Friday, February 3, 2012

watching me watching you - Natalie Portman / Closer





I've loved Mike Nichols' Closer since its release in 2004, and began teaching it every semester in my Intro to Film classes soon thereafter. The beauty of the film's stark mise-en-scène and painfully frank treatment of romantic entanglements made it an instant hit with my undergraduates, who loved to hate the four main characters, and more to the point, loved to look at Natalie Portman. Though we never discussed it at length, I always wanted to explore Portman's "looks" in greater detail in class. Through costuming, make-up, lighting, and mirrors she had an almost defiant anonymity; she was everywhere and no where, every woman and nobody's woman. If you haven't seen it yet, take a look!

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