THE LAUREATE OF THIS YEAR'S KRZYSZTOF KIEŚLOWSKI AWARD IS…

Thursday November 3rd, 2016

Jessica Lange. American film, stage and television actress, fully committed humanitarian, renown photographer whose works were exhibited on two continents, and non-conformist who became a role model for many young people. She is already a laureate of the so-called “Tripe Crown of Acting,” consisting of an Academy Award® (she won two), an Emmy® (she won three), and a Tony® award; she also has five Golden Globes®, among many other distinctions, and is widely considered one of the best actresses of her generation. She is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador who traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Russian Federation to shed some light on the increasing problem of rape on women and the dangers of HIV/AIDS. She achieved worldwide fame for her black&white photographs depicting the everyday beauty and simplicity of life in various places around the globe. She is a true artist, always looking for new means of expressing herself, full of everlasting energy and passion; before she became who she is right now, she had been shaping her artistic personality while traveling during her beatnik youth across Europe and North America.

 
Jessica Lange,
photo courtesy of Jessica Lange

The truth is, however, these several sentences cannot possibly do justice to who Jessica Lange really is, though they outline a portrait of a woman who spent her entire career on a reciprocal affair with cinema and popularizing the importance of culture and art; a woman who went on using her fame and social status to promote humanistic and humanitarian approaches, as well as support the people whose voices are too often silenced by the world. Needless to say, these are the traits we, at Camerimage, look for in artists we distinguish with the KrzysztofKieślowski Award, whose patron is one of the greatest humanists of world cinema. It is therefore our distinct pleasure to announce that Jessica Lange will come to Bydgoszcz to accept the award during the 24th edition of the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE. She will also present the festival participants with a selection of her extraordinary photographs in the UNSEEN exhibition.
 
Still from "The Postman Always Rings Twice"

If one would notice only the external appearance, Jessica Lange, an immensely attractive blonde with playful eyes and voluptuous figure, should have been left stranded long time ago in a gilded cage of stereotypical bombshells whose only talent is to make men loose their heads and commit numerous sins for their attention. That is probably how the legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis perceived her, signing the inexperienced but extremely beautiful blonde for a multi-picture deal, with John Guillermin's  King Kong being the first film she was to star in. That is not, however, how Jack Nicholson and director Bob Rafelson thought of her a few years later – they saw intelligent, vulnerable and immensely talented young actress, and helped her show her true colors in their film The Postman Always Rings Twice. Lange was a revelation as Cora Papadakis, a dazzlingly beautiful and yet tragic woman in the vein of the greatest American femme fatale. This was 1981, almost five years passed since King Kong and the broken deal with De Laurentiis; Jessica Lange could finally took her first steps on the path that lead her to who she is today.
 
Still from "Tootsie"
 
Despite a flood of negative reviews, Guillermin's  King Kong was for Lange, who was praised for being one of few saving graces of the whole picture, quite an introduction to the entertainment industry. Several years before she returned to the United States from Europe, where she had studied the art of being mime, among other things, only to start working as a waitress and a model; thus she was very happy to use the presented opportunity and make a start in films. A couple of years later, when she was praised for The Postman Always Rings Twice and the comedic Tootsie (dir. Sydney Pollack), the message – that she was not another dumb blonde, but a young and ambitious artist with a hunger for challenges – was twice as powerful. This second film brought her an Academy Award® in “Best Supporting Actress” category, while this same year she was also nominated for “Best Actress” Oscar® for her role in Graeme Clifford's  Frances, a harrowing tale of the rise and fall of American thespian Frances Farmer. Those were the parts she was made for – complicated, strong women, ravishing on the outside, while passionate, destructive, sensual, or volatile inside. Such roles made up most of her acting output in the 1980s and the 1990s, when Lange rejected the temptations of Hollywood and made herself a reputation of serious and versatile actress.
 
Still from "Blue Sky"

She starred in a string of movies that provided the viewers looking for more ambitious form of entertainment with the desired quality, though at the same time could not perform big box-office numbers. Lange produced and played the main role in a socially conscious Country (dir. Richard Pearce), a tale of farmer couple's struggle with the hardships of life and the indifference of the banking system. In Karel Reisz's  Sweet Dreams she played, and was uniformly hailed by the critics, Patsy Cline, the tragically deceased American country music legend. In the intense Music Box by Costa-Gavras, Lange showed her acting side as a lawyer who had to defend her father accused of being a war criminal. By contrast, in Far North (dir. Sam Shepard, Lange's longtime partner in private life) she returned to her home state of Minnesota to play another kind of a strong woman with a fragile soul. This does not mean Jessica Lange stayed away from the more commercially viable projects – she made huge impression in both Martin Scorsese's  Cape Fear and Michael Caton-Jones's  Rob Roy – but her instincts made her look for parts such as destructive Carly Marshall from Tony Richardson's  Blue Sky. The role brought her second Oscar®, this time in “Best Actress” category.
 
Still from "Titus"

For Jessica Lange the 90s were also the time of fulfilling her maternal responsibilities (the previous decade she gave birth to two daughters and a son), as well as looking for new acting challenges. Among them a Broadway debut as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, one of Lange's favorite playwrights. At the same time she distanced herself even more from the Hollywood glamor and its imposed limitations, taking such parts as Queen Tamora in Julie Taymor'sTitus, the experimental rereading of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. The first decade of the new century brought Lange another set of challenges, among them becoming the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and taking first steps in the field of artistic photography, though she played supporting characters in Tim Burton's Big Fish, Jim Jarmusch's  Broken Flowers, and a few other projects. Everything changed in 2009, when Jessica Lange moved to the television realm, firstly starring as “Big Eddie” in Michael Sucsy's Grey Gardens, and later on playing in four seasons of the hugely popular Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's anthology series American Horror Story.
 
Still from "American Horror Story"

This new career path that Jessica Lange took upon is leading her in many interesting directions. One of them will be the upcoming TV mini-series Feud, which she produced with Ryan Murphy, Brad Pitt and Susan Sarandon; she is to play the legendary Joan Crawford fighting the equally famous Bette Davis on the set of Robert Aldrich's  What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? The way she re-imagined herself for the “Golden Age of Television” makes a compelling case in looking back at Lange's atypical career. Not only did she resisted being pigeonholed as a cute and feisty blonde bombshell, but also won several other battles with the Hollywood, one of them being imposing stereotypical and far less prestigious roles on actresses of a certain age. Even with all these changes, however, Lange has never betrayed herself, her love for her family, her passion for cinema and admiration for art in general. She was and is an artist fully aware of her responsibilities, fulfilling them with a smile on her face and a spark in her eye. We consider it a true honor that Jessica Lange will visit Bydgoszcz to receive her Krzysztof Kieślowski Award, and share with Camerimage participants her admiration, passion and extensive experience in the areas of film and photography.
 
 

FINANCED BY THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND NATIONAL HERITAGE OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND AS PART OF THE TASK: CO-ORGANIZATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY EnergaCAMERIMAGE 2024

CO-FINANCED BY: THE CITY OF TORUŃ AND KUJAWSKO-POMORSKIE REGION

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