Is Cate Blanchett a Lock for an Oscar
Stars in Blue Jasmine Woody Allen's 44th Film
By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 04, 2013
The superb film, Blue Jasmine, which may earn an Oscar for its 44-year-old, Australian born star, Cate Blanchett, is the 44th film by Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; December 1, 1935) over 47 years of making movies.
Now 77, Allen’s diverse and remarkable career has lasted longer but evokes comparisons to that of Rainer Werner Fassbinder ( 31 May 1945 – 10 June 1982) the German film director, screenwriter, and actor. In fifteen years, Fassbinder completed 40 feature length films; two television film series; three short films; four video productions; twenty-four stage plays and four radio plays. He performed 36 roles in his own and others’ films. He also worked as an actor (film and theater), author, cameraman, composer, designer, editor, producer and theater manager.
While Fassbinder burned out the neurotic but oddly stable Allen has puttered along cranking out inexpensive, low key, hit and miss films. The commonality is that for these geniuses filmmaking is an aesthetic manifestation of obsessive compulsive disorder.
Over the decades we have seen lots of Woody Allen films but recall just a few of them.
Allen has been nominated 23 times and won four Academy Awards: three for Best Original Screenplay and one for Best Director (Annie Hall (1978)). He has more screenwriting Academy Award nominations than any other writer. He has won nine British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards.
Among his hits have been Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Midnight in Paris (2011). The less known works, unless you are a fan, are, well, pretty much all of the rest.
Early on we discovered that there are basically two sides to Allen; funny, and not. Eventually, once you were onto his shtick, mostly the films were not that funny. The 1978 film, Interiors, for example, was an enervating tribute to Bergman.
By word of mouth friends urged us to see Blue Jasmine.
Let’s say that I was skeptical.
There was similar buzz for Midnight in Paris which I found to be silly, artsy and pretentious. Arguably, the less you knew about The Lost Generation the more likely you were to enjoy the film.
While Blue Jasmine stumbles and bumbles along like most of his films the performance by Blanchett is one for the ages. Here, however, Allen seems to have reached a new plateau with a "serious" film that includes comic, but poignant, overtones.
As a director Allen is often noted for what he doesn’t do.
Other than writing a script and choosing locations he is known for getting remarkable actors to work with him during relatively brief shooting schedules with rarely more than one or two takes. While recognized as a master Allen mostly works with the approach of a low budget, independent filmmaker.
His projects get financed because they are cheap to make and likely to recover their modest investment.
It is out of respect and recognition of Allen as a unique genius that major actors sign on for a pittance compared to their other films. Being in a Woody Allen film is like doing an Off Broadway play. For example, Alec Baldwin, appears in a supporting role as her Ponzi scheme, hustler husband Hal. The seemingly washed up comic, Andrew Dice Clay, is poised for a comeback as a serious dramatic actor based on his portrayal of Augie, the ex husband of Jasmine’s adopted sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins).
While Clay makes the most of this opportunity the notoriously moody Baldwin shows up and walks through the role.
On many levels Blue Jasmine is yet another rags to riches to rags melodrama. Jasmine (born the more mundane Jeanette) adopted like her sister Ginger came from nothing, married a hustler who pampered as well as cheated on her, and then with a Bernie Madoff reality twist, lost everything.
At the peak of their Park Avenue power and glory phase Jasmine and Hal are visited by Ginger and Augie. Jasmine, who has little time or patience, hires a limo and driver to show them the sites. Reluctantly, they are invited to her extravagant birthday party. They are visiting New York having hit the lottery for some $200,000. Augie plans to start a business but Jasmine talks them into investing with Hal.
We cringe as Hal states that he can do better than a modest return of 6 to 8% on their money and more like 20%. Like Madoff, with no moral compass, Hal is willing to scam his inlaws. They loose every cent of their nest egg.
Having hit rock bottom Jasmine flies to San Francisco, first class, to stay with her sister.
Now separated from Augie there is a new boyfriend, Chili, played broadly by the tough, ethnic, and rough Bobby Cannavale. There are inevitable scenes with the fallen socialite, Jasmine, and her crude sister’s boyfriend that evoke Streetcar Named Desire. Indeed, Jasmine’s eventual descent into madness is all too similar to the broken and delusional Blanche being taken off to an asylum.
This latest Allen film might well have devolved into yet another kitschy cliché.
What saves it is the performance of a lifetime by Blanchett.
She is an interesting, strong featured, quirky performer. There is more character than glamour in her beautiful face with a prominent nose, high cheekbones, and narrow slits of eyes. Now 44, on the cusp of evolving as a character actor, she has never appeared more raw and vulnerable.
One senses that Woody sketched the scene, fed her the lines, and then turned on the camera.
While that may be regarded as a lack of direction, in the instance of a great artist like Blanchett, it is more like being let off the leash. She dove into her deepest recesses to find a complex, tormented woman fighting for and losing her mind, heart and soul.
Before the swan song into utter chaos, however, we see Jasmine, against enormous adversity, trying to pull herself up from the bottom. She has taken a menial job as the receptionist in a dentist’s office. With a small salary she is attending night classes to gain computer skills. Then the plan is to take on line, interior design classes.
Having lived in fabulous homes and worn designer clothing she has taste and style, but needs training and references, to use these skills for wealthy clients.
Those plans evaporate when the dentist Dr. Flicker (Michael Stuhlbarg) makes uninvited moves on his employee.
Through a number of flashbacks we get to see Jasmine from multiple vantage points. All of which conflate to complex aspects of a truly stunning performance, particularly, in the courageous and outrageous finale.
Stripped of resources and dignity, with apparently no makeup, Blanchett, now a woman of a certain age, allows the probing close up of Allen’s camera to assault and rape her face. It is as cruel and malicious of Allen as it is brilliantly gutsy for Blanchett.
Hopefully, this galvanic performance is a signifier of the next phase of the career of a remarkable actress. Blanchette has always been good but now she is magnificent.
All because of that nerdy little putz Woody Allen.