Maybe it just depends on what style one responds to, but I love that Jessica Lange's Blanche is done in a more naturalistic style. Vivien Leigh was of course a superb actress and her performance is great, too....but I like this lighter, less theatrical approach.
I think Leigh is thoroughly impressive and great casting for that era....but Lange is truly heartbreaking.
I agree,It's almost as if Lange took Leigh's performance(one that Lange herself calls beautiful)and used that fragile southeren belle as a cover and dug much deeper to reveal a stronger woman beneath. A superb performance within a performance.
http://troyholden.blogspot.com/2010/07/box-office-poison.html
She's also more clearly ALCOHOLIC than other Blanche's I've seen...which is interesting! Helps explain part of her craziness, and life choices.
sharePersonally I thought Lange came in third of the filmed Blanches. She gets better as the play progresses and does deliver some beautiful monologues, but to me she overplayed the crazy way too early and then kind of went flat until hitting her stride with the Moon Lake scene. It was also somewhat of a different take on the role. Leigh played her like a supercilious snark and Ann-Margret's was more like a broken-down whore while Lange was just a basket case. Meh. I did think Goodman was surprisingly good and, for me, Lane is always a pleasure to watch.
For what it's worth, the worst Blanche I ever saw was Blythe Danner (usually a good actress) on Broadway about 20 years ago. That was just a terrible production, IMO.
I don't like Ann-Margret's Blanche too much. I appreciate actors with style, and I've liked her in other things, but she just seems kind of artificial in this, to me, and I never bought into her being a real person.
I would have liked to see Faye Dunaway do it. The Ann-Margret TV production was first put together because Dunaway had done an L.A. stage production of it with Jon Voight. They did NOT get along! But then there's a great scene between them years later in The Champ where they play a divorced couple, and he makes himself humble and asks her to come back. It's very sad, because you sense there's a real history between them...and that, sadly, she's simply over him. The characters are ill-matched, just as you get that the performers were, in real life.
As much as I like Lange,she was too "actressy" or "stagey" in that one.I prefered Leigh's performance.She was more natural,as the matter of fact she WAS Blanche.
shareLange moved me to tears in this role. It was that perfect mix of what she does best (although, there's nothing this woman can't do!) bubbling sensuality and emotional vulnerability with just the right dash of histrionic madness.
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