Is the role of the actress, as the title of Delphine Seyrig’s revelatory documentary from 1981 has it, to be pretty and shut up? Across the films of this collection, the biddable beauty of starlets is actively complicated. Some performers wink at that passive ideal, and engage in that most feminine craft of masquerade. Others, meanwhile, show that women on screen are capable of wildness, weirdness, and unbridled noise.
In Mai Zetterling’s The Girls (1968), Bibi Andersson and Harriet Andersson anarchically embody 1960s feminist rebellion via a production of Lysistrata, an ancient Greek play in which women withdraw sex from men in the pursuit of peace. Fifty years later in Josephine Decker’s Madeleine’s Madeline (2018), the theater covets the emotional extremes of an adolescent actress, sensationally played by Helena Howard.
Maybe inevitably, the other American films in this starry collection turn toward Hollywood. Both born to acting legends, Laura Dern and Melanie Griffith are far-flung from the old glamor of tinseltown in David Lynch’s phantasmagorical Inland Empire (2006) and John Waters’s cult satire Cecil B. Demented (2000). Adoring tributes to golden-age cinemas across the globe, Billy Wilder’s lively mystery Fedora (1978) and Satoshi Kon’s animated wonder Millennium Actress (2001) each tell stories of cinematic icons who are now recluses, reflecting on legacies and lost love.
Meanwhile in France, the psychic lives of arthouse actresses unravel in four films from the 1970s to the present. Romy Schneider won a César for her impressive performance as an object of obsession in Andzrej Żuławski’s That Most Important Thing: Love (1975). As a rising star in Justine Triet’s Sibyl (2019), Adèle Exarchopoulous’s character confronts the same fate as a figure of fascination. Actresses’ shapeshifting tendencies are associated with crime and the occult in Olivier Assayas’s Irma Vep (1996) and Gaspar Noé’s Lux Æterna (2019), striking meta-films that put Maggie Cheung in a burglar’s catsuit and threaten to burn Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg at the stake. Call these talented individuals witches, sirens, or hysterics if you dare: the work of role-playing always throws up fiery questions about femininity, and identity itself.

Is the role of the actress, as the title of Delphine Seyrig&#8217;s revelatory documentary from 1981 has it, to be pretty and shut up? Across the films of this collection, the biddable beauty of starlets is actively complicated. Some performers wink at that passive ideal, and engage in that most feminine craft of masquerade. Others, meanwhile, show that women on screen are capable of wildness, weirdness, and unbridled noise.
In Mai Zetterling&#8217;s The Girls (1968), Bibi Andersson and Harriet Andersson anarchically embody 1960s feminist rebellion via a production of Lysistrata, an ancient Greek play in which women withdraw sex from men in the pursuit of peace. Fifty years later in Josephine Decker&#8217;s Madeleine’s Madeline (2018), the theater covets the emotional extremes of an adolescent actress, sensationally played by Helena Howard.
Maybe inevitably, the other American films in this starry collection turn toward Hollywood. Both born to acting legends, Laura Dern and Melanie Griffith are far-flung from the old glamor of tinseltown in David Lynch&#8217;s phantasmagorical Inland Empire (2006) and John Waters&#8217;s cult satire Cecil B. Demented (2000). Adoring tributes to golden-age cinemas across the globe, Billy Wilder&#8217;s lively mystery Fedora (1978) and Satoshi Kon&#8217;s animated wonder Millennium Actress (2001) each tell stories of cinematic icons who are now recluses, reflecting on legacies and lost love.
Meanwhile in France, the psychic lives of arthouse actresses unravel in four films from the 1970s to the present. Romy Schneider won a César for her impressive performance as an object of obsession in Andzrej Żuławski&#8217;s That Most Important Thing: Love (1975). As a rising star in Justine Triet&#8217;s Sibyl (2019), Adèle Exarchopoulous&#8217;s character confronts the same fate as a figure of fascination. Actresses&#8217; shapeshifting tendencies are associated with crime and the occult in Olivier Assayas&#8217;s Irma Vep (1996) and Gaspar Noé&#8217;s Lux Æterna (2019), striking meta-films that put Maggie Cheung in a burglar&#8217;s catsuit and threaten to burn Beatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg at the stake. Call these talented individuals witches, sirens, or hysterics if you dare: the work of role-playing always throws up fiery questions about femininity, and identity itself.

Role Playing: Actresses on Screen

ROLE PLAYING: ACTRESSES ON SCREEN

From Maggie Cheung to Laura Dern, the stars that grace this collection take an introspective turn, and ask what it is to be an actress. Shining a light on intricacies of performance, masquerade, and fame, these self-reflexive films also stir up burning questions about femininity and identity itself.

From Maggie Cheung to Laura Dern, the stars that grace this collection take an introspective turn, and ask what it is to be an actress. Shining a light on intricacies of performance, masquerade, and fame, these self-reflexive films also stir up burning questions about femininity and identity itself.

Actresses on Screen

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ACTRESSES ON SCREEN

Role Playing:

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ROLE PLAYING:

Contains material that may not be suitable for children or young adults.

strobe lighting

Gaspar Noé

Lux Æterna

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LUX ÆTERNA

self harm

graphic sexual content

Justine Triet

Sibyl

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SIBYL

domestic violence

discriminatory language

Josephine Decker

Madeline's Madeline

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MADELINE'S MADELINE