Before I left I took in my last Tribeca film, All About Actresses [Q & A] which is a French mockumentary about actresses and their neurosis. The actresses play themselves... but comedic false versions of themselves. The writer/director/star Maïwenn looked SO familiar to me and I just couldn't place her. This is what IMDB is for. Turns out she played the diva Plavalaguna in The Fifth Element. Well, how about that? I always loved her scene in that movie. Her new film is... unusual... but despite my francophilia, I feel like more knowledge of French cinema would have definitely helped me get the comedic twists on the star personas of the various actresses featured: Karin Viard, Charlotte Rampling, Muriel Robin, Karole Rocher, Jeanne Balibar, Romane Bohringer, Mélanie Doutey, Julie Depardieu, Estelle Lefébure. Nevertheless I was horrified that the audience knew even less than I. Consider: One audience member stands to ask a question and prefaces it by saying
I can't remember her name... but my question is about the old lady. The one that was in Basic Instinct 2...Charlotte Rampling?!? CHARLOTTE freaking RAMPLING reduced to 'the old lady that was in Basic Instinct 2?'
........Nathaniel wept.
I kept trying to picture All About Actresses with more familiar Hollywood actresses and it'd be quite a watchable oddity that we'd have to talk about. We'd have to talk about it a lot. My greatest take away was that I missed Romane Bohringer and I definitely want to see more of Karin Viard's work.
I forgot to mention it earlier but I also attended a special screening of the work in progress documentary Making the Boys [Panel] which covers the history of Mart Crowley's landmark gay stage play turned movie Boys in the Band (1968-1970). I have long been in the camp that feels that the property in question is a classic example of internalized homophobia but the documentary is terrific at showing all the sides of the arguments surrounding it. It attempts to put it all into perspective in terms of Boys place in the chronology of gay liberation. When it's completed it'll also be a must see for classic Hollywood devotees -- especially Natalie Wood fans. She was Crowley's patron saint, friend, and frequent employer and she gets lots of time and love in the documentary. Major bonus points: archival footage from parties at Wood's beach house with Hollywood stars like Sal Mineo and Roddy McDowall and great anecdotes about Bette Davis, William Friedkin and Richard Harris among others.
...more later but now I sleep and attend wedding festivities. Have a great weekend.
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