Julie Christie Update & "Atonement"

Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent in Away From Her.

I previously blogged about my favorite actress, Julie Christie (see below)http://jeffircink.blogspot.com/2007/12/women-celebs-i-love-3-julie-christie.html and the kudos being flung her way for the movie, Away From Her. Caught the movie this week with friends, along with, Atonement. Both excellent movies. One much more depressing than the other.

Since my original post on Julie, she was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actress and she's been nominated for an Academy Award for her role as a women struck down with Alzheimer's Disease. As wonderful as this movie is, it was extremely painful to watch. As an actor, my attention to characters in movies is much the same as my approach to a character that I'm portraying on stage or on film - I put myself in the character's shoes, asking, "what would Jeff Ircink do if HE were that person?". Not a novel approach by any means, but of all the acting approachs (Method, Meisner), this works best for me.

So I put myself in the shoes of Julie Christie's husband, is forced to deal with his wife's increasing memory loss, then he puts her into a home and then watches from afar as she become "involved" with another patient - a man who she takes "a liking" to her (and she to him). I now have a greater appreciation for the loved ones of Alzheimer victim's - it's the loved ones who seemingly suffer the most. My God, how heart-wrenching to see Christie's husband crumble in the face of everything that he faces - none of which he has contol over. Honestly, if you're in a shitty or depressed mood, wait until you have a skip back in your step before you watch this.

Great acting job by everyone involved. And Julie Christie is as lovely and beautiful as ever.

Atonement is another excellent movie - essentially about how two lovers just prior to WWII are separated from each other and the hardships they endure along the way. I really don't feel like writing a review on the movie...just watch it - it garnered 8 Academy Award nominations. It was very lyrical and poetic (I stole that from my writer-friend Donovan, who's working on his first novel by the way, but I would've said the same thing), drifting from present to past and back again very seamlessly. And again, as in Away From Her, I put myself in the character's shoes (the lead male), feeling the joy and sorrow and emptiness that he felt. I know what it's like not being with the one you love. Many of us do. It's one of the most empty feelings one can have. Just horrific. This is another great movie. Go see it.

And see it with someone you're deeply in love with.