Friday, November 05, 2010
JILL CLAYBURGH RIP - REMEMBRANCE
Jill Clayburgh has passed away at 66 after a long battle with leukemia.
I took a master class (acting with camera) with Jill at HB Studio some years ago. She was a brilliant and supportive teacher. She had elegance and grace. Jill had been a student of Uta Hagen, and carried on HB Studio's great tradition of teaching the art of naturalistic, rich performance. Sometimes she was kind and sometimes she was strict -- especially strict, it seemed to me, with women who did not find all the richness possible in their roles.
She sometimes spoke, in an incidental way during the class, with warmth and pride about her family. (Her husband was David Rabe the playwright. Her daughter, Lily Rabe, has been a steadily rising actress, and did great work as Portia this summer in The Merchant of Venice for Shakespeare in the Park. Lily just left the previews of Merchant of Venice on Broadway for a few days to be with her mother.)
In the class, Jill encouraged me in some projects I was working on, even allowing me to bring in an actress that I was working with (who was not at HB) and coaching us before a performance. She was one of the very finest and most influential acting teachers I ever had.
I saw her in a number of plays after the class. She was always brilliant... especially memorable were her work in Barefoot in the Park and A Naked Girl On The Appian Way.
One fond memory I have: I waited for her at the stage-door after Barefoot, and she greeted me with such warmth, it pleases me to this day.
Her career in theater, film and TV has been immense:
JILL CLAYBURGH in WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Clayburgh
JILL CLAYBURGH in IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001049/
JILL CLAYBURGH in IBDB
http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=35535
JILL CLAYBURGH in Off-Broadway Lortel Archives
http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=people&first=Jill&last=Clayburgh&middle=
I will miss her.
Labels: HB Studio, Jill Clayburgh, Uta Hagen
Monday, June 25, 2007
FOOLS RUSH IN
Every scene of Fools Rush In is fun, well acted, interesting. Lot's of great moments. Matthew Perry is excellent, as is Salma Hayek. Jill Clayburgh has a great cameo.
Given all that, plus Matthew Perry's great following from Friends, and Hayak's charm and beauty, this should have been a great hit. Yet, according to Box Office Mojo, it made only about $29M.
What's the difference between this movie and a romantic blockbuster?
I have an idea...
First, although individual scenes are great, they are strung together with contrived plot devices. Had this story been allowed to evolve naturally, I think it would be one of the great romantic comedy/dramas.
Second, the title sucks. Although it makes sense for the story: the two lovers rush in to a relationship without thinking much about what they are doing, it's not remember-able. (It's also half a cliche.) I couldn't remember it from one moment to the next; I kept looking up the title of the movie I had rented. (What was the name of that movie? Oh. Oh, yeah.) And it doesn't sound appetizing. A book title like, "Passionate Love For Idiots" implies that idiots can have great fun. Fools Rush In implies that fools do foolish things. Who wants that? All us idiots in the audience want to know that our idiocy is really one of our great strengths. This title suggests it's a problem. Don't want that!
So... I'll recommend this film as long as you can remember the title (and then ignore it), and provided you don't pay attention to the broader strokes in the plot, as the film leaps from one scene to the next. Just enjoy each scene as it comes!
Labels: Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Perry, Salma Hayak
