The Glenda Jackson Love Thread

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 11:59am

Just watched her and the underrated Susannah York in the filmed version of THE MAIDS. Wonderful.

She may be my favorite more-is-more English spangled ham.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 12:12pm

Me too!

I first fell in love with her when I was about seven, watching "Elizabeth R." Then seeing her play the part again in "Mary Queen of Scots." If you can lay your hands on "The Incredible Sarah," as in Bernhardt, you'll be seeing some of the finest pork playing in the history of film.

Oh, and she's incredibly touching (and eerie) in "Marat/Sade."

Love, love, love her.

[AC126748]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 12:16pm

One of my favorite actors of all-time. I only wish I'd been able to see her on stage before she retired from acting.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 1:20pm

and now she's retiring from politics- i just can't see her sitting back and watching the world go by. wonder what she'll do next?

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 1:23pm

I love her.

I hadn't thought of her for ages and watched Ken Russell's "Women In Love" (O.k., o.k., I watched it for the Alan Bates/Oliver Reed naked wrestling scene.) and watching her in it, I felt a palpable ache that she isn't acting any more.

I wish that someone would release "Stevie" on DVD! Her performance is some of the best acting ever committed to film.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 1:53pm

Look what I just found on youtube!
Jackson/Plowright/The House of Bernarda Alba

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 2:05pm

Saw her in STRANGE INTERLUDE on Broadway. The audience seemed to find the play hilarious.

[best12bars]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 2:10pm

I love her on film, but I saw her on stage in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and she was so very just okay. The whole production had been defanged, so I can't blame her entirely. Still, it was a lackluster performance, and I was disappointed.

Love her in "A Touch of Class." Check out this (horribly squeezed) scene. She is just so fantastic.


LINK

[Roscoe]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 3:13pm

I went with some friends to see that STRANGE INTERLUDE. The audience reaction was so horrific we went backstage to express our admiration of her work, and we were ushered into her dressing room. She was incredibly gracious to us all, signed my copy of the play, and just lit up like a Christmas tree when my dear friend told her how much the performance had meant to her.

Updated On: 10/8/13 at 03:13 PM

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 10/8/13 at 3:53pm

I liked her as an actress, but it was only when Reginald Tresilian posted a link a while back to her speaking in the House of Commons about Margaret Thatcher that I realized how great she was as a person too.

I particularly like her in Sunday Bloody Sunday, but I really should catch up on her other roles too.

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 10/10/13 at 3:42am

Borstalboy - Thank you for starting this thread.

I love Glenda Jackson. Have not seen nearly enough of her films but think she was a great actress, almost a little forgotten I think. Obvioulsy, that's due to her retiring from acting many years ago.

I agree with Besty and sondheimboy2 about Touch of Class and Stevie - two of my favorites.

I too wish I had seen her on stage.

I wonder if she would ever consider coming back to acting?

[Buddy's blues]

Posted: 10/10/13 at 10:13am

Lucky enough to see her on stage in London several times - the most memorable for me was her spellbinding performance in Hedda Gabler. It was later made into a movie with the same cast.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/10/13 at 2:35pm

Glenda as Cleopatra, hilarious and gorgeous in this Morecambe and Wise sketch
watch this you'll be glad you did

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/10/13 at 2:50pm

Buddy's, I used to have that film on VHS. She was remarkable.

[Playbilly]

Posted: 10/15/13 at 7:56pm

Saw her as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Love me some Glenda!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/15/13 at 11:10pm

Lucky You! Glenda and Martha...the mind reels.

I vote for Sunday, Bloody Sunday. One of those movies I saw when I first began to read and see and listen to things that were complicated and nuanced and challenging. That movie changed the way I thought about life and love and emotions.

And I experienced it all through her performance. Watch.

http://movieclips.com/MnXo-sunday-bloody-sunday-movie-asking-too-much/

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 10/16/13 at 1:13am

I'm a big fan too--particularly of Women in Love and Sunday Bloody Sunday. She's great in the so/so followup Ken Russell did twenty years later to WOmen in Love, the companion novel The Rainbow, which maybe was one of her last films (1990 or so.) And I have a soft spot for her performance in Ken Russell's Salome's Last Dance (where she stars in a performance of Salome, performing for OScar Wilde and Bosie--it's one of Russell's more out there films, and like Gothic, probably not actually very good, but she is very good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHwsog89Ovo )

Roscoe, her performance in Strange Interlude was filmed for PBS' American Playhouse--I've seen a not great copy floating around online.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 10/16/13 at 12:01pm

I've never understood the objection to Jackson's second oscar for her outstanding performance in A Touch of Class. As far as I can tell it comes from the particularly American devaluation of comic acting as not nearly as serious or challenging as dramatic acting. Which, as anyone who knows any thing about acting would agree, is preposterous.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/16/13 at 12:13pm

I love this scene from "Marat/Sade."


"What kind of town is this?"

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 10/16/13 at 12:22pm

Reginald - I agree with you. I like the emphasis she keeps putting on "what"

[BWF]

Posted: 10/18/13 at 8:46am

I saw her in London in Stevie, it was unremarkable.

I could never get over her giving it all up for politics. She is unremarkable as a Labour Member of Parliament, too.

Updated On: 10/18/13 at 08:46 AM

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/18/13 at 9:01am

I only ever saw the film, about the which the NY Times said "You'd better put on your running shoes if you don't want to miss the best performance by an actress to be seen in any film released so far this year."

I don't recall what other performances would have been in the running, but I thought she was wonderful.

[BWF]

Posted: 10/18/13 at 9:11am

I only saw the play and made a conscious decision to pass on the film. I saw a Saturday matinee and I don't know if she was off or I was but I didn't enjoy it at all. I had travelled some distance to see her in Stevie. Nureyev that evening at the Coliseum was the saving grace of the day for me.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 10/18/13 at 9:25am

Wow! Even with an off performance from Jackson, that sounds like quite a day.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 10/18/13 at 10:47am

She was also wonderful in the made for TV movie "The Patricia Neal Story".