The Bening Considered

Nick Davis, my personal friend, podcast mate, and true rival in deeply committed actressexuality, has written a thoughtful consideration of Annette Bening's career as part of his extensive, brilliant, but unfortunately snail's paced evaluation of the entire spectrum of 83 years of Best Actressing. It's a wonderful read whether you love The Bening or have mixed feelings about her imperious theatrical verve, as I know some readers do.

"Am I supposed to be interested in this?" The Bening in BUGSY (1991)

My favorite parts of the piece are a convincing argument as to how Virginia Hill in Bugsy (1991) became the template of her screen persona and a detour into the underseen Valmont (1989) which was her first important screen role, one that had the misfortune to follow Glenn Close's nearly Oscar-winning take on the same character in Dangerous Liaisons (1988) into theaters. About which he writes...

Bening's the kind of actress, in technique and in unabashedly scholastic bent, to whom one could plausibly say, "I want to route 18th-century France through a prism of that sly mordancy of Eastern European theatre," and she'd know exactly what you mean, and be able to do it.

It's hilarious because it's true.

Unfortunately the thought-provoking essay has made me sad in advance. I don't relish seeing The Bening lose again at the Oscars. And if, by some miracle, she dethrones Natalie Portman, I don't much relish the beating she'll take online in this age of Portman-mania. [They're both on my Best Actress ballot.]

It's interesting to me that the AMPAS is, as a collective, a known anglophile; the Academy relishes and rewards classically trained Brits from Mirren to Dench to Firth (soon) and many before them. But when it comes to American stars, Streep aside, classical training, intellectual heft, and true range don't seem to interest or fascinate them much. Don't you think Annette Bening would have won the Oscar by now if she were British?

Dame Annette Francine Bening.

As a related aside: If you haven't yet read it here's an interesting piece on the education and training of the current Oscar nominees.