Fans of my "Signatures" series (crickets) should know I've made quite the non-career of summing up my favorite actresses in broad, minimizing strokes here at Film Experience. Well it didn't start here, folks! Pre-"Signatures" I made a couple posts that all but summed up the "Signature" splendors of stars Jodie Foster and Jennifer Connelly. It struck me that these were relevant now to the series since Jodie's consistently found whispering in quiet, enclosed areas, while Jennifer's usually found on the edge of a pier. You have to love career consistency.
So follow these main links for some early "Signatures" from these stunning but somber starlets. Think something like A&E's Biography meets... A&E's Intervention? All that history with a hefty dose of concern.
Signatures: Jodie Foster
The star of Inside Man is an indoor woman. Normally I'd call Jodie a brave one... if she wasn't agoraphobic or locked in her panic room. Jodie has a history of being holed up in confined spaces -- be it prison cells, basements, airplanes, tunnels, and spacecrafts specially designed to contact her own subconscious. Lately much of this is due to her being repeatedly (and sparsely) drawn to tight-knit thrillers that play on claustrophobic conflict. On-screen Jodie's presence is a breath of fresh air, but she's also desperately in need of one.
Even when they're on uppers, Jennifer Connelly's characters can be total downers. Who can blame them with all that career drama? She started her talented but tragic filmography with her only friend a fruit fly, then onto college overrun by white supremacists, ass-to-ass with a heroin habit, several children nearly drowned, a messy marriage to a schizo mathematician... Then to find out he's just not that into you! Poor, poor, pier-bound Jennifer.
Let's have an intervention for Jodie and Jennifer in the comments. Remember, it's all said with love.
