Vanessa Regrave, Heroine worship
Last night CBS News Sixty Minutes featured an interview with Vanessa Redgrave, and although I was infuriated by Mike Wallace’s conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism during the interview, I was enchanted (as always) by Redgrave. She’s eight years older than I am, and all my life she’s been the woman I wanted to grow up to become. (That is, when I wasn’t wanting to grow up to be Pema Chodron, Barbara Jordan, Mary Oliver, or Audre Lorde: I have been blessed with glorious role-models!) Well, that won’t happen, but we’ve lived by the same ideals. I’m so glad she has been in the world at the same time I was. I could go off on the anti-Zionism/anti-Semitism thing, but I won’t. I relish the way she presents herself in the world, and I also clicked on the photo-essay and sat back and enjoyed every single photograph.
Tags: Books and Movies, Vanessa Redgrave
Kendall
Have you ever seen her in the TV show Nip/Tuck?
She plays the mother of her real-life daughter (Joely Richardson) and she steals every scene she is in. Damn she is a good actress. I remember being in junior high school and being assigned to watch the TV movie she did about the Holocaust, Playing for Time. (Remember the media attention she got for shaving her head?). But my first memory of her was watching the Oscars that year she got booed for her PLO politics–I was in grade school and I had no idea what Palestine was. I asked my parents about it and they tried to explain what was going on but I had no idea and really still don’t. Hmm. Memories. This brings to mind your recent entry about the amount of paper we accumulate. It’s much better to have our memories in our minds as opposed to in a box that might just be washed away in a flood….and it is so wonderful to share some of my Vanessa Redgrave memories with you through your blog.
I’ve never seen Nip/Tuck, but I’ll see if I can get it on DVD. Yes, Playing for Time was deeply moving. You remind me that she has always had the courage to be unbeautiful (on the outside). Not every movie star has that kind of courage. It’s true the Palestine situation is complicated, but if you look at what Edward Said wrote (sadly, he died last year), you’ll see the view that seems most sensible to me. I LOVE what you say about memories and floods. Thanks for your Vanessa Redgrave memories!