FX's "FEUD: Bette and Joan" starring JESSICA LANGE and SUSAN SARANDON (March 5th @ 10PM)- Page 5
FX's "FEUD: Bette and Joan" starring JESSICA LANGE and SUSAN SARANDON (March 5th @ 10PM)
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#100Patti LuPone Shoulda Played Bette Davis
Posted: 3/14/17 at 12:17pm
[B]The Boston Globe[/B]
[QUOTE]By Matthew Gilbert
GLOBE STAFF MARCH 14, 2017
Team Lange. To the death.
I’m noticing a split in opinion regarding “Feud: Bette and Joan.” The entertaining FX series is about the struggles between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on the set of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” — struggles often sparked and fueled by publicists and studio honchos who liked the “catfight” press attention.
Some viewers tell me Susan Sarandon captures the essence of Bette Davis, that she has just the precise amount of snark, that she delivers both the tough-broad exterior and the more compassionate heart, that she has the exact right eyes for the part. What can I say? I don’t see it — except for the eyes. Sarandon doesn’t detract from the series, but I don’t feel as though she has found her Bette Davis. She seems to be playing herself, with a few strange pronunciations to affect the way Davis spoke.
Lange, on the other hand, seems possessed by Joan Crawford. She seems to be in the acting zone in a big way, delivering to us a creature whose every look and word is the result of deep insecurity. The raging vanity, the competition, the drama-queenliness — Lange makes them all a function of Crawford’s bottomless hunger for approval. Lange is riveting and, at times, hard to watch. According to show creator Ryan Murphy, the actresses “could not have loved each other more,” and I believe him; so many of the warring-costars stories we read are fraudulent, invented to stoke interest in the project. But that makes Lange’s intensity in revealing Crawford’s animosity toward Davis even more of an actor’s coup.
When the Emmys come around next fall, I’m assuming both actresses will be nominated. And I’m throwing my support behind Lange. And this has nothing to do with Sarandon’s political rantings of late, as a few letter-writers have suggested. Her comments about the election have absolutely nothing to do with her performance in “Feud.”
Lange is having a remarkable TV career, after her decades of movie work, with “American Horror Story,” “Grey Gardens,” “Horace and Pete,” and, now, best of all, “Feud.”[/QUOTE]
[url]https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/television/2017/03/13/let-praise-feud-series-entertains-thanks-mostly-jessica-lange/vlAkICvDrj0lp0rpmjDRDN/story.html[/url]
#101Patti LuPone Shoulda Played Bette Davis
Posted: 3/14/17 at 12:44pm
Like I say, Sarandon is just boring.
Blue_Lotus
Stand-by Joined: 8/23/16
#102Patti LuPone Shoulda Played Bette Davis
Posted: 3/14/17 at 12:53pm
I've just finished watching the second episode and I found Lange much better in this installment than in the first.
I loved Sarandon's scenes with Alfred Molina rehearsing and her scene with Kiernan Shipka as her daughter B.D. who held her own against the veteran actress. Impressive.
What can I say about Stanley Tucci as Jack Warner? He's a virtual scene stealer and is having his own Diva or is that Divo? moments here. Love him!
Kathy Bates and Catherine Zeta Jones as Blondell and DeHavilland I feel just get in the way...the seem almost like after thoughts. Their scenes could be easily cut and not be missed at all.
...i am an infinite soul in a human body who is in the process of never ending growth...
#103Even Lange's hair is wrong
Posted: 3/14/17 at 12:58pm
Mark-Alexis said: Matthew Gilbert said "I don’t feel as though she has found her Bette Davis. She seems to be playing herself, with a few strange pronunciations to affect the way Davis spoke. Lange, on the other hand, seems possessed by Joan Crawford."
Funny, I feel the exact opposite of this. When I watch Sarandon, I see Bette's essence in an almost uncanny way. When I watch Lange, while I'm a HUGE fan of Lange, I don't see one iota of Crawford. At. All.
Art has a double face, of expression and illusion.
Updated On: 3/14/17 at 12:58 PM
#104Even Lange's hair is wrong
Posted: 3/14/17 at 1:48pm
Kathy Bates as Joan Blondell and Alfred Molina as Bob Aldridge are challenging my ability to suspend disbelief.
#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#1064th Emmy
Posted: 3/14/17 at 8:03pm
There are so many mored feuds that I'd prefer to the Charles & Diana saga next season. Earlier today I downloaded Robert Fleischer's 1959 film Compulsion. According to numerous accounts, there was considerable tension on the set between the leads Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman, as well as between Orson Welles and everyone on set. Orson was passed up as director and showed up in full on diva mode.
#FactsMatter...your feelings not so much.
carnzee
Broadway Star Joined: 9/2/11
carnzee
Broadway Star Joined: 9/2/11
#1084th Emmy
Posted: 3/14/17 at 8:18pm
artscallion said: "Mark-Alexis said: Matthew Gilbert said "I don’t feel as though she has found her Bette Davis. She seems to be playing herself, with a few strange pronunciations to affect the way Davis spoke. Lange, on the other hand, seems possessed by Joan Crawford."
Funny, I feel the exact opposite of this. When I watch Sarandon, I see Bette's essence in an almost uncanny way. When I watch Lange, while I'm a HUGE fan of Lange, I don't see one iota of Crawford. At. All.
My thoughts exactly. But I'm enjoying Lange as always, she's great as an Old Hollywood movie queen. If she were playing a fictional character, I wouldn't complain at all.
VIETgrlTerifa
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/18/04
#1094th Emmy
Posted: 3/17/17 at 10:06am
I love what Lange does in her more vulnerable scenes and the way she played Hedda Hopper in last weak's episode. Judy Davis is wonderfully delicious as Hedda Hopper even though Judy Davis is being very Judy Davis in the role. There is one thing that really bothers me though. She just does not invoke Joan Crawford at all. I found myself having to look at pictures of Joan Crawford to try to imagine what Joan would have looked like in many of these scenes. All the work Lange has done to her face, which beforehand I thought seemed like it was about to go to Meg Ryan territory before Lange realized she needed to stop before it went too far and thus looks great, is not helping her be expressive in her face which prevents me from really getting into the soul of her character.
Susan Sarandon is surprising me with her portrayal. I'm still really bothered by her behavior this past election and fully understood South Park's disdain they had for her like ten years ago, but I think she's giving a superior performance to Lange only because I do get a fully-realized Bette Davis here even if the sound of her voice does not match Davis and Sarandon seems like herself at times. I also think the fact she can still show emotion like a natural-looking person helps Sarandon a lot.
Both ladies are showing their ages which makes it hard to buy Lange as Crawford as a sex vixen (not Lange in real life but Lange as she is made up and costumed in this series) whereas it's ok for Sarandon because she doesn't look as rough as Davis did even though Davis was about 16 years younger during Baby Jane than Sarandon is now. However, maybe Sarandon should be looking rougher to match Bette more accurately.
This show is showing Ryan Murphy at his campiest and it's fun to watch, like how Jackie Hoffman doesn't even have to play a character that resembles a real person, just a fun and actually believable oddball archetype. It also sort of falls short of being a masterpiece, however, due to Murphy's excesses and simple bad dialogue and at times middle to low brow directing.
"I've got to get me out of here
This place is full of dirty old men
And the navigators and their mappy maps
And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes
While you stare at your books."
Updated On: 3/17/17 at 10:06 AM
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#1104th Emmy
Posted: 3/20/17 at 12:54am
[B]New York Times[/B] gives Lange and Sarandon raves in Ep. 3:
[QUOTE]At times the underlying story structure shows through too clearly, but despite the often overdetermined script, Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon continue to bring to their performances layers of complexity and unexpected psychological insights.
Crawford’s early life was harrowing, and it’s all there in Lange’s eyes, in the way her voice plummets into the gutter, Grande Dame dulcet tones vanishing — the rage of the child she once was, the child who was thrown to the wolves. There is something extremely complicated in Lange’s reaction to that card for Christina. It’s a fascinating counterpoint to the expected Crawford narrative.
Davis eventually throws a temper tantrum claiming she was robbed of an Oscar for her role in the 1950 film “All About Eve” (Judy Holliday won that year for “Born Yesterday&rdquo
, leading to Crawford’s parting shot as she storms back to her dressing room: “And it was Gloria Swanson who was robbed in 1950, not you, bitch!” Lange catapults her voice up into the stratosphere, with the final words elongated into a near-operatic screech. It’s such a bizarre and brilliant choice, the hugeness of expression matching the hugeness of the emotion.
The best kind of acting is a full-body, full-voiced expression, something many contemporary actors — trained to rely on the close-up — cannot manage without seeming artificial. Both Sarandon and Lange have always used their bodies and voices fully to communicate emotion and character. Sarandon’s distinct voice-over in “Bull Durham” is one of the many reasons that film works, her voice oozing into our ears with character and intimacy and humor. Lange’s primal scream (“What about my civil rights?&rdquo in “Frances” comes roaring out of the depths as her body bucks and thrashes around like a live electrical wire.
This sort of acting is almost a lost art, but it is the kind of work that Davis and Crawford did, too (and Katharine Hepburn, and Barbara Stanwyck, and Greta Garbo, et al.). The great actresses of classic Hollywood were superb in close-up, but superb in long-shot as well. When Garbo fell in love, her whole body quivered upward toward what she yearned for. When Hepburn entered a room, her stride practically encircled the globe. When Stanwyck descended a staircase, the sexy tension in her body told the whole story.
“Feud” may try to drive home its points about ageism and sexism too clearly, but the fun of the series is watching Sarandon and Lange work at this level. Everything they do is eloquent: the way they smoke, size each other up, put on sunglasses, listen, choose their words carefully (or not carefully). These are not superficial elements. They show character, wants, needs — the primal stuff of all good acting.
[/QUOTE]
[url]https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/03/19/arts/television/feud-bette-and-joan-mommie-dearest-recap.html?_r=0&referer=https://www.google.com/[/url][TWEET][/TWEET]
#111 FEUD
Posted: 3/20/17 at 1:35am
I have loved every minute of this show. I have been in love with Jessica Lange since I saw her devastating performance in "Frances". Both of their performances have good and bad points, I think that Jessica's Crawford pulls ahead just a bit. They will both be Emmy nominated along with Jackie Hoffman, Judy Davis and Stanley Tucci. When I was a child, I never thought that Davis and Crawford had bad times during their careers and I gravitated more towards their work in the sixties, ("Dead Ringer", "Strait-Jacket", "Berserk", "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" and I think that Ms. Davis' continued desire to work is something that she owned and should be proud of. I can only imagine what else this show has in store!
henrikegerman
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
#112 FEUD
Posted: 3/20/17 at 12:33pm
This Lange-v-Sarandon thing is annoying. As Dunaway said in Mommie, Dearest, "Why must everything be a contest?"
Ironically, isn't one of the many great things about FEUD the entertaining and resonant way it explores that very question... and in a parallel context of two stars playing two women entrenched in a conflict both petty and brutal?
carnzee
Broadway Star Joined: 9/2/11
#114 FEUD
Posted: 3/20/17 at 3:29pm
I was impressed with episode three, and was surprised by how moving it was. Jessica deserves an Emmy for this one alone. The way she played the scene where Joan reveals that secret about her past... Or her heartbreak as she came home to an empty house.
Don't care about the Victor buono stuff, it felt gratuitous and unnecessary.
#116 FEUD
Posted: 3/22/17 at 8:54am
It hurts me that these great strong women were not BFFs. It is understandable, with everyone from Warner and Director and the Gossip rags pitting them against each other. What a Shame. To Quote the Movie, They could have been friends all these years.
A few weeks back I watched WEHTBJ and with some friends and we all commented on how HORRIBLE the Neighbors Daughter was in the movie!! We all were saying how did they not fire her? She must have been F***ing the Director. We had no idea it was Bettes daughter!! We had no idea that Bette agreed that she was horrible!
When They Go Low, I Go High
Updated On: 3/22/17 at 08:54 AM
VIETgrlTerifa
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/18/04
#117 FEUD
Posted: 3/22/17 at 9:14am
Jessica Lange was definitely MVP in the last episode. She absolutely blew me away.
"I've got to get me out of here
This place is full of dirty old men
And the navigators and their mappy maps
And moldy heads and pissing on sugar cubes
While you stare at your books."
Plannietink08
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/2/11
#119 FEUD
Posted: 3/23/17 at 7:55am
CarlosAlberto said: "Petralicious said: "It hurts me that these great strong women were not BFFs.
It hurts you?!? You know it isn't about you, right? And you know that these women are dead, right? They probably still hate each other right now in the great after life.
"
RIGHT!?
"Charlotte, we're Jewish"
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
carnzee
Broadway Star Joined: 9/2/11
Mark-Alexis
Stand-by Joined: 4/29/16
#123 FEUD
Posted: 3/27/17 at 3:39pm
I think Lange is sublime as Crawford behind and in front of the camera and captures both her natural and performing voice beautifully.
Sarandon is amazing as Bette behind the camera, but struggles turning into Bette in front of the camera (e.g. the Baby Jane scenes, the talk show scenes and the singing number). The singing was off in that Davis may have been nervous and embarrassed but she sung the song with confidence and pizzazz. She was solid and so rather than coming off embarrassed, she comes off cute and endearing.
Sarandon shuffles and moves her head and eyes too much. She only comes off embarrassed, lol. You have to really throw yourself into a scene like that to pull it off (I'm thinking about how Lange nailed the "Tea for Two" bedroom scene in "Grey Gardens".
Side by side comparison of Davis and Sarandon singing.
https://mobile.twitter.com/secondhandcurls/status/846362695045648384/video/1
But really, these are small details when compared to the overall brilliance of Lange and Sarandon's work.
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