here’s looking at you: patricia clarkson

I’ve been watching alot of films lately. Every week I roll on down to Video Ezy in Mooroolbark, pass the beer drinking bogans hanging about the door, and enter film-choosing heaven. OK, so it isn’t the best selection in the universe (I’ve neither been able to find Go Fish, Rose Troche’s first film, or I Shot Andy Warhol by Mary Harron), but I have picked up the majority of films by two of my favourite female actors.

I first saw Patricia Clarkson on Six Feet Under, playing hippie sister Sarah to conservative Ruth Fisher. I then saw her as cool, smooth voiced Dr Dagmar in  Lars and the Real Girl, and recently as mother with sexually free past in Easy A. But more excitingly, digging a little further back, I found her in Lisa Choledenko’s 90′s lesbian film High Art. Clarkson plays a heroin addicted german model named Greta, girlfriend to famous photographer Lucy Berliner (Ally Sheedy).  Even if they are messed up drug addicts, High Art (which, btw, I could only get on you tube) represents lesbians much more realistically than Cholodenko’s recent The Kids Are Alright (a la`, Julianne Moore’s fore` into lesbian acting, which is more interested in showing JM champing at the bit for cock than any depicting any real intimacy between the lesbian couple).  High Art on the other hand explores two lesbian relationships, and is a credit to Clarkson’s versatility as an actor, as she says “I’m not German, I’m not gay and I’ve never even smoked pot!”. She is the perfect depiction of a self-destructive, possessive, flagging actress. Strong, too, are her performance as a single mother Annette Jenkins in The Safety of Objects and a cancer ridden mother in Pieces of April, as well as her role as Olivia in the unusual film The Station Agent.

I found a picture on google images with this caption, and thought it was fairly apt:

Whatever exactly ‘indie’ has come to mean currently, Clarkson has done her fair share for the left-of-centre, the unusual, the slightly odd. She has worked alongside more well known hollywood stars in some films and starred in those that have called for something out of the norm. And she’s delivered. Moreover, despite her age (she turns fifty-one in a few short days), a time when many actresses are flailing, desperate to stay in the game, Clarkson is still churning out performances which are (almost) as noteworthy as my favourite in High Art. Her ability to adapt to various, differing roles has left her with a rich and diverse filmography that’s well worth a look, whether you’re into elegant middle aged ladies or not.

Some pics for your enjoyment:

Clarkson as Sarah O’Connor in Six Feet Under (2001)

As Dr Dagmar in Lars and the real Girl (2007)

As Greta in High Art (1998)

As Annette Jenkins in The Safety of objects (2001)

As Rosemary in Easy A (2010)

Things that help #2. Movies

OK, so I’m incredibly biased. This film got shitty to mediocre reviews. But I really don’t care – I was hooked. Chloe is an erotic thriller set in Toronto, Canada, starring Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson. The cinematography is quite stunning – Toronto is crisp and beautiful, a city made of icicles and cool, glassy architecture. The camera angles situate you as a spy, hovering above the scenes and peering through sheer panes of glass, around corners, through fences and mirrors.

Chloe (Seyfried) is an escort hired by Catherine (Moore) to seduce her husband David (Neeson) whom she suspects is cheating on her. Chloe reports back to Catherine, describing her and David’s intimate encounters, while the camera takes us back to depict some of them visually. Catherine listens, gradually getting more and more obsessed with knowing the details of her husbands affair.

Their meetings culminate in an erotic sex scene which Catherine instigates in the name of feeling closer to her husband, after Chloe attempts to kiss her earlier that same day.

Then comes the twist. What (and who) has Chloe really been doing? And why?

Despite the “bad lesbian must die to reunite the heterosexual family” angle that I should probably criticise the film for, I’m afraid I have to let it slide. Julianne Moore is just too damn hot, and the sexual tension between her and Seyfried did work for me, despite the fact that both of them said how odd and “different” it was acting it out. Now I’m looking forward to seeing her in another lesbian relationship with Annette Bening in “The Kids are Alright”.

Go, J. Moore.