Kim Basinger (Vicki Vale) vs. Michelle Pfeiffer (Selina Kyle)
https://www.datalounge.com/thread/19565553-michelle-pfeiffer-and-kim-basinger
Basinger has a more limited range, but she is very watchable. She was in a film several years ago called Cellular with Chris Evans. It's a very tight thriller where she's a science teacher who is kidnapped and uses her science wiles to hatch an escape plan. It's a bit ridiculous, and whoever costumed her may not have ever been in a public school classroom, but she's quite good and surprisingly convincing in the role. It's what made me reconsider her talent after usually writing her off as a model with a modicum of talent.share
Basinger reminds me Rita Hayworth in that her outsized beauty alone can dominate the screen.
Pfeiffer is more controlled in her performances and classical in her beauty. She's had a number of great performances, especially in Dangerous Liaisons, which has been made a film probably a dozen times in at least three languages, but Pfeiffer owns that tragic role for me.
Pfeiffer reminds me more of an Olivia de Havilland type, able to handle both naivety and villainy depending on the film. (See MP in White Oleander if you are hankering for a manipulative mother movie.)
She's in the Lauren Bacall part in the upcoming Murder on the Orient Express. I was a bit disappointed looking at the first trailer, but I am hopeful that she is good in it and will get more work.
They're both around sixty now, and good roles won't come around often. Maybe a prestige streaming series would lure them into television.
—Anonymous
reply 5 09/03/2017
Kim had a vulnerability on screen that was quite remarkable. Despite her beauty, there was an innocence that made you worry about her. I always thought Michelle looked more in control.
—Anonymous
reply 10 09/03/2017