I was surprised to see this headline today for two reasons. One, it's been over forty-one years since Sophie's Choice was released, and two, I had no idea this event was planned. At first, I thought it might just be a repeat article from a couple of years ago that I just didn't remember, but there are several outlets that have released articles on the night's event.
Several big stars showed up at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan last night for the screening. This news doesn't have a lot of significance as far as I can tell, but maybe it rejuvenates some interest Meryl as an exceptionally talented actor whom any director would be blessed to work with. I have a feeling Meryl already has a few things coming down the pike, and as I mentioned in my previous post, she's just kind of visible a lot more lately. It's like she's finally, if slowly, whetting our appetites for seeing something new and exciting of hers on screen.
Streep with Sophie's Choice co-stars Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol
As many of you well know, one of my favorite pastimes is to expose people to the genius that is Meryl. The most effective method I've found to accomplish this is to have friends over for dinner followed by a screening of Meryl's magnum opus, Sophie's Choice. And so it was last night, after a day of gift wrapping for me and board gaming for Joe, that our friends Katie and JR joined us by the fire for an evening of Meryl. Both reportedly knew what "the choice" was, so that shock value was eliminated from the onset, but I don't think either had really ever seen a performance of Meryl's from before 2005. Our friend Christina happened to stop by for about an hour of the movie. She did not know "the choice" nor did she stay long enough to find out, so I guess I know who my next victim will be.
Katie and JR made a few comments that I tend to hear a lot from people during their first Sophie experience: "Wow she really does sound Polish." "She was really pretty." And the two of them were made a bit uncomfortable by the "third wheel" presence of Stingo in the film. As usual, I'd occasionally take a glance at viewers to see how they were reacting, and there were definitely a lot of fixed gazes on the screen. Some very quiet moments also demonstrated how captivating Meryl can be. Despite an inopportune DVD malfunction during "the choice" scene, it was a good experience. Katie and JR both said they enjoyed the film, particularly Meryl's performance.
On top of the fact that it's such a great individual acting performance from Meryl, I enjoy when people get exposed to stories that depict some of the atrocities that took place during World War II. Joe remarked how insane it was that it took place within the last one hundred years. When Nathan mentions in the movie the figure "six million Jews" being wiped out, for the first time in my mind I realized that that's 125% the current population of Minnesota. Sort of puts it into an even sadder perspective.
In what I'm calling an early Christmas present, our friend Annie is coming over tomorrow night for dinner, games and The Bridges of Madison County. This will be Annie's third installment of Meryl evangelization, following Sophie's Choice and Doubt. Two Meryl nights in one week! Yes, that is what (however lame it may be) gets me excited on a Friday night. Owning it.
In tpyical fashion I googled Meryl today to see if there was any interesting news, and I came across this article. It caught my eye because at the beginning it mentions that after Jane Fonda worked with Streep on Julia in 1977, she foresaw great success for Meryl in the film industry. Thought it was a fun coincidence since I happened to recently discuss Meryl's film debut here. The article talks a bit about Meryl's early days, particularly about 1982's Sophie's Choice, which we've discussed at length here at Word on the Streep. It reminded me that this year is the 30th anniversary of the film's release. Evidently there is a "newly issued" DVD of the film? I hadn't seen anytyhing about this, but I'll have to look into it a bit further to see if the new edition contains any fun extra footage. I purchased my current copy of the film on DVD from the Holocaust Musuem in Washington D.C. in 2003. Check the place out if you ever get a chance, but expect to be bummed out for about three days afterward.
I don't want to get too into the contents of the article. It's brief and a mildly interesting retrospective on Meryl's film/acting choices, along with a comparison of the two film roles for which she won the lead actress Oscar. They mention the upcoming film August: Osage County, a project I admit to being especially obsessed with because I love the play so much. We'll see if the full casting is announced on the 29th as predicted on Twitter by @LindaFort1. We're still watching, Linda.
Sweet Jeebus I haven't blogged in a week! I've decided to continue my analysis of each Academy Awards race in which Meryl took part. 1982 was the year Meryl was up for Sophie's Choice. Is there really anything else I can say about this film or role? Probably not, except that with the quality of the performance and the outcome of the previous year, no one stood a chance against Meryl. We can recall that Meryl was a pretty strong front-runner to get her first Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role for The French Lieutenant's Woman the year prior. Katharine Hepburn of course set a record for wins with the upset for her performance in On Golden Pond. The Academy therefore likely felt comfortable voting for Streep's tour de force performance. Plus, Meryl had already essentially won every critics' award under the sun for the role. Here's the nominee list from that ceremony:
Julie Andrews (Victor/Victoria)
Jessica Lange (Frances)
Sissy Spacek (Missing)
Meryl Streep (Sophie's Choice)
Debra Winger (An Officer and a Gentleman)
Andrews and Spacek were already previous winners, and Lange actually won for supporting that same night for Tootsie. Debra Winger evidently hated An Officer and a Gentleman and refused to do any publicity for it. Not exactly a good plan for getting votes. So yeah, slam dunk for Meryl. Both clips I wanted to use from youtube idiotically had the embed disabled, so here's the link:
Oh Sly. It was cute how Meryl got a little embarrassed when she dropped her speech. The speech itself was a little mundane, but it was also 29 years ago and I think everyone expected her to win, so just rattle off the names. More interestingly, I see this win as part of an Oscar trajectory that I hope happens for Meryl. It's a course I liken to that of Katharine Hepburn's. Hepburn won her first Oscar for Morning Glory in the 1932/1933 awards year. Her next didn't come until 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, a 34-year gap. She then won the very next year for The Lion in Winter, a film I happen to like immensely. Hepburn's record fourth came, as I mentioned above, in 1982 for On Golden Pond, at the age of 74. Streep won this year for The Iron Lady, 29 years after her last win. It is obviously not unheard of for an icon to win very closely together, which is what I hope for Meryl in two years when she's inevitably (finger crossed) nominated for her role as Violet Weston in August: Osage County. Granted, if she won, this would already be Meryl's fourth Oscar, whereas is was Hepburn's third when she won so close together. But if I want Meryl to surpass Hepburn's record, which I've made clear ad nauseam on this blog, she'll have to acquire that extremely elusive fifth statuette. The best chance for that to happen is the same way it happened for Hepburn: after a win in two years for August, a sort of lifetime achievement honor well down the road, which some mistakenly think this year's win was.
Time will tell of course. I've no doubt Harvey Weinstein is already carving out the path to victory.
The book The Color Purple is to Oprah Winfrey what the film Sophie's Choice is to me. I don't go as far as Oprah did and hand out copies to strangers on the street, but I do take every opportunity to have friends or family watch it. This film is where it began for me when it comes to all things Meryl. Our friend Annie had shown interest in seeing it so we set up a date on Tuesday night to watch it at her place (because she's lucky enough to be allergic to cats).
I have to mention that prior to the viewing, the three of us enjoyed a bowl of pho (my first time) and then indulged ourselves in a cup of frozen yogurt from the new "Yogurt Lab." I use the word "cup" pretty liberally, as they charge by the weight and Joe finished off an entire pound of yogurt and toppings. It was heaven.
Annie's neighbor/friend Anne (just to make it confusing) decided to join us for her inaugural Sophie experience as well. After a few quick rounds of Mass Effect and a disc switch from blue ray to Xbox, we were underway. There were several comments and questions throughout the film, notably Annie during a brief intermission saying "I've forgotten that it's Meryl. I just want to know more about Sophie." My thoughts exactly. Bottom line is that they were both amply impressed by the story, the film, and of course, Meryl's superb acting.
We had a nice little discussion about the film afterward, trying to get inside Sophie's head a little bit, marveling (at least I was) at Meryl's ability to negotiate all the necessary emotions throughout different points in the film and that character's life. I think Annie and Anne understood how I could've gotten so hooked.
I hope we can do it again sometime, probably with a more recent film. We agreed that Doubt would be a good one to try next. Very different character and setting. It would be fun for me to see them experience the sharp contrast. Until then, happy Meryl watching, everybody.
Joe's friend Nate has never seen a Meryl Streep movie. Never. He did not fully know what she looked like or from what country she was. No, Nate is not from another planet. He's a 23 year-old straight dude who'd rather be scoping new hip hop groups than sitting down to watch a 2 1/2 hour holocaust drama from 1982. However, Nate had "an open mind and open soul" and decided to come over last night for a screening of Sophie's Choice.
Joe made a delicious red lentil soup coupled with a quinoa salad for dinner. After filling our bellies we sat down with some wine, white cheese popcorn puffs and raspberry ginger ale (Nate's fav) to expose this young gentleman to the greatness of Meryl.
Nate actually said he enjoyed the movie. I don't know him well enough to tell if he's just being nice, but he said for a drama it was good. He didn't know what "the choice" was prior to seeing the movie, and I think he was a bit surprised at how heavy the tone was at times, but overall I count it as another Meryl success story.
So, I was doing my daily google news search of Meryl this morning (yes, daily) and I came across a great article by Eric Snider from film.com. In "What's the Big Deal?: Sophie's Choice," he answers the same questions I had years ago that ultimately led to my infatuation with Meryl's work. It's a great read and he's far more eloquent in discussing the importance of this great role than I was in my own film review, so enjoy. Speaking of eloquence (or lack thereof), I just got back from the gym after a ten hour day at work and my brain is a bit mushy so I'm going to just link the article and leave it at that. To see more from Eric, check out his website at ericdsnider.com. http://www.film.com/movies/whats-the-big-deal-sophies-choice-1982#fbid=DYLQmnIXEiQ
To be honest, I was a little worried that I might be blowing my wad a bit early by choosing this film for my first review. But what better way to inaugurate this blog section than with the performance that many (myself included) consider to be one of the greatest roles ever brought to the screen? Let's get all the accolades out of the way. Awards Meryl garnered for this role included, but are not limited to, those from the National Society of Film Critics, the L.A. Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Golden Globes, and of course, the Academy Award for actress in a leading role in 1983. Chill out if you think I made a mistake by listing it as 1983 when in the post title it says "1982." We all know Oscars are awarded in the calendar year after they are released to theaters. Director Alan J. Pakula stated that it was the closest he had ever seen someone come to genius in acting. I absolutely love hearing shit like that about her. Hokay, on to the meat and potatoes.
So, what is the big deal about this performance? To start, it's an ostensibly challenging role to pull off. Meryl plays Sophie Zawistoska, a Polish concentration camp survivor during World War II who becomes a refugee in Brooklyn, NY. The film deals with Sophie's life in Brooklyn, where she lives with her schizophrenic boyfriend, Nathan, played by Kevin Kline in his film debut. They befriend a southern writer, Stingo (from whose point of view the story is told), played by Peter MacNicol, and spend a summer together.
As an American, Meryl had to learn to speak with a Polish accent, speak a lot of German and Polish, and even managed to figure out German with a Polish accent. I hope the Germans/Poles who have seen this film appreciate this last bit of mastery because, let's keep it real, nobody can tell Learning lines, and of course grappling with the difficult subject matter of the atrocities of the war are all rather perfunctory aspects of Meryl's approach. She has on more than one occasion made clear that these outward aspects of language and lines make up a very small portion of what goes into her roles (although it helps, duh).
Stingo (not a typo btw) totally has the hots for Sophie and tries to be a shoulder for her to cry on while she manages the ups and downs of Nathan's goofy behavior. About a third of the way through the film is where we first see Sophie and Stingo alone together. Stingo comes home from a failed date with hickeys all over his neck (a scene which includes my favorite line from the film, "fucking fantastic fucking"). Sophie starts to reveal some of the crap from her past in Poland, including her family and the war. Hands down, one of the most perfectly delivered scenes I've ever seen. Not relying simply on words, Meryl uses expressions, strategic pauses, and inflections, managing to convince me momentarily that this is the true history of the woman I'm seeing onscreen. See for yourself:
My personal favorite portion of the film is during the flashback to Poland and Auschwitz. Undoubtedly because Meryl is impressive with the languages, but more interestingly, it's where I notice a paradox in her character. While in Brooklyn, Sophie typically acts very bubbly, fun, playful, a bit ditzy, and she and Nathan get it on like rabbits. In the flashback scenes, which of course take place prior to her arrival in Brooklyn, we see a more reserved, careful person. Certainly it's in part because she's probably scared shitless of the Nazis, but I feel it's also Meryl being cognizant and sensitive about the fact that the Sophie prior to the Holocaust was a very likeable, comforting, maternal figure; someone we as audience members wouldn't dream of harming.
This contrast makes the horror of her "choice" scene that much more dramatic. Meryl in interviews has stated that she only read that scene once and couldn't stand reading it again. For those of you who haven't seen it, one, do so the instant you finish reading this, and two, I'm playing spoiler. Sophie is forced to decide which of her children she gets to keep. The other will be taken away and likely killed. She refuses, but at the risk of having them both taken away, she ultimately hands over her daughter. A great piece of cinematography/sound editing is used during this scene. While the little girl is being taken away screaming, we see Meryl with her mouth open and it sort of seems like it's her screaming and not her daughter. Meryl has said in an interview that she really thought she was screaming and that nothing came out. Not sure I believe that, but like Sydney Pollack once said, "I love Meryl Streep so much that I would never contradict anything she said."
Pretty heavy stuff in Sophie's Choice. It ends with Sophie and Nathan committing suicide by ingesting cyanide. Totally makes you want to Netflix it like right now doesn't it? Seriously though, if one is able to look past the unsettling nature of the subject matter, it's a powerhouse performance, a thinker, a tear-jerker (Entertainment Weekly listed it as the second best tear-jerker in history right behind Terms of Endearment), and overall a film absolutely worth seeing. Without question Meryl deserved every honor she received for this performance, and I feel it set the precedent by which all performances should be judged. Well done, Meryl. After seeing it, I think I rented nine Meryl movies and watched them all in two days. Shut up.
