Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day 286-287: Don't Stand So Close to Me

During my assessment of her work in the 1950s, I constantly wondered why Deborah Kerr never won an Oscar despite being nominated a mind-boggling six times. There's another lady who has now tied Kerr for being the actress with the most unsuccessful Oscar nominated performances. The actress in question is Glenn Close who in the 1980s lost out in the acting categories a total of five times whilst her most recent loss came a couple of years ago. We've already witnessed one of Close's Oscar-nominated roles, in The Big Chill where she played a well-meaning and friendly Doctor. However, in the tail-end of the decade, Close would demonstrate that she was much better at playing manipulative and at times downright scary female protagonists.

The great thing about Close's performance in Fatal Attraction is that her character initially seems fairly normal. Whilst it's clear that her character Alex Forrest is attracted to Michael Douglas' lawyer Dan Gallagher when they meet at a party there doesn't seem to be anything amiss about her. The audience remain similarly unsurprised when the couple begin an affair while Dan's wife and daughter are out in the country visiting family. The affair between Dan and Alex lasts for one whole weekend during which the latter starts to demonstrate signs that she may not be as normal as we first expected. However, as Alex realises Dan's intentions towards her were only fleeting, she stuns him by slitting her wrists when he attempts to leave. His compassion towards her is misread as something more and soon she's bombarding both his work and home phone with plenty of messages. Dan attempts to evade Alex by changing his phone number but once again she outsmarts him by turning up at his apartment as a potential buyer. Alex eventually admits to Dan that she's pregnant and he's the father but he claims that he wants nothing to do with her. From there Alex's behaviour becomes dangerous as she commits numerous crimes, including one incredibly iconic sequence involving an innocent pet and a pan of scorching water. Eventually Dan admits his affair to his wife and they agree to work together to bring down the psychopathic Alex.

After watching Fatal Attraction my first thought was the shock that a psychological thriller like this was ever nominated for Best Picture. While Fatal Attraction isn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination it's not a movie that I would associate with the Oscars. Indeed, if Fatal Attraction was released in 2014 it would be instantly seen as a slightly creepy erotic film and may garner a cult audience but nothing more. What I personally enjoyed about Adrian Lyne's film is how the shocking moments are interspersed with plenty of mundane scenes involving Dan and his family. I believe that a thriller only works if the thrills are well built up and Fatal Attraction was a film that certainly was aware of how to do this. I do feel that I possibly would've enjoyed the film more had I not known the basic outline of the plot before sitting down to watch it. That being said I was still incredibly shocked by the final scenes which saw Alex's revenge thwarted by the Gallaghers. One of the reason the film works so well is the performance from Close who is believable as the unhinged Alex who would go to any lengths to ensnare the man she feels she should be with. Close excels both in the early scenes as the flirty, confident businesswoman and later as the psychopathic ex-lover with revenge firmly in her sights. Michael Douglas was the go-to sleazeball of the 1980s and here he takes to his role as the philandering family man with ease. My main issue with the film was the fact that the career woman Alex would be completely willing to sacrifice everything just because of her obsession with one man. This did spoil my enjoyment of the film slightly but then I don't think Fatal Attraction is a film that is based firmly in reality. Overall I found Fatal Attraction to be a gripping thriller with a satisfying ending that proved that Close was the perfect choice to play a manipulative character in the 1980s.

I'm sure that's partly why that, a year later, Close was called upon to play the Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons. The film, an adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, portrays Merteuil as a strong woman who attempts to play games with men to avenge the way her sex is treated. Her latest scheme involves getting one over on a former lover by attempting to break in his new fiancée, the virginal Cécile de Volanges, and therefore making a mockery of him in society. To do so she enlists the help of the similarly despicable Vicomte de Valmont who refuses to take part in her plot to deflower Cécile. His primary reason for this refusal is that he's already attempting to seduce another virtuous soul in Madame de Tourvel, a married woman who is currently staying with aunt. Merteuil believes that Valmont doesn't have a chance with Tourvel and makes a wager to this affect making herself the prize. From there the games really start to begin as Valmont manipulates his way around society, professing his love for Tourvel and staging charitable deeds in the hope that she'll see him as a decent man. Eventually, after making a discovery, Valmont agrees to seduce Cécile, an act that proves a lot easier than he first suspected. With a lot of double crossing and sexual encounters along the way, the ending of Dangerous Liaisons is fairly touching. I have to say that I wasn't expecting the sort of conclusion that the film offered and for that reason alone it really surprised me.

Having watched a lot of costume dramas throughout the decades, I can't say without a doubt that Dangerous Liaisons heralded in a new era for the genre. While the Oscar-winning production design and costumes remained fairly traditional the tone of the film was anything just. The tone can be attributed to Christopher Hampton, whose adapted screenplay was incredibly well-placed and was a worthy winner of an Oscar itself. Hampton's mischievous script was full of sexually charged conversations and manipulative characters who generally would have been secondary characters in other costume dramas. Neither Merteuil nor Valmont are particularly likeable characters but it's their hedonistic lifestyle and manipulation of others that makes them so intriguing. Hampton makes sure that neither are considered caricatures and includes scenes in which both explain their motivations for behaving as they do. The supporting characters add different elements to the plot whether it be the piety displayed by Tourvel or the wide-eyed innocence of the ditzy Cécile. Of her two roles in this post, Close is definitely more comfortable playing Merteuil primarily as her vengeance is portrayed as a way of getting back at all the men that have wronged her. Close is great both in her character's scenes with Valmont and those in which she is forced to act as an upstanding pillar of society. Close also shares a brilliant chemistry with John Malkovich who delivers a scenery-chewing performance as the dastardly Valmont. Malkovich controls every scene he's in and I believe its an absolute travesty that he wasn't nominated for his role in the film. Instead, the other nomination went to Michelle Pfieffer who was great at playing the pure Tourvel and in particular portraying her eventual love for Valmont. While I personally enjoyed Uma Thurman's turn as Cécile I felt that Keanu Reeves was miscast as her lover and music teacher Danceny. In fact, as Danency plays a vital part in the closing stages of the film, I would've thought that somebody with a bit mroe experience would've been cast. But that's a minor quibble of a lavishly exotic film that played with the boundaries of the costume drama genre and had fun doing it. Once again it demonstrated that Close was great at playing strong, slightly unhinged female characters.

Ironically, Close's most recent nomination saw her play a woman who was much more at home in her regular guise as a man. I really do hope that Close one day gets her day in the sun and wins an Oscar because, judging from what I've seen in the 1980s alone, she more than deserves it.

Next time a focus on another actress who, unlike Close, successfully won the Best Actress Oscar during the 1980s.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 263-265: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? Part One

Although Woody Allen, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford and Paul Newman were all still making films in the 1980s, the decade also ushered in a raft of new faces. In fact, surprisingly, the actor who starred in the most Best Picture nominees was William Hurt a man who won his Best Actor Oscar in only his sixth film. In addition he starred in another four films that were Best Picture nominees and went on to be one of the most recognisable faces of the decade.

Hurt's first appearance in a Best Picture nominee saw him star alongside a group of actors who would also go on to become big names in the 1980s. In The Big Chill, Hurt starred as Nick, a Vietnam veteran who was reunited with a bunch of college friends at the funeral of another of their number. Also among the group are married couple Harold and Sarah, popular TV actor Sam, successful journalist Michael, unmarried businesswoman Meg and Karen, a mother trapped in an unhappy married. The group are reunited following friend Alex's suicide in the holiday home of Harold and Sarah where he was staying at the time alongside his much younger girlfriend Chloe. Following Alex's funeral, these eight decide to stay the weekend at the house in South Carolina where old romances are reignited and home truths are thrown around. During the course of the weekend a lot of the characters are given the opportunity to re-evaluate their lives with Meg voicing her need to be a mother and Nick trying to figure out his place in life. More importantly the film explores how life doesn't always pan out in the way you expect it to and how the dreams you once had for yourself in college are vastly different from the reality of things more than ten years later. At the end of the weekend, though there are a few monumental changes, most of the group go back to their normal lives however mundane they may be. The message of Lawrence Kasdan's film is simple, no matter how you want it to change, generally life goes on. 

On one hand I really enjoyed The Big Chill and it was definitely one of the easiest films to get through so far on this list. Kasdan and Barbara Benedek's Oscar-nominated script was incredibly well-paced and gave us a mixture of pathos and humour. They created a group of characters who felt real and all of whom were trying to deal with Alex's suicide in a number of ways. However, at times, I felt everything was a little too choreographed and a little too scripted to the point that I started to question the realism of the film. Whilst it was no fault of the actors, The Big Chill felt too staged for my liking and this belief took some of my overall enjoyment away. That being said the performances, on the whole, were fantastic and really demonstrated why a number of The Big Chill's cast members would go on to have major success throughout the 1980s. Of all the central cast, it was Glenn Close as Sarah who would receive the sole Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Close had previously received a nod in the same category the previous year and did give a subtle turn as the woman who'd had an affair with Alex but whose marriage had survived nonetheless. However, I did feel that Hurt gave the best performance as the member of the group who had yet to figure out his life and could have easily have gone down the same road as Alex. As Sam, Tom Berenger gave some depth to the TV action hero who wanted to be seen as more than just his on-screen character. Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum were also on form, the latter adding some great comic timing as journalist Michael. Interestingly, Kevin Costner was cast as Alex but all of the flashback scenes involving his life were ultimately cut out, a decision that I agree with. At the same time, learning that Costner was cast in the film allowed me to put a face to Alex when the rest of the group were talking about him. One of The Big Chill's other major positives was the soundtrack, made up of songs that group would have listened to at college. These songs really punctuate the scenes and provide a backdrop to some of the film's most memorable set pieces. At the end of the day, The Big Chill was an enjoyable film with a talented cast and a great script, I just felt that the characters' movements weren't as natural as they possibly should have been.

Two years later Hurt would go on to win Best Actor in a role that was as far away from The Big Chill's Nick as you can get. In Kiss of The Spider Woman, Hurt plays gay window dresser Luis Molina who is currently serving a term in a Brazilian prison for having sex with an underage boy. Molina is sharing a cell with Valentin Arregui, a political prisoner who has been tortured due to his role in a radical left-wing group. The two men are definitely mismatched and Molina is being bribed with release by trying to get information from Valentin. But a bond develops between the two men over their time locked in together and the unlikely pair become incredibly close. What sets Kiss of the Spider Woman apart is that Molina often narrates part of his favourite film to Valentin to distract them both from the horrors outside of their cell. The fact that Molina's film is a Nazi propaganda movie doesn't seem to faze him primarily because he loves the love story. Life begins to imitate art when Molina is granted parole and has to decide whether to follow his head or his heart. The film's conclusion is fairly tragic in one respect, but in another it does provide closure for both Molina and Valentin.

Having watched a few prison films already for this blog I thought I knew what to expect, but Kiss of the Spider Woman was something completely different. For the most part it wasn't a film about a prison, but about two men drawn together due to similar circumstances. This odd couple dynamic is brilliant to watch and is well-played by both Hurt and Raul Julia. I personally feel that Hurt thoroughly deserved his Best Actor Oscar, as he played completely against type here. Hurt's portrayal of Molina was flawless as you felt every single emotion that he felt. His passion for narrating his film and for keeping himself near to Valentin for as long as possible was also brilliantly portrayed. Raul Julia, who will always be Gomez Addams to me, had the harder job as political prisoner Valentin. However, I thought he presented a balanced character who was incredibly angry but also had a caring side. Julia and Hurt together on screen were just gold and their scenes together really made the film what it was. That's why I struggled to enjoy the film as much when Molina left his cell and returned to the streets of Brazil. The final twenty or so minutes of Kiss of the Spider Woman felt incredibly generic and almost spoilt what had come before. Another great part of Hector Babenco's film was his incorporation of propaganda film 'Her Real Glory'. These scenes are highly stylised and Babenco really tries hard to capture the essence of what made these films so powerful. They are perfectly balanced with the scenes set in the harsh confines of the cell and really add another dimension to what could've been a bog standard prison movie. Ultimately, Kiss of the Spider Woman was at its best when it focused on a story about two men brought together by circumstance and the relationship that developed between them.

An unusual relationship was at the heart of William Hurt's third Oscar-nominated film - Children of a Lesser God. The film sees Hurt play a highly-regarded teacher who arrives at a school for the deaf and attempts to get his small class of pupils to speak. He does this by trying to connect with them be it getting them to swear or having them dance around and sing. But James' bigger challenge occurs when he tries to win over Sarah, a former pupil at the school who now works there as a cleaner. James' early attempts to get Sarah to speak are thwarted and he soon learns that her upbringing has had an effect on her views regarding her speech. Sarah's mother basically rejected her and she feels happier when she's signing, which initially creates a frosty relationship between the two. But later, and somewhat inevitably, the pair begin a romance which escalates quite quickly when Sarah moves in with him. Though they have several happy moments together, the issue about her not speaking is always in the background. Conflict quickly arises and eventually the two are arguing constantly, leading Sarah to return to her mother's house. Though I thought that the film could've done with an ambiguous ending Children of a Lesser God finished with the inevitable reconciliation between James and Sarah.

Of the three films in this post, I have to say that Children of a Lesser God was my least favourite. Though it does pose some interesting points about the nature of its key relationship, I found the romantic plot to be overblown and slightly trite. Similarly, James' attempts to engage his class felt incredibly clichéd and a little generic. In addition, this was the first film from the decade that felt very eighties, down to the fact that one of the final scenes sees the pupils dancing along to 'Jump' by The Pointer Sisters. Luckily, the film is bolstered by two fine central performers who try to make their characters rise above the fairly simple nature of the plot. Hurt tries to side step cliché in the 'inspirational teacher' role and actually makes James a flawed individual primarily because he doesn't understand anybody who doesn't want to speak. One of the scenes that best exemplifies Hurt's work is when James and Sarah attend a party where everybody is speaking in sign language. Hurt is able to convey how he's feeling just by a few looks and he allows the audience to feel his pain. Hurt also provides the connection between the sign language spoken on screen and the audience, almost acting as a translator at times. However, despite being incredibly powerful, Hurt is acted off the screen by the then 21-year-old Marlee Matlin. Matlin, who still holds the record for being the youngest ever Best Actress Winner, gives an incredibly expressive turn as the emotionally damaged Sarah. She more than holds her own opposite both Hurt and Piper Laurie, the latter of whom plays her mother in a handful of scenes. Matlin makes us really feel for Sarah and portrays as a fully-rounded character who has both strengths and weaknesses. I did feel that, in the hands of lesser actors, Children of a Lesser God would have been quite an ordinary film but thankfully it was an enjoyable due to the performances from Hurt and the Oscar-winning Matlin.

Next time we conclude the William Hurt retrospective with two more Oscar-nominated films.