Comments
"...Geraldine Page, on the other hand, is a revelation. So mannered and tricky years ago in her much praised movie performances in Summer and Smoke and Sweet Bird of Youth, she's a plainer actress now; as the psychotic Eve she unnerves us by letting her face crumple and her unmoored voice drift off into a querulous whine. Heavy and jowly, swathed in flowing gray robes, she is the Manhattan matron in extremis, both pitiful and terrifying."
David Denby, New York, August 14, 1978
"And Geraldine Page makes a magnificent Eve. A heavy, redoubtable woman in immaculate gray suits, she's an ice queen fending off terror and madness. As she struggles with her demons, her face collapses, her forehead wars with her eyes and she pulls her mouth into a knot, as if to keep the agony from spilling out. Page has often been crafty to the point of manipulation; here, we never catch her "acting," and her lived-in anguish is very moving indeed."
Stephen Schiff, Boston Phoenix, August ?, 1978
"The portrait of Eve is a masterful balancing act, a blend of irony and compassion. Geraldine Page's searing performance keeps us in a tense, ambivalent relationship with the character throughout the movie."
Stephen Farber, New West, September 11, 1978
“…. Geraldine Page is playing neurosis incarnate, and the camera is too close to her, especially when her muscles collapse: this failure of discretion makes her performance seem abhorrent."
Pauline Kael, The New Yorker, September 25, 1978
“...Page works with much less affectation than usual and Stapleton with many fewer clichés.”
Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic,
September 9, 1978
“She contributed a performance of exquisite enclosed self-pity to a movie that required exactly and only that, Interiors…”
David Thomson, A Biographical Dictionary of Film,
Second edition, 1981, p. 458
Geraldine Page: "I like the characterization in Interiors. I like the choices that I made. I really admired the degree to which I was able to convey that kind of covered and restrained behavior, where everything had to be almost unexpressed.
Joanmarie Kalter: "I thought it was very interesting the other day when you said that Woody Allen constantly told you to do less and less; the character was, in fact, evading so many things, and so that direction seemed to work very well for the role.
GP: And that's why, when things did burst out of her, they were irrevocable. She never let off any of her steam.
JK: How did you come by the facial expressions that you used?
GP: Who knows? It's very hard to tell what knowledge and associations and skills went into it because there are so many. I think they always come from your subtext, your inner monologue; whatever it is that your character is thinking at any given moment. That's more or less what you see reflected in the facial expressions.
JK: Do you carefully plan out what the character is thinking?
GP: No. I used to, but over the years, I have learned that if I preconceive what the character is thinking, it's not going to be as interesting or as varied as if I just go along and see what the character turns out to be thinking at the moment. Usually, if a line of inner thought seems to be working well, I keep it in. But if something happens to change, then I explore it. And it's wonderful with a role like Eve in Interiors; she's reminiscent of a character in a Chekhov play whose inner life is much more complicated than her outer life; it's just not expressed overtly. While she has very deep, complex inner thoughts, all she's doing is serving tea or something, yet her strong feelings come through even in that very simple behavior.
One of my favorite moments is at the birthday party when I'm sitting there but can't allow myself to show how straining it is to be surrounded by my family. When my son-in-law pours the champagne, I love the way it comes across how I disapprove, how I'm suffering through this: just the merest, tiniest fraction of a drop spills on my hand, but I wipe it off with such long suffering. I like that....
Geraldine Page
Interviewed by JoanMarie Kalter,
Actors on Acting: Performing in Theatre
& Film Today, 1979, p. 27
"She was at that time our greatest actress in that age group. And she seemed perfect for the part. She's very dynamic and expressive and very refined. In general, I like to trust the actors; when an actor is doing something that's good and meaningful, I just like to leave the camera on them and let them be there and not bother them. And Geraldine Page was that kind of actress, somebody to trust."
Woody Allen
Interviewed by Stig Bjorkman,
Woody Allen on Woody Allen (1993)
"When Woody gave her direction, she smiled, nodded her head politely, then completely disregarded everything he said...."
Diane Keaton, Then Again, p. 144
(Random House, 2012)
David Denby, New York, August 14, 1978
"And Geraldine Page makes a magnificent Eve. A heavy, redoubtable woman in immaculate gray suits, she's an ice queen fending off terror and madness. As she struggles with her demons, her face collapses, her forehead wars with her eyes and she pulls her mouth into a knot, as if to keep the agony from spilling out. Page has often been crafty to the point of manipulation; here, we never catch her "acting," and her lived-in anguish is very moving indeed."
Stephen Schiff, Boston Phoenix, August ?, 1978
"The portrait of Eve is a masterful balancing act, a blend of irony and compassion. Geraldine Page's searing performance keeps us in a tense, ambivalent relationship with the character throughout the movie."
Stephen Farber, New West, September 11, 1978
“…. Geraldine Page is playing neurosis incarnate, and the camera is too close to her, especially when her muscles collapse: this failure of discretion makes her performance seem abhorrent."
Pauline Kael, The New Yorker, September 25, 1978
“...Page works with much less affectation than usual and Stapleton with many fewer clichés.”
Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic,
September 9, 1978
“She contributed a performance of exquisite enclosed self-pity to a movie that required exactly and only that, Interiors…”
David Thomson, A Biographical Dictionary of Film,
Second edition, 1981, p. 458
Geraldine Page: "I like the characterization in Interiors. I like the choices that I made. I really admired the degree to which I was able to convey that kind of covered and restrained behavior, where everything had to be almost unexpressed.
Joanmarie Kalter: "I thought it was very interesting the other day when you said that Woody Allen constantly told you to do less and less; the character was, in fact, evading so many things, and so that direction seemed to work very well for the role.
GP: And that's why, when things did burst out of her, they were irrevocable. She never let off any of her steam.
JK: How did you come by the facial expressions that you used?
GP: Who knows? It's very hard to tell what knowledge and associations and skills went into it because there are so many. I think they always come from your subtext, your inner monologue; whatever it is that your character is thinking at any given moment. That's more or less what you see reflected in the facial expressions.
JK: Do you carefully plan out what the character is thinking?
GP: No. I used to, but over the years, I have learned that if I preconceive what the character is thinking, it's not going to be as interesting or as varied as if I just go along and see what the character turns out to be thinking at the moment. Usually, if a line of inner thought seems to be working well, I keep it in. But if something happens to change, then I explore it. And it's wonderful with a role like Eve in Interiors; she's reminiscent of a character in a Chekhov play whose inner life is much more complicated than her outer life; it's just not expressed overtly. While she has very deep, complex inner thoughts, all she's doing is serving tea or something, yet her strong feelings come through even in that very simple behavior.
One of my favorite moments is at the birthday party when I'm sitting there but can't allow myself to show how straining it is to be surrounded by my family. When my son-in-law pours the champagne, I love the way it comes across how I disapprove, how I'm suffering through this: just the merest, tiniest fraction of a drop spills on my hand, but I wipe it off with such long suffering. I like that....
Geraldine Page
Interviewed by JoanMarie Kalter,
Actors on Acting: Performing in Theatre
& Film Today, 1979, p. 27
"She was at that time our greatest actress in that age group. And she seemed perfect for the part. She's very dynamic and expressive and very refined. In general, I like to trust the actors; when an actor is doing something that's good and meaningful, I just like to leave the camera on them and let them be there and not bother them. And Geraldine Page was that kind of actress, somebody to trust."
Woody Allen
Interviewed by Stig Bjorkman,
Woody Allen on Woody Allen (1993)
"When Woody gave her direction, she smiled, nodded her head politely, then completely disregarded everything he said...."
Diane Keaton, Then Again, p. 144
(Random House, 2012)
posted by Intersections28 - David Gibson at
11:28 AM
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