Biopics

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 4:26pm

I'm interested in knowing which biopics work for you and which ones don't. Specifically, how close did the actor get to recreating the character.

Recently I watched "And The Beat Goes On" and was surprised at how close Renee Faia got to capturing Cher on screen. Certain angles, she actually looked like Cher.

I was always disappointed at Jessica Lange's performance as Patsy Cline in "Sweet Dreams". There was a rough quality about Patsy that Jessica didn't seem to be able to capture.

Many people thought Judy Davis did quite well with Judy Garland. I remember Andrea McArdle's less than inspiring attempt at Ms. Garland.

Who else should have a biopic done?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 6:14pm

I loved Jessica Lange as Francis Farmer. Thought she was marvelous and did capture her character.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 9:04pm

Bea Lillie.


Emma Thompson needs to do a Bea Lillie biopic.

I'd love to see her do this--wouldn't you?




Bea Lillie: There Are Fairies at the Bottom of My Garden

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 9:16pm

The Mamas and the Papas. I've always thought their music could make a great musical about them. Fun fact, Cass Elliot used to use "Glitter and Be Gay" as an audition song before she was joined the group.

Here's Cass and Julie Andrews singing Cass's hits! Cass'?
Here's Cass with Julie Andrews! Updated On: 4/14/14 at 09:16 PM

[HorseTears]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 9:32pm

I would love to see Bayard Rustin or Alan Turing receive biopics. Unfortunately, most biopics are dreadful -- especially the ones that attempt to tell a person's life story from birth to death. It's just too much for a 2-3 hour film. I think that Milos Forman is one of the few directors who gets how to make a truly effective biopic. He and his screenwriters are not interested in telling a whole life story but in finding the essence of his protagonist. I adore The People Vs. Larry Flynt and Man on the Moon.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 9:45pm

Babara, of course. What a glamorous movie she'd be!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 9:58pm

Mr. And Mrs. Roxy should have a film made about their passionate love affair.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 10:11pm

Harriet Tubman

Frederick Douglass

Teddy Roosevelt- Over several periods. Like Lincoln, you could do several movies on different periods of his life and there are good biographies out there that fulfill just that.

L'affair Nicholas Ray and Gloria Grahame- I may like respectful, dignified, classic biopics but I also enjoy tabloid dirt and the union and dissolution of these two is INCREDIBLE.

Phil and Ronnie Spector- Backdrop being Phillies Records, obviously.

Paul Robeson

L. Ron Hubbard- Duh. It may never happen or have the proper funding due to powers that be, but whatever.



Updated On: 4/14/14 at 10:11 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 10:23pm

Horsey, I'm sure you know that Turing had a biopic made, Codebreaker, starring Derek Jacobi, and there's a high profile ones starring Cumberbatch being theatrically released this year (The Imitation Game.) The Pet Shop Boys are also apparently working on a musical....

[StageManager2]

Posted: 4/14/14 at 11:11pm

I loved Jessica Lange as Francis Farmer. Thought she was marvelous and did capture her character.

Though Lange bore a striking resemblance to Farmer, I don't think she captured her character/persona at all. For one, Frances had a low husky voice, and Lange just couldn't shake off her whispery, girlish voice. Also, Frances had a formidable character, but Lange came off as a wounded, wilted flower long before she was institutionalized.

I'm interested in knowing which biopics work for you and which ones don't. Specifically, how close did the actor get to recreating the character.

I thought J.Lo captured Selena perfectly -- her look, her voice, her mannerisms, her laugh -- even if the movie itself was so-so. This is a good example of an actor totally becoming a famous/historical person without coming off as an impersonation or mimic.

Updated On: 4/14/14 at 11:11 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 12:02am

Angela Bassett was so good in What's Love Got to Do With It, that when the real Tina Turner wanders in at the very end of the movie, it's really jarring.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 10:25am

"Also, Frances had a formidable character, but Lange came off as a wounded, wilted flower long before she was institutionalized."

And she did exactly the same thing for Patsy Cline. Lange couldn't find the strength of these women.

[romantico]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 2:58pm

I think it's difficult getting both the performance and the script just right. For example Toby Jones and Phillip Seymour Hoffman both did two different movies where they played Truman Capote. I thought Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance was better but liked the Toby Jones film more.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 3:29pm

Coal Miner's Daughter is probably my favorite. Sissy Spacek is just sensational.

[Jonwo]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 4:11pm

I quite like musical biopics like Walk the Line, Ray etc looking forward to the James Brown biopic Get on Up. I'm surprised The Bee Gees has never been done as a biopic, the life story of the band would make an interesting movie.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 6:06pm

I thought Phillip Seymour Hoffman's performance was better but liked the Toby Jones film more.M/b>

Seriously? I thought Toby was uncanny as Capote; PSH to me seemed to be doing an impression. The voice was so affected it was cringeworthy. Plus, he was too tall. I never once bought him as Capote, and it was distracting that I could see the mechanics of his performance. How he won that Oscar, I don't know. Toby was the better Capote. If only he'd been in the better film. I've always said that Capote would be the perfect film if Toby had been in that one instead.

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra
Salve, Salve Regina
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Eva
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
O clemens O pia

[romantico]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 6:32pm

It's been a while since I saw the Toby Jones film so I may have to re-watch it again.

Biopics are difficult because you have to try and cram a person's life into two hours. When I first saw Jack Nicholson as Hoffa I thought he did a great job. When I recently saw the film again I changed my mind.Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Margaret Thatcher stick out in my mind more than the actual films she was in.Anthony Hopkins was a much better Alfred Hitchcok then he was playing Richard Nixon.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/15/14 at 6:39pm

Walk The Line was one I disliked. I've met June Carter Cash and Reese Witherspoon was nothing like her. I think Maggie Gyllenhaal could have come closer than Reese did.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

#18Biopics

Posted: 4/15/14 at 10:34pm

What was she like?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 4/16/14 at 12:14am

June Carter? She was a very sweet person, but the elevator didn't go all the way to the top. Reese played her way too perky. She played the onstage persona rather than the actual woman.

If you went to a party, June would be the one standing in the corner. June was Louise, to Mother Maybelle's Rose except June didn't have the Louise breakaway. Mother Maybelle pushed June to the side in favor of the other two daughters and June didn't develop her individual personality. I think when Johnny Cash came along, Mother Maybelle saw a golden opportunity.

The onstage patter that you see Reese do in the movie would have been scripted and heavily rehearsed with June to make it look natural.

June talked about one time being on tour with Patsy Cline. She says Patsy gave her some pills to "help her nerves" and June didn't sleep for two days. Obviously it was speed but June didn't bother to inquire what she was taking, she just took them because Patsy gave them to her.

One time I saw June at the HMV in Times Square. She was there to promote a cd. The store manager announced her to the crowd "Ladies & Gentleman let's welcome June Carter Cash." June looked around like she was expecting some big star to walk in, almost like the crowd was there to see someone other than her.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 4/16/14 at 2:41am

"Horsey, I'm sure you know that Turing had a biopic made, Codebreaker, starring Derek Jacobi, and there's a high profile ones starring Cumberbatch being theatrically released this year (The Imitation Game.) The Pet Shop Boys are also apparently working on a musical...."

Eric, actually, I had no idea about either of these films. Will have to look for the Jacobi one. Thanks for the tip! BTW, per your request in another thread, I PM'd you.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 4/16/14 at 7:25am

One of my all time favorite bio pics is COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER. I knew zilch about Loretta Lynn or country music for that matter when I first saw it and Lynn's life and music as well as the performances delivered by Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones and Beverly D'Angelo were just fantastic and not only made me a Loretta Lynn fan but a country music fan as well.

I did like SWEET DREAMS, but I still feel Beverly D'Angelo was a better fit as Patsy Cline and to her credit D'Angelo sang all her songs for herself whereas Lange was dubbed.

As a bio pic it lacks any real authenticity but as a dramatic film LADY SINGS THE BLUES is a really good film with an extraordinary no-holds-barred debut performance by Diana Ross.

I'll re-visit the thread if some others come to mind, but those two were the first that came to mind.

Updated On: 4/16/14 at 07:25 AM

[strummergirl]

Posted: 4/16/14 at 5:18pm

Beverly D'Angelo was sublime as Patsy Cline. Shame she did not get an Oscar nomination for it. I listen to her versions of the songs as much as Cline's, although I am a film fan before country music fan.

I gotta disagree romantico. Hopkins was a ham as Hitch and the persona of Hitch put to the public could lay it on thick but that whole film was a joke aside from the very good turns of Scarlett Johansson as Janet Leigh and James D'Arcy as Anthony Perkins (I'd watch that whole biopic). Additionally, his version of Nixon is wonderful and complex as the man himself.

Count me in on also preferring Jones/Infamous over PSH/Capote. I just thought Dan Futterman and Bennett Miller had utter contempt for the man, the material, and PSH was stuck fighting for humanity that the script and the dour direction refused him. Infamous just felt like a much more natural grasp of who the movie was on and even the pretense of the faux-interviewing felt quite right for the subject who was very interested in the gossip mill.

Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash will never not be one of the more baffling Best Actress wins. Forget not really be further from who she was playing, she was a supporting character in that film.

[best12bars]

Posted: 4/16/14 at 6:56pm

I like some of the "painter" ones---even if they aren't the "whole truth," like anyone can presume to know that. These are entertaining, inspiring, thought-provoking, and they stayed with me long after I first saw them

Moulin Rouge (1952)
Lust For Life
Pollack
The Agony and the Ecstasy (more fiction than fact, but fascinating nonetheless)

Other movies I can watch multiple times:

Capote
Milk
Gandhi
Elizabeth
The Queen

I'm sure there are others, but those came to mind.