Happy 73rd to Shelley Duvall

We spent most of today's psychic energy reminiscing about James Caan's greatness , plotting what to see this weekend at the theater (maybe Elvis again?), and being reminded about the terrible 1994 Best Actress race when Jamie Lee Curtis was RIGHT THERE. So we almost forgot it was Shelley Duvall's birthday, one of the most singular actresses to ever grace the silver screen. So...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHELLEY DUVALL, WHEREVER YOU ARE.

Here at TFE, Cláudio has paid tribute to her all time best performance (3 Women) and Jason has celebrated her most famous (The Shining) but I realized I haven't really written about her. If you could read a piece on Duvall that wasn't about those two movies, which performance would you want it to be about? 

Comments

[Finbar McBride]

Without question, I think she is wonderful in Joan Micklin Silver’s 1976 screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story Bernice Bobs Her Hair. As Bernice, Shelley Duvall deeply feels her desire to succeed socially and her inability to gain any status with her popular cousin’s clique till she threatens to defy propriety by lopping off her long, thick tresses. Everyone who has suffered an awkward adolescence can identify with Duvall’s compelling performance as she flirts with upending social convention in 1920 Wisconsin.

[thevoid99]

3 Women is her crowning achievement as I also loved her performance in The Shining and her collaboration with Robert Altman. I wish she was more appreciated. Always fun to watch.

[par]

her definitive olive oyl in popeye or perhaps her transplendent scene in annie hall

[Corey Eubanks]

Olive Oyl is the obvious choice.
LA Joan in Nashville would be cool.
I love her best friend role as Dixie in Roxanne
Or just go hard and do Portrait of a Lady.

[Edwin]

Popeye is such an odd little movie (I mean that in a good way although I realize most people would probably say it in a bad way), and she clearly understood the tone it was going for and nailed it. I think it’s a performance well worth consideration.

Among performances that haven’t been mentioned by someone else here yet, she’s memorable in her small role in Time Bandits as well as in Frankenweenie (the original short version, that is). Really, as long as it’s not Suburban Commando, it’ll be a worthy choice (not that her performance in that movie is the reason it’s bad, I should clarify).

As much as I like The Shining, I hate what Kubrick did to her during the making of it and therefore find certain scenes a little uncomfortable to watch. On the making-of documentary there’s a part where Shelley Duvall’s hair actually starts falling out due to extreme distress, and Kubrick’s reaction is to take a strain of her hair and hold it up to the camera with a smile on his face, as though he finds her mental state amusing. Scatman Crothers was also brought to tears by Kubrick, and it seems like Jack Nicholson served as the sort of moderator between Kubrick and the rest of the cast. Reportedly he pulled Kubrick aside multiple times during filming to plead with him to lay off them a bit.

[Mr Ripley79]

She has a great cameo in The Portrait of a Lady and it's her tea spilling that changes Kidman's character's life journey.

I'm assuming you've seen the film due to you being Kidmaniac.

[Dave in Hollywood]

Oh definitely Bernice Bobs Her Hair. It's short, directed by a woman, and full of famous faces. I remember Bud Cort, Dennis Christopher, and Veronica Cartwright in one of the first things I saw her do.