone (as long as I actually notice). I hate to be a policeman but whatever.
BE NICE TO EACH OTHER.
Please watch Mamma Roma!
My pick would be Close,then Pfeiffer (runner-up by the breadth of a hair) followed by Bening and Davis and Dern (the last two not overdue in my opinion as good as they are). Having said that, I'll be blissed out if they were the nominees in any given year.
I'll add The Fugitive Kind to Ferdi's list
Glenn Close x2
catbaskets -- Thanks! I'll rewatch both
This best actress dilemna is just too easy for me to resolved for some reason. I would give it hands down to Annette Benning. In my eyes, she's the one who delivers the most consistently complex characters and she hasn't ever seemed like she sold out. I like her the most. I like all of them and would be happy really if any of them won but I really want it to be for a good performance so that the merit is not diluted. And it really pains me when young actresses like Brie Larson or Alicia Vikander win. Nothing against the magnificent work they deliver but Hollywood is such a tough business and surviving and delivering quality work year after year after year is so rare and commendable that I think that for an oscar to mean anything it should be given to actors and actresses who have paid their dues. It is so much more rewarding to see a Cate Blanchett or a Tilda Swinton win than an Alicia Vikander.
I've only seen a few Anna Magnani movies, but she's a fascinating force of nature!
The scene in "The Fugitive Kind" where she gives drifter Brando a room in exchange for... and he calls her on it... and her reaction... is almost painful to watch.
What is remarkable about Magnani is that she got any kind of traction in Hollywood during the '50s, when they were importing the likes of Sophia, Gina, and Brigitte--and she snagged an Oscar to boot!
Nat, you said Bening should have already won. Which performance do you think she should've won for? I agree with other comments I've seen elsewhere that as much as I love her and am bummed she doesn't have an Oscar, I honestly can't think of a year where she truly gave THE best performance of the year. Top 5? Definitely. But the best? Not sure.
DJDeeDay -- i think she should have won for THE GRIFTERS.
American Beauty and The Kids Are All Right are the strongest of her four nominations.
I would give it to Glenn Close or Viola Davis. Tough choice there.
Then Michelle Pfeiffer.
Then Annette Bening, who I occasionally like but has never really been my cup of tea.
And Laura Dern last because she's not really in the same league as the others tbh.
The Grifters!
Interesting tidbits abt the Feud btw Anna Magnani & Sophia Loren - two great Italian legends
La Magnani was initially cast as the mother & La Loren as the daughter in Two Women. However, Magnani, feeling threatened by the young voluptuous upstart, insisted that the director, Vittorio De Sica replaced Loren, claiming she can't see Loren as the innocent young girl. When he refused, she mockingly suggested why not cast Loren as the Mother instead since he insisted on keeping her.........& the rest is Oscar history........
1988 best actress race is one of the toughest in Oscar history. My ranking of the best actress according to the nominees is:
1) Streep, A Cry in the Dark
2) Close, Dangerous Liaisons
3) Weaver, Gorilla in the Mist
4) Griffith, Working Girl
5) Foster, The Accused
Close is BRILLANT as the serpentine Marquise, but she shld've won her best actress the year before for Fatal Attraction. Meryl shows us why she was the BEST ACTRESS of THE 80s with her unflinchingly honest performance of the most hated woman in Australia (at one time) who was wrongly accused of murdering her baby and imprisoned.
Pfeiffer probably shld've won the Oscar in 1989, but Tandy was the sentimental fav then & she was the oldest nominee at that time. And everybody probably think that she was a more deserving winner then. Pfeiffer was still young and at the peak of her stardom, they probably tink that she still has plenty of stabs at the golden statuette.
Bening shld've won for Being Julia. PERIOD. Shame on the voters who were swayed by the Million Dollar Campaign!
Claran, as much as I would've loved Bening to win that year, it really probably should've been Winslet.
The Holy Trinity of Best Actress performances from '88 are Bujold in Ringers, Close in Liaisons, and Sarandon in Durham. Only Close was nominated and lost because she's not pretty nor playing a victim of public gang rape.