Capital Celluloid 2015 - Day 168: Wed Jun 17

Actress (Greene, 2014): ICA Cinema, 6.30pm


Here is the ICA introduction for this highly praised documentary:
Brandy Burre had a recurring role on HBO’s The Wire when she gave up her career to start a family in upstate New York. When she decides to reclaim her life as an actor, the domestic world she’s carefully created crumbles around her.
Using elements of melodrama and cinema verité, Actress is both a present-tense portrait of a dying relationship and an exploration of a complicated woman, performing the role of herself, in a complex-yet-familiar story. It’s a film about starring in the movie of your life.

Chicago Reader review:
Brandy Burre, best known for a recurring role on HBO's The Wire, retired from acting in 2006 to start a family in Beacon, New York, but by the time Robert Greene started shooting this cinema verite documentary, she'd made up her mind to attempt a comeback. The plot thickens when Burre reveals that the father of her two children is moving out because of the affair she's been having, though this aspect of the story is strictly controlled and, rather than pursue it, Greene settles for a sort of rhetorical gloss comparing her roles as a mother and domestic partner to her acting roles. At one point her agent tells her she needs a demo reel to get work in LA; watching her drop tears for the camera as her home life disintegrates, I had to wonder whether this was it.
JR Jones

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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