Sultry Shotgunning: Rooney Mara takes your breath away
Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig cover the current issue of Film Comment. Not sure how long it’s been on newsstands but today is the first I’ve seen it. Inside, Amy Taubin talks about those rarest of movie heroines, “dauntless women who take no prisoners” (and namechecks Sasha Stone as one of those rarest of movie journalist, dauntless women who take no nonsense.)
It’s likely no more than coincidence, but satisfying nevertheless. Three movies, released within two months of one another by three of the most accomplished and intelligent directors in the world each have as their central character a woman wildly determined to be the agents of her own life. They are David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire.
This is not a trend, I assured my editor who seldom publishes trend pieces. The trend is what it always has been; various configurations of male-centric movies. As Melena Ryzik noted in her New York Times Carpetbagger column, the contenders all deal with “the existential crises of men.” Not even a Black Swan or a Precious among them. Ryzik supports her observations with those of Sasha Stone, at Awards Daily. There must be at least a few male journalists ho have noticed this blatant lack of gender balance on the big screen, but it took a woman to summon the energy to write about it.
The heroines of A Dangerous Method, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Haywire are not mythic characters but merely women who defy the established order out of various combinations of anger, competitiveness, and the need to match actions to beliefs, even if they pay the price in lost love or their own lives. The choices they make, though viewed as extreme by the mainstream, also involve compromise and ambivalences that have no place in myth.
Lisbeth Salander’s response to childhood trauma is to weaponize her body and her mind. She becomes a cyberhacker, penetrating he secret world of magnates andmisogynists with her souped-up laptop. Why do you need such an expensive computer, her state-appointed guardian asks when she comes to him for her monthly allowance. This is just before he ties her up and anally rapes her. Salander’s revenge in brital and excellently conceived, though stopping short of murder. He will never touch her again.
…Rooney Mara brings an agility of mind and body, as well as a gift for underscoring particularly lethal lines of dialogue by throwing them away., as a character who is probably too much a part of the audience’s collective imagination to be successfully embodied by anyone.
It takes nearly a thrid of the movie and some ingenious parallel editing that is immensely aided by Trent Reznor’s and Atticus Ross’s chill, metallic score, to bring Salander and Bloomkvist together. “I want you to help me catch a killer of women,” he says, which is all it takes to kick Salander’s rescue-and-revenge fantasies into gear. At this point it is not yet clear that when she finally takes over the narrative, the person she will rescue — twice over — is a man. Yes, dear reader, she rescues him, not the reverse, not both each other.
And for her wit, courage, daring and ferocious rage, Salander is rewarded by as lonely and heartbreaking an exit as John Wayne riding into the desert in the closing image of The Searchers. As an ending for a movie that’s been a bit slippery and slick — a necessary condition for an entertainment on which a studio is betting its holiday gazillions — its emotional authenticity catches you off guard and, suddenly, makes you long for a sequel.
Taji covering Rooney & Daniel covering Film Comment.
(I’ll get my scanner fixed and post another great shot from inside.)
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Rooooneeeey love and a kitty? This post earns an A+.
Well, thanks, Sasha – finally!
We can view and compare clips of Ms Viola and Ms Meryl untill the cows come home, but THIS is the female performance I’ll remember from this year – as a breakout, as a perfect match of actress and character, and as (what will be) an iconic portrayal of the screen heroine for this decade.
Judging from her brief moments in TSN, I thought she’d be good, but I never expected what I got. No-holds-barred perfection. The best thing is we get to see her repeat in the next installments that will require her to make her character even more complex. Can’t wait.
Every time I read something like this, not only in support of TGWTDT but also justifying that support, displaying an astute understanding of the complexities of the filmmaking, I feel all smug. Rotten of me, I know. But still, it’s always nice to know that there are those in the media capable of appreciating such brilliant work when the herd would have everyone believe that Fincher’s film has been a thorough disappointment.
‘As an ending for a movie that’s been a bit slippery and slick — a necessary condition for an entertainment on which a studio is betting its holiday gazillions — its emotional authenticity catches you off guard and, suddenly, makes you long for a sequel.’
Hear hear
Love it. Heading to the newsstand right NOW. Also gonna see if I can pick up American Cinematographer which has her on the cover as well and an interview with Cronenweth.
@steve50: I totally agree with your comments but thank Ryan!
LOVE this Sasha!
Oh, crap – sorry Ryan! I’m so used to seeing Sasha getting blamed for her Tattoo agenda that I made an assumption.
(Isn’t that the same cat that was in the razor-poster contest?)
this is what to write when you lose to Weinstein’s marketing… might as well push Rooney Mara for best actress… and try to overhype Hugo so it can grab The Artist’s crown (trying to do what Weinstein did to The King Speech)… The race would be “exciting”… As if hurt locker and slumdog millionaire are exciting wins, they were early frontrunners..
“The Iron Lady,” “Young Adult,” “My Week with Marilyn,” “Albert Nobbs,” “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and “Pariah” all have women as THE center character.
(So does the awful “One for the Money”)
No problem, steve50. Contrary to popular misconception, Sasha & I don’t share all the same agendas but we’re both tangled up in this one. Confusion is justified.
Sasha’s a cat person too, but Taji’s my buddy. You’ve probably seen him around before, because he’s always ready for his close-up (Sasha’s Rise of the Apes TV ad in the background.)
Taji as Michelle Williams as Marilyn.
Taji knows the hell out of Welles, so that’s how he got so theatrical. (certainly not from me.)
Tony, did you bother to read this excerpt?
It’s not about an actress having a leading role. It’s about a female character who defiantly takes control of her own life in a radical fashion.
Does Kevin’s mother take control of her situation? Does Albert Nobbs? Does even Marilyn? Tragically, no. None of them do.
Does Thatcher take control? Yes, but shes does so conservatively, working within the system.
The three female characters Amy Taubin is writing about have to turn the system upside down and screw it inside out to take what they want, need and deserve.
That’s the distinction.
What Paddy M said. Amy fucking Taubin.
“Film Comment” is a great magazine but my (recent) history with it, it’s one of the greatest (business) disapointaments of my life.
Since the begining of 2002 I have a subscription of the monthly english magazine “Sight and Sound”. No more than two times in all this period, the then current issue take more than a decent time to arrive in my house (let’s say, one of the March ones only arrives in the early dasys of April, etc).
I made a two year subscription of the bimonthly “Film Comment”, about a year, maybe a year and half ago. Cancel it after five numbers. None of the issues arrived in the proper bimonth perido (example: a March-April one, just landed in middle of May!), and they never wrote my last name correctly, even with all the complaints and warnings. The brazilian post office went on a strike that lasts 40 days in the end of 2011, but the supreme irony is that the issue released during this period is the one who arrived “earlier” (in the last days of the bimonth) in all this time…
And by the way, I fried of mine was part of the critics jury of the recent Palm Springs Festival. I asked him to buy this Mara/Craig/Girl Tatoo cover issue of “Film Comment”, and try to find the issue before that (already sold out in newsstands here in Rio de Janeiro, since only a few copies of the magazine are avaiable here), Clooney/Descendants, According to him, after search for it on six or seven different places, and didn’t find anywhere.
As a consolation prize, “Film Comment” offer me a digital subscription through Zino. But that doesn’t fulfill my analogics necessities. Like everybody, I read tons of stuff on the web, but some material so dear to me, I like it to read in good old fashion paper version.
Ryan,
I just emailed you scans of the cover and the picture inside. I don’t have the best scanner in the world, but it’s not too bad.
Daniel looks hot in that picture.
Ryan,
Thanks for at least granting that Thatcher took control, but in what other way did you want her to do it? By guerrilla warfare and eventually turning the male population into sex slaves?
Marilyn had loads of control. She could have or refuse any man as a husband or lover. When making movies, she ruled the shooting (as Gable’s dead body could attest).
Albert Nobbs took control by over her life, for good or ill, by living as a man.
Theron’s character tried to steal a married father. Yes, a bad choice, but her choice.
My point was that plenty of the movies released in the past two months (the article’s time frame) had women as their central characters. They may not always have control or subvert the system, but the same can be said for male characters, too.
My point was that plenty of the movies released in the past two months (the article’s time frame) had women as their central characters.
It’s no surprise to anybody that actresses often appear as central characters, but thanks for the reminder, Dr. Duh.
That’s not, however, what Amy Taubin’s article is about. I’m tired of repeating it, so thanks for the waste of time.
Man, Ryan, you need to get a subscription to Empire magazine. A better version of this photo by Jean Baptiste Mondino (ie taken at the same session, similar pose but but way more striking than this one) was in the November 2011 edition – which hit the newsstands here in the UK at the end of September 2011. The cover tag line said ‘The only magazine on set’, and as it is also apparently ‘the world’s biggest movie magazine’, I’m surprised you don’t subscribe to it, given your job. I’m just an interested punter, not a professional, and I get it every month.
Bill,
I’ve read enough issues of Empire to know it doesn’t have enough meat for me — not for what a US subscription costs. I can thumb through it at the library. Rarely read it.
(close to 70 bucks a year for a US subscription — and I don’t even trust the delivery.)
I mean, it’s fun. But I can read it for free at the library. Just haven’t sought it out lately.
Too many magazines in my mail as it is. Thanks for the tip on the photo though!
$70, Yikes, and hooray for public libraries. The article/interview about TGWTDT was pretty good, but I know what you mean about Empire lacking meat – too many fanboy articles on fucking comic book adaptations.
From the article:
“Given the prevalence of violence against women, and how often it is often maginalised or jokingly justified, it’s [the original title of the book: 'Men Who Hate Women'] a powerful subtext for a Hollywood blockbuster to possess. ‘Misogyny’ says Finher. ‘That’s part of what’s intriguing about the material: because it’s so ugly asnd widespread. And you don’t have to be performing clitorectimies in order to be marginalising women. It happens by varying degrees, by single digit percentage points, and it happens all the time.’
Bill, I might have underestimated. Check this out. !!
And to buy single issues off the newsstand here, it’s $12 or more. Crazeee! It’s a beautiful publication, but I can’t be that extravagant.
(That’s a great quote!)
The Best Mag Cover of the Awards race was the TOTAL FILM one-
http://www.moviemags.com/big/total188.jpg
And you see there the pic of Harry Potter with the headline THE BEST and the rest…? :p
TOTAL FILM is fun. It’s EMPIRE’s more homoerotic little brother.