Meryl Streep. An actress in the viewer believes – Daily News – Lisbon

Since Kramer vs. Kramer to the new Florence a Diva Old Tom, Meryl Streep is a remarkable example of talent and versatility in modern Hollywood history

We can go back to say the simplest? As simple as this: the greatest talent of an actor or a film actress is the ability to make us believe in the character he plays. Naturalism? None of that. Nothing to do with the “transparency” of the soap opera. The character may be a historic symbol, but also may have traveled from a distant galaxy. Can enchant for their beauty or be haunted by monstrous traits. The truth is that, when we believe, we go where the interpreter leads us. So with Meryl Streep in Florence, A Diva Off Tom (on display): the composition of Florence Foster Jenkins (1868-1944), a lady of society who sang disastrously but longed to get the sacred stage at Carnegie Hall in New York, is a remarkable feat of laughter and tragedy, shouted notes and poignant silences.

in an interview with Vanity Fair (12 August) Stephen Frears, director Florence, a Diva Off Tom , remember who proposed the Meryl Streep a very particular working method: not represent the singing scenes in playback (as she herself did admit ), but film them with direct sound. Not only the actress accepted the challenge as the director acknowledges that the results exceeded their expectations “. It was absolutely brilliant” More than that, he gave new life to the fascinating paradox of Florence “. Correctly sang all counterfeit notes”

The first Oscar

This ability to transfiguration, combined with an indomitable demand for perfection, defines the image of Meryl Streep mark since the beginning of his career. In his book Her again: Becoming Meryl Streep (Harper, 2016), journalist Michael Schulman, the New Yorker , tells the unusual casting process that earned him the role of Joanna Kramer, the woman who wants to divorce Ted Kramer, played by Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

When had a first conversation with director Robert Benton, producer Stanley R. Jaffe and Hoffman itself, its impact was little more than discreet. It was the same mistake. Meryl Streep said little, defining vague and hesitant so Joanna character. In fact, he disconcerted his interlocutors because, in fact, had been summoned as a possible performer of another character, Phyllis name, a woman with whom Ted ends up having an ephemeral relationship (which would be played by JoBeth Williams). It was Hoffman who immediately understood his state of mind, since he knew the recent death of his companion, actor John Cazale, victim of cancer in the lung at age 42 (the pair had integrated a year earlier, the The Hunter , Michael Cimino). Benton and Jaffe felt that vulnerability Meryl Streep could be an additional asset in building character. – The film earned him a second nomination in the category of best supporting actress (The Hunter off the previous one) and his first Oscar

Learn the stage

Since then, we have been able to attend one of the most glorious stories of Hollywood in recent decades. First, for statistical reasons: Meryl Streep became record for Oscar nominations (19 in total), having won twice more in the category of leading actress, with Sophie’s Choice (1982 ), of Alan J. Pakula, a poignant memory of the Holocaust based on the novel by William Styron, and the Iron Lady (2011), portraying Margaret Thatcher, under the direction of Phyllida Lloyd. Then, because its expressive sophistication allows you to swing the tragic to the comic, through the corner: if Florence Foster Jenkins implied sing badly convincingly, his character Ricki and the Flash (2015), Jonathan Demme, it was a singer (rock) Meryl Streep took with unusual energy and subtlety.

it’s amazing how has managed to overcome many biographical clichés around true characters like Thatcher or writer Karen Blixen in Out of Africa (Sydney Pollack, 1985), perhaps the greatest phenomenon of worship throughout his filmography. But it is also true that the plurality of the records goes through romantic clearance The French Lieutenant’s Lover (Karel Reisz, 1981), a comic fantasy Death Becomes Her (Robert Zemeckis, 1992) or melodramatic breathing the Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995).

And it remains ironic that in recent times Meryl Streep (67 years) has been one of Hollywood personalities who more systematically denounced the prejudice that leads to marginalize the actresses when they reach a certain age, defending the need to counter the artistic celebration of “youth” eternal. In practice, it is certainly one of the exceptions, managing to manage career without masking the marks of the very passage of time.

After all, how many great actors of the classical period (remember Katharine Hepburn, one interpreter between women and men, with four Oscars interpretation), Meryl Streep also had an essential training through the theater, having passed the Public Theatre, the legendary Joseph Papp in New York. Then learned to be aware of the effects that the art of acting can trigger a spectator. – Being simple, it is also the most difficult