Thelma Adams: Novelist, Critic, Oscar Expert

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“Evening”: sets to die for

October 22, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Newport, Rhode Island,Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave, the very rich, Michael Cunningham, Susan Minto

Swell Decor, Newport style

There was a time that I wanted to do a column about interior design as seen in the movies, an idea that I could never monetize. In talking about Vanessa Redgrave in Evening to Vanessa’s daughter, Joely Richardson, it reminded me about a piece I did for Angela Matusik’s Shelterrific.com about the Newport seaside mansion where the movie was set:

Don’t tell Meryl Streep: The beauty with the finest bones in Evening, the actress-packed literary weepy is totally wooden! It’s the primary location, a Newport, Rhode Island mansion. I fell orgasmically in love with the white frame wedding cake on the Newport headlands, frothy as the Atlantic whitecaps on the outside, the internal walls in shades of blue as rich and changing as the Atlantic Ocean that sparkles in the background. And I came away with a ton of interior ideas to get that grand, old wasp money, luxe cottage look. The trim and flowers (many hydrangeas or mixed bouquets of white summer blooms) picked up the whitecap white, but the walls of the reception rooms were those delicious peacock blue greens that I love – in my house I have Farrow and Ball Blue Green in my dining room, Benjamin Moore Peacock Feathers in my son’s room. While watching Evening, I wanted to boldly paint each room in my house a harmonizing but different shade of turquoisy blue. Harder to come by would be the collection of oil paintings (including family portraits that are definitely school of John Singer Sargent). But I could steal the mix of rich blues, pale trim, beige upholstered furniture in subtle patterns and solids paired with dark wood furniture, and dark wood panel floors tarted up with oriental rugs. The orientalism theme repeats in turqoiuse lamps with pagoda shades. And then there was that one hugely flamboyant touch: a gorgous Asian-inspired peacock mural in thementry way. It reminded me of the decorative arts of Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf’s sister) but not laid on so heavily. It’s rare to see a mural that’s actually tasteful, that leads the interior design of the rest of the rooms, but doesn’t challenge the rest of the design to be equally flamboyant. That would be too new money! The mural is a major clue: this is not an movie production designer’s studied interior but a living, breathing place. It’s called The Ledges and is on Newport’s tony Ocean Drive. The Cushing family still lives there (and appear in the movie as extras!). And Grandpa Howard Gardiner Cushing (1869 – 1916) painted the peacock himself! His paintings — very school of Sargent – also hang at the nearby Newport Art Museum. Hmmm – I wonder how much one of those costs? — Thelma Adams

Filed Under: Celebrity, Movies & TV Tagged With: Evening, Joely Richardson, Meryl Streep, Newport Mansions, Shelterrific, Vanessa Redgrave

Not “Anonymous”: Joely Richardson talks working with mum Vanessa Redgrave

October 22, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

Joely Richardson, Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Roland Emmerich,

Richardson, following in her mother's, grandfather's, aunt's, sister's, father's footsteps....

Watching Joely sitting across a big square table from me at the Sony Club in Manhattan, it struck me that here was a little sister that I knew I’d like. We would have things to talk about, secrets to share. It was a quality — a little rebelliousness, a little hard-won self-acceptance — that flashed in her fair eyes. It was the way she actually listened and connected, the way she was living in the minute, even though she’d been chasing Anonymous premieres and talking to journalists across continents.

Richardson told tales on her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, who shared the role of Elizabeth 1 (Mum’s the older, Joely the younger, royal) in this rollicking thriller about the attribution of Shakespeare’s plays directed by Roland Emmerich and written by John Orloff. It was a detail that a daughter would notice: that her mother had insisted that she have a Tudor Rose patch on her costume and that, whatever the authenticity of the item, it stuck out like a dime-store broach.

Joely was able to laugh at her self for noticing, laugh at her mother for not being able to resist, and understand that this was part of Vanessa’s method. Props, it turns out, are big for Vanessa. Joely told a story about her mother saying, in one of her many parts, that her character needed a cup just there; she would be drinking just that. These props grounded Vanessa, connected her to the woman on the page and brought her to life, but the habit could be as fussy as a Tudor Rose tacked on to a beaded and bejeweled Elizabethan bodice.

Joely said that when her mother got nervous, she got fussy, her energy vibrating. The daughter made a motion like dual electric fans in the air. She preferred her mother’s more still moments. I recalled my favorite scene in the movie Evening, when Meryl Streep and Vanessa share a bed, and lying beside each other, old friends reconciled, the pair deliver a great moment of stillness and depth in cinema in a lesser movie.

 

Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Cunningham, Susan Minot, Evening, Anonymous

Meryl with lipstick; Vanessa without.

 

The movie had a bit of stunt casting: Meryl’s daughter Mamie Gummer and Vanessa’s daughter Natasha joined their mothers on-screen. Joely said that what she remembered of that movie was the idea of the passage of time and missed opportunities, things left unsaid to loved ones long-gone.

I suppose at that moment we were both thinking of Joely’s late sister Natasha, swept off the planet too soon, with so much left unsaid. I know I was thinking of Joely’s older sister. It was a connection that I wanted to mention to Joely — Natasha and my sons go to the same school, and we’d circled each others’ lives in upstate Millbrook, crossing paths on Halloween in the village. And a name that I would never have mentioned at a studio lunch. But, it seems, that Natasha was also in the room, reminding us to take this minute because Evening is coming.

As I left the Sony Building on Madison Avenue, I saw Joely smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk, alone. She looked over her shoulder and smiled, gently, warmly. I’d like to think that we little sisters will continue our discussion at some later time.

Filed Under: Movies & TV Tagged With: Anonymous, Joely Richardson, Millbrook, Natasha Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave

“Anonymous” trailer: Did Shakespeare really pen his plays?

October 20, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

The play’s the thing:

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Anonymous, Beheading, Elizabeth 1, Vanessa Redgrave, William Shakespeare

Oscars 2012: Best Supporting Actress First Look

September 25, 2011 By Thelma Leave a Comment

The Help,Octavia Spencer,Viola Davis, Kathryn Stockett,Bestseller,Blockbuster,Women's Fiction,Chick Flick

The Help's Spencer

This category is really where we take a flyer this early in the season. But why not? We’re just beginning to define the field, and we know who the frontrunner is…..

1. Octavia Spencer, The Help
2. Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
3. Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus
4. Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris
5. Shailene Woodley, The Descendants
6. Jessica Chastain, Take Shelter or Tree of Life
7. Berenice Bejo, The Artist
8. Sandra Bullock, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
9. Kate Winslet, Carnage
10. Carey Mulligan, Shame

Filed Under: Movies & TV, Oscar Race Tagged With: Albert Nobbs, Berenice Bejo, Best supporting actress, Carey Mulligan, Carnage, Coriolanus, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Janet McTe3er, Jessica Chastain, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Midnight in Paris, Octavia Spencer, Oscars 2012, Sandra Bullock, Shailene Woodley, Shame, Take Shelter, The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Tree or Life, Vanessa Redgrave

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