Hello, Gorgeous: Best Actress of 2016
Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 3:00PM A new series by Juan Carlos Ojano
This year’s group of nominees prove to be interesting with regards to their character introductions. One of them has one of the most disturbing, NSFW introductions this category has probably ever seen. Two of these films begin with a closeup of the actresses’ faces that also serve as the very first shots of their respective films. Three of the nominees are in the first scenes of their films (or four, if you count La La Land’s long take). Four of them are introduced with the key male character related to their personal journey.
All five of them are introduced in ways that strongly relate not only to how they identify themselves, but even how the people around them and their environment see them. As a group, all of the nominees’ first moments are filled with details that serve as the character's defining characteristics, even more than any other set of nominees since this series began. Are you ready?
The year is 2016. [NSFW CONTENT WARNING: Sexual violence]...
Isabelle Huppert as Michèle Leblanc in ELLE
Directed by Paul Verhoeven / Written by David Birke
Before the opening credits end, we hear the sound of a woman being physically attacked and then raped. The voice of the male assaulter and the female victim overlapping and overpowering each other. First two shots of the film: a gray cat watching the rape and then walking away. We then see a wide shot of the man on top of the woman post-coitus, slowly removing himself from the crime scene. For a few moments, Huppert remains still, almost corpse-like (the film will circle back to this later). She slowly stands up and pauses for a bit. A cut then jumps to a shot in the same location, showing her cleaning the broken glass while she is also bleeding.
It’s a jarring opening that is completely in line with Verhoeven’s sensibility in tackling rape, one that is in no way interested in painting Michèle as the “perfect victim” and the same applies with Huppert. Her steely facial expression after the attack suggests a multitude of possibilities beyond the immediate puzzlement, but there is a sense that she is either in control or is trying to regain control, and will try to control this situation. The cut to her cleaning the crime scene even pushes the film’s perverse tonality further, merging pragmatic somberness and the slightest tangents of pitch black comedy. It’s a wild whiplash.
Ruth Negga as Mildred Loving in LOVING
Written and Directed by Jeff Nichols
The first shot of the film sees Negga as Mildred in a side profile close up, alone and quiet yet tense. This is a moment of deep contemplation, as if to make a decision that will change her life. She looks down and gathers her strength and then says the first line of the line of the film: “I’m pregnant.” At this moment, we understand that Mildred is at a crossroads. That is until we cut to her husband (Joel Edgerton), also processing this moment. A weighty realization and then: “Good.” Negga lets out a smile of great relief. Her shot is reframed, now with Edgerton in the shot as well. As of this very moment, nothing else matters. A wide shot reveals that they are sitting at the side of the front porch.
This reserved facade that Negga deploys in this scene would be a key characteristic that we will understand her character: as a Black woman in an interracial relationship in an era where anti-miscegenation laws are in effect, even the most personal of moments in her life is a battle. To love and to exist as herself and as a part of this relationship is in direct defiance with institutionalized discrimination. But throughout all of this, she fights her battles with determination and dignity underneath her peaceful visage. Others might read it as passivity, but she finds her strength in finding calm amidst the noise of small battles in pursuit of winning the big war.
Natalie Portman as Jacqueline “Jackie” Kennedy in JACKIE
Directed by Pablo Larraín / Written by Noah Oppenheim
An extended closeup of Portman walking by herself near a body of water. Where does this moment fit in the non-chronological narrative of the film? We do not know that yet, but as the opener to this film, it is a striking introduction to this cultural icon. Aside from the period-specific hair and her outfit, nothing else suggests that a drastic attempt is made to transform her to the titular real-life figur. But while other films might position the transformation as the key to buy into this performance, the film does not even delay the reveal of this anti-physical transformation.
This starts to make sense as the film goes along and reveals itself as a deconstruction of the mythologization of Jackie Kennedy. First and foremost, we see a woman as is, solely focused on her. By the look of her face, we could infer that this was probably post-Kennedy assassination. (Maybe not.) The rest of the scenes play out in a narrative constantly in temporal suspension. This relentless interrogation of the Jackie that we know is running in parallel with her own storytelling in the interview session, but this character introduction invites us to zero in on a seemingly blank canvas, a face of a woman with no immediate context and yet whose constructed mask will be unraveled as the film goes on.
Emma Stone as Mia Dolan in LA LA LAND
Written and Directed by Damien Chazelle
This musical begins with a long take (composed of several shots stitched together) to sweep the audience’s feet into its central thesis that Los Angeles is a city of dreamers through an opening number set on a freeway. After that song finishes - from a crane shot - the camera slowly comes down to the ground to see the motorists stuck in the heavy traffic. After focusing on a man (Ryan Gosling), the camera makes its way towards a car where Mia is talking to someone on the phone. She flubs a word - “insanity” instead of “lunacy” - and then pulls up a page of a script from her side. As it turns out, she is practicing a scene for an audition.
She is one of the dreamers, all caught up in the city that promises itself as the city of stars and dreams but she is one of those stuck in stagnation (literally and figuratively). She has nothing but her dreams that are keeping her going. The car from behind honks his horn and overtakes his car. It is revealed to be the man previously shown. They get into a comical road rage incident. In this moment, her chasing her dream - practicing her lines - is interrupted by the man that she will fall in love with. This isn’t just a romantic setup, but the first sign that her dreams and her relationship will clash later.
Meryl Streep as Florence Foster Jenkins in FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS
Directed by Stephen Frears / Written by Nicholas Martin and Julia Kogan
The first sequence of the film shows the crowded Verdi Club where patrons attend to be entertained. After St. Clair Bayfield (Hugh Grant) performs his monologue, he starts telling the story of an artist (portrayed by an onstage pianist) who is experiencing a creative block. But suddenly - with stagehands struggling to control the rope that lowers someone - Streep, playing the angel of inspiration in this story, comes down from above. Awkward posture while holding a harp, and yet, an innocent look on her eyes, reminiscent of a child that is performing in front of an audience. For the whole performance, she doesn’t even speak or sing.
For a film that tells the story of its central figure, it certainly builds anticipation on revealing the reason for her infamy. Alas, this first scene doesn’t give us that. Not even in the succeeding scene. However, Streep’s body language is already revealing. How she is struggling to maintain composure and is visibly uncomfortable but still, in general, relishes the act of performance itself. But also, this moment also shows how everyone around her - from Bayfield to the stagehands- are doing their best to serve her vision for herself as a performer. This introduction already gives us a taste of the spectacle that she will conjure in her succeeding public performances while still leaving us still in the chase of finding out what makes Florence Foster Jenkins the legend that she is.
Any other observations from these introductions? Whose introduction was your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
Reader Comments (9)
Say what you want about Streep's performance and nomination, but that's a fantastic entrance. That said, nothing beats Huppert's startling intro - what a way to "welcome" the audience into that film. It's still wild that THIS project is what finally got her nominated.
Though i'd have rather seen her left out of the final 5 Streep's entrance is one of the most memorable
I adore Portman in Jackie but it's a sort of bland intro.
Huppert's is the most startling and unsettling.
Negga starts off not pulling focus but inevitably does.
Stone is fine getting flustered mania just right but she didn't really deserve the Oscar esp when she has been superior repeatedly since.
Simply impossible to choose a best intro between these five.
@Claudio-well, it's the European way. Bunuel docet
It really is such a shame that Huppert didn’t win.
So far ahead of this group. Still so happy she was finally nominated though and for what is SUCH a perfect role for her. Both as a standalone major performance in its own right and an unusually good representation of what makes her body of work so incredible and idiosyncratic.
I well remember Florence Foster Jenkins. God, I miss Meryl Streep. This year marks the longest drought of an Oscar nominated performance from the three time Academy Award winner since her first nomination in the 1970s.
Huppert had the best intro yet the Oscar should've gone to.... PO'TMAN MOTHAFUCKA!
Ah yes, Huppert of course! That intro, that role, and the actress-as-auteur. She was the best that year and I am glad she got nominated for a signature performance from le canon Huppertiana.
Wonderful lineup overall but I wish my favorite Amy Adams performance (in Arrival) was also included.
Finbar -- i was just thinking about the other day. I used to complain about her being overexposed but the break has been long enough now. COME BACK TO US MS STREEP, MS STREEP.
Roge -- totally agree that it's perfect that she was nominated for that type of film. Far too many great actors are in Oscar history for something totally generic that doesn't represent what they can do onscreen.
Juan Carlos - These are all good entrances and it's fun that they're all at the start of their films but of these I probably love Streep's best. What a memorable comic intro.
The Streep entrance is really great, and gives you such a sense of the comedic heart of her film. She also sells it from the first moment.
I loved Ruth Negga and Natalie Portman here. I was especially pleased on nomination morning when Negga made it in for such a heartbreaking performance.