Meryl

Meryl Streep, arriving at the 84th Annual Academy Awards ceremony last night at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles
So finally it happened, at long last, after having been nominated 17 times - including two wins - last night Meryl Streep finally go to pick up her third Academy Award. 29 years after her last win for Alan J. Pakula's Sophie's Choice, in which she also won for Best Actress. 3 years prior, she'd received her first Academy Award, this one in the Best Supporting Actress category for her portrayal as the tormented mother in search of herself in Kramer vs. Kramer.

With 3 wins, Streep is practically in a league of her own. Though not quite ... she joins the likes of Ingrid Bergman, who also received two Best Actress Oscars (Gaslight, Anastasia) and one for a supporting role (Murder in the Orient Express). Ahead of both of them is Katherine Hepburn, who received a total of four Academy Awards, and all of them in the Best Actress category. Streep, though, is the undisputed champion when it comes to nominations. With a total of 17 she's four ahead of Hepburn. Still, it's a pretty exclusive club up there, consisting of a mere three women, all universally acclaimed and admired actresses, who were - are - legends in their own time. Already those actresses that have received two Academy Awards are few and far between. There is only a handful of them and their names conjure up all kinds of images, images that have burnt themselves into our collective memory: Liz Taylor, Bette Davis, Jodie Foster, and the only German actress ever to receive an Academy Award - Luise Rainer.

Three Oscars or four Oscars ... all of these women have written Hollywood history and rightly deserve their place in the Pantheon. However, I can't help feeling sorry for those who've been overlooked - like this year's Ryan Gosling and Michael Fassbender - or those who though picking up nods, kept losing out to their colleagues. One name that springs to mind is of course Glenn Close. She was Streep's biggest competition during the 1980s, receiving five Oscar nominations, mostly in years when Streep was also nominated. When Close's as well as Streep's careers took a nosedive some time in the late 1990s, Close found a new home in television, receiving critical acclaim for her roles in Damages and The Shield. Then, with The Hours Streep's career slowly but steadily took off again and in addition to her loyal following of gay men and middle-aged housewives - those, who were in the student movement when Streep made her first on-screen appearance in Fred Zinneman's Julia and Woody Allen's Manhattan - Streep now also became popular with the generation of their daughters: those who like to shop for Prada shoes or warble Abba songs under the shower. Films like The Devil Wears Prada and Mamma Mia finally made Streep a universal favourite, catapulting her back into the mainstream, made her the household name she always was but few households admitted to be aware of. Streep, today - at 62! - is an international megastar, someone who draws audiences from all walks of life. Just take her appearance at the Berlin Film Festival two weeks ago where she was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Outside the festival theatre thousands of fans - men, women - shouted and screamed and were close to hysteria. Inside, she was showered with standing ovations that lasted several minutes, prompting her in her acceptance speech to quip, "Oh I don't think I'll ever go home again!". The last time an actress of a certain age achieved a similar feat was nearly 80 years ago, when in 1933 the then 64 year old Marie Dressler was voted America's most popular actress.

Streep, receiving her Lifetime Achievement Award - bestowed by Jake Gyllenhall - at the Berlin Film Festival on February 14, 2012

But I got sidetracked ... While Streep (or her agents) managed to turn her career around, the same cannot be said of Close. Until last year. Being offered the lead in Alfred Nobbs was a rare opportunity for Close to once more show the world what she's got on the big screen. For her outstanding portrayal of a man in 19th century Ireland she was promptly rewarded with a string of awards and nominations, including one by the Academy for Best Actress. However, as luck would have it, once again she's up against Streep. This battle of two great screen icons up for a Best Actress Oscar reminds me of the year 1950, when Bette Davis and Gloria Swanson were both nominated for their roles in you-know-what-I'm-talking-about. In the end, both of them lost ... last night, though, the odds-on-favourite (?) won. Well, it did take long enough, given that Streep's last win was nearly 30 years ago. However, I can't help feeling sorry for Glenn Close ... ... 

Meryl Streep To Receive Honorary Golden Bear At The Berlin Film Festival

The Berlin Film Festival announced that it will bestow an honorary Golden Bear to Meryl Streep. Streep is to receive the award on February 14 at the Berlinale Palace.



Her latest film, The Iron Lady (Phyllida Lloyd, UK 2011), is slated to screen out of competition at this year's film-fest.

Additionally, the following five Meryl Streep films will be shown at select Berlinale theatres across Berlin to commemorate her honorary Golden Bear:

Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, USA 1979) is the film that put her on the map and the one for which she received her first (of two) Academy Awards. Though only starring in a supporting role, Streep gives a strong performance as the troubled Joanna, a wife and mother who decides to desert her husband and son. Deemed maudlin and mainstream at the time, watching the film today the decision taken by Streep's character seems actually revolutionary. It certainly is a part that's unthinkable to come out of mainstream Hollywood such as it is today.



Sophie's Choice (Alan J. Pakula, USA 1982) was one of the first big Hollywood films to address the topic of the Holocaust. It followed Streep's breakthrough in the US mini series, Holocaust, which is credited with raising the awareness of the mass murder of Jews during WWII, not only in the US but internationally. It wasn't until Holocaust was shown on television across West-Germany that films dealing with the Holocaust slowly started to emerge in that country.



Out Of Africa (Sydney Pollack, USA 1985). It was Streep's biggest hit to date and a huge success in West-Germany. It is also one her most memorable performances, earning her her fifth Academy Award nomination, though in the end Streep lost out to Geraldine Page. On the downside, Out Of Africa is partly responsible for the fact that following her, albeit captivating, performance of the ill-fated Danish writer Karen Blixen, Streep was frequently typecast in tragic roles, belying her extraordinary comic talent and wit.



The Bridges Of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, USA 1995) was the culmination of Streep's parts as the woman struck by tragedy. Though it undoubtedly is once again a very commendable performance by her, had it been up to me, I would have selected Death Becomes Her (Robert Zemeckis, USA 1992), a much underrated film and one which brilliantly showcases Streep's unique talent for camp.



A Prairie Home Companion (Robert Altman, USA 2005), aptly shows Streep's other talent as a singer, though again, to show that particular talent of hers I would have rather selected Silkwood (Mike Nichols, USA 1983), which has, in its end credits, a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace, sung a capella by Streep. A Prairie Home Companion was Altman's last film. It had its world premiere at that year's Berlin Film Festival, with Streep in attendance.



Lastly, the Berlinale will screen Streep's latest, The Iron Lady (Phyllida Lloyd, UK 2011) which, it is my firm belief, will at long last earn her her third Academy Award:

Death Becomes Her, Robert Zemeckis, USA 1992

Death Becomes Her remains one of my all-time favourite comedies, whose blatantly camp, black humour, never fails to make me laugh like few other comedies do.

At the centre of this farce stands a quintessential Hollywood diva of a certain age who in her steadfast refusal to face the facts by intending to stop the ageing process “dead in its tracks and forcing it into retreat”, ends up, tragically, as one of the many “living dead of Beverly Hills”. It is right here where Death Becomes Her strikes a much more serious, much darker, and much more ironic, note than one is led to believe, for on the surface Zemeckis’ offering could easily be written off as yet another special effects extravaganza. But with its insinuations to real life -society’s increasing fixation with youth, the increasing plastic surgery mania - the film often has the effect of making you choke on your laughs.

Death Becomes Her deservedly won an Oscar for its special effects, which were truly breathtaking for its time and which Zemeckis uses carefully and sensibly and never gratuitously as they are always expertly woven into the story. In fact, you’re never quite sure what’s more astounding: the special effects bonanza, the razor-sharp dialogues, or the mastery of Meryl Streep, who in her role as the washed-up screen siren Madeline Ashton pulls all the stops and brings a new meaning to the word ‘camp’. In fact, her wisecracks in this film just have you laughing out loud. She’s absolutely hilarious!

The sets and the costumes are a vital element in the film, and both are designed to underline the film’s surreal, gothic undercurrent. Take Isabelle Rossellini, for example, as Lisl von Rhoman, wearing an outlandish creation consisting of a parure of beads and rhinestones with a sort of pareo skilfully wrapped around her hips. Zemeckis of course plays on Rossellini's past as one of the world's highest paid fashion and beauty models. As the face of Lancome, Rossellini's career lasted well into her forties, which makes her role in Death Becomes Her - as a peddler of eternal youth and beauty - all the more intriguing.

After her miraculous rejuvenation Streep’s Madeline Ashton makes a sensational entrance in black leggings, a turquoise see-through chemise and a pair of fuck-me-heels – all designed to win back the lover she lost to a younger girl. But no sooner has she left her room than her furious husband is pushing her down the stairs - in a fall that is artificially prolonged, highlighting the film’s surreal tinge - which subsequently turns her into the ‘living dead’ she and all her fellow plastic-surgery-fiends are fated to become. The costumes are matched by outstanding sets and props, which again underline the film’s surreal and gothic undercurrent reminiscent of films like Blade Runner, Metropolis, and, also, very fittingly, a famous commercial Jean-Baptiste Mondino made in 1990 for the launch of Chanel's fragrance Egoiste. Moreover, Lisl’s mansion and Madeline’s fortress-like home with its extremely high staircase, also call to mind films like Nosferatu, Faust or Der müde Tod (Destiny).

Another element in Death Becomes Her that strikes a familiar tone is the music, which incidentally is reminiscent of Hitchcock’s Psycho. However, although certain elements in Zemeckis' film are certainly borrowed, he clearly uses them to pay homage rather than just blatantly stealing from other films. Zemeckis's use of these - borrowed - elements is clever and thoughtful, as he ultimately turns it all into something new and makes them his own. With the help of an equally witty script and a brilliant mise-en-scène (e.g. the three nuns who seems to be hovering rather than walking), not to mention his exquisite cast, notably Streep and Goldie Hawn playing her nemesis, Zemeckis came up with a highly original, camp, black comedy, which unfortunately and undeservedly, at the time of its release, was written off as just another special effects comedy by most critics.


"Can you remember where I parked the car ...?"