Nicole Kidman Tribute: The Others (2001)

by Mark Brinkerhoff

Jersey, the Channel Islands
1945

A screaming, terrified-looking Grace Stewart, played by an eerily put-together Nicole Kidman, awakens from a frightful dream (?) in the opening scene of Alejandro Amenábar’s wonderfully gothic 2001 thriller. Introduced in the vein of a spooky European fairy tale, The Others begins bracingly and basically doesn’t quit for all of its perfectly crafted 100 or so minutes. It’s a ghost story with ghostly storytelling beats from a pre-9/11 world of filmmaking. Released in the halcyon days of late summer 2001, The Others arrived with a pretty sterling production-distribution team at its back, despite its relatively slim ($17 million) budget: [Tom] Cruise-[Paula] Wagner Productions, Dimension Films and Studio Canal distributors. Having already announced—and by then finalized—a bombshell divorce from Cruise, Kidman appeared to have quite a bit of her own star power riding on the Cruise-produced film. Fortunately for her, The Others turned out to be an unqualified success…

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Moulin Rouge! (2001)

by Cláudio Alves

Though many thought Nicole Kidman should have been welcomed into the Academy's good graces with 1995's To Die For, it would take six years until that early promise materialized in the actress' first Oscar nomination. Curiously, the path to such success went through a return to down under cinema that started to take shape with The Portrait of a Lady by kiwi auteur Jane Campion. This was also when Kidman began to challenge herself conspicuously by collaborating with true visionaries, picking projects based on who was behind the camera. That line of thinking took the actress into the dark reveries of Kubrick's swan song and, ultimately, the musical riot of Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge!, which started shooting shortly after Eyes Wide Shut hit theaters.

As Satine, the cabaret's star performer, Nicole Kidman is at the height of her powers, delivering a feat of such off-the-charts star wattage it would have been inconceivable for the Academy to look away…

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: The Portrait of a Lady (1996)

by Nathaniel R

Madame Merle: I'd give a good deal to be your age again; to have my life before me.
Isabel Archer: Your life is before you yet.

This article was originally intended to grace our "How Had I Never Seen?" series. Jane Campion's The Portrait  of a Lady (1996) has stubbornly remained on my "to see" list for nearly twenty years. I let it sit there, as a shamefully passive intent, not unlike the way Isabel Archer approached her own 'to experience' lists past the age of 24. That's when she marries Mr Osmond in Henry James "The Portrait of a Lady" and her idealism and ambition are utterly flatted by the limits of her imagination, courage, and self-possession. The novel first appeared in serialized form in 1880 and for the following century and a half, Isabel Archer has confounded and/or fascinated readers; Fellow artists, too, like auteur Jane Campion and actress Nicole Kidman...

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

by Nick Taylor

Hey, you there! Yeah, you! How well do you think you know your wife? Your partner? The human being you consider your most intimate companion, someone you trust so implicitly that you may in fact take for granted the idea that they have as many mysteries and desires as you yourself do? If you’re laboring under such delusions and need a stark reminder of such realities, then do I have a movie and a performance for you! Our celebration of Nicole Kidman’s ‘90s uprising has reached its conclusion with Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut...

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Nicole Kidman Tribute: Practical Magic (1998)

by Christopher James

The seeds for Big Little Lies were planted nearly 20 years earlier with Practical Magic. Admittedly much goofier than the prestige HBO miniseries, Practical Magic is an unequivocal crowd pleaser stuffed with delightful characters, cozy fall vibes and wicked pleasures. This is thanks to the strange, yet wonderful pairing of Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock...

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