When it was announced that Meryl Streep would receive an honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, the majority of moviegoers approved en bloc, the minority being surprised that this had not already been done. An exceptional actress, Meryl Streep indeed has incomparable talent and a unique presence. Nominated 21 times for the Oscar, an absolute record, and winner 3 times, she continues to dazzle, but also to surprise, as she enters her fiftieth year of career. Return to an extraordinary journey.
Mary Louise Streep was born in 1949 in New Jersey. An executive in a pharmaceutical company, her father nicknamed her Meryl. An artist, her mother encouraged her to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. Naturally shy in life, the young girl flourishes on stage. At Vassar College, then at Yale University, he was already admired.
Since then, when the name Meryl Streep is mentioned, the headlines jostle: The Deer Hunter (Journey to the end of hell), Kramer vs. Kramer (Kramer vs. Kramer ; first Oscar), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (The mistress of the French lieutenant), Sophie’s Choice (Sophie’s choice ; second Oscar), Silkwood (The Silkwood Mystery), Out of Africa (Memories from Africa), Postcards from the Edge (Happy Kisses from Hollywood), Defending Your Life (It’s the death of me after all), Death Becomes Her (Death suits you so well), The Bridges of Madison County (On the road to Madison), Adaptation, The Hours (Hours), The Devil Wears Prada (The devil wears Prada), The Iron Lady (Iron Woman ; third Oscar), Mamma Mia!, Into the Woods (In the woods), Don’t Look Up (Don’t Look Up. Cosmic denial)…
What makes Meryl Streep so captivating on camera? How are his gifts manifested? Collaborators who have worked with her are launching ideas…
In a documentary on the filming of Kramer vs. Kramerwhere Meryl Streep plays a woman who makes the heartbreaking choice to leave her husband and child for the sake of her mental health, producer Stanley R. Jaffe says:
“It’s there, in the very first shot of the film: Meryl has the best cinema face ever. She inherently exudes an intelligence and goodness that the audience responds to. »
Director of Sophie’s Choicewhere Meryl Streep shocks as a concentration camp survivor haunted by the past, Alan J. Pakula notes on the audio commentary recorded for the DVD release of the film:
“That’s not at all what Meryl looks like in life, or how she expresses herself for that matter. I have never witnessed such a transformation in a film. It’s amazing. When she speaks in Polish, she is someone else. And like the protagonist of the film, I too fell in love with this woman. »
Brilliant and inspiring
Without “falling in love” with your partner in Postcards from the Edge, Shirley MacLaine has a big crush on Meryl Streep. Written by Carrie Fisher based on her autobiographical work, this comedy-drama deals with the tumultuous relationship between a drug-addicted actress and her alcoholic star mother. In his book Dance While You Can (Dance while there’s time), MacLaine remembers a car scene where his character monologues without letting his daughter say a word:
“When I went to watch the scene the next day, Meryl had, in my opinion, upstaged me. She managed to find comic nuances that I didn’t even know existed; perfectly legitimate nuances in relation to his character, the scene, and its balance. This woman is brilliant. For the first time in my life, I felt downgraded. »
Director of the film in question, but also of Silkwood, Heartburn (The burn) And Angels in Americaall with Meryl Streep, Mike Nichols tells the American Film Institute (AFI) during a tribute to the actress:
“Meryl has created, is creating, and will continue to create, a series of unique characters, each with a soul […]. When a great actor or actress appears, it changes several generations, because human behavior is redefined. For her colleagues, Meryl is not just a vital force: her mere presence in a scene multiplies their talent a thousandfold. »
Besides her peers, Meryl Streep inspires filmmakers, sometimes literally. For example, Greta Gerwig admits to Hollywood Reporter having transposed in his adaptation of the novel Little Women (Doctor March’s Four Daughters) a conversation she had with the actress.
“When I started working on this project, Meryl had just agreed to participate in the role of Aunt March, because she loves the novel […]. She told me: “This is what you need to communicate to the public about the situation of women at the time, and the fact that they had no rights over their own children. It’s not just that they couldn’t vote, it’s not just that they practically couldn’t work. They didn’t own anything. If they wanted to leave a marriage, they could leave, but with nothing, not even their children. That was the decision.” So I took that word for word, and I put it in the mouth of the character Florence [Pugh]. »
Acknowledge the Obvious
It goes without saying that critics admire Meryl Streep just as much. Certainly, the actress has her detractors (Pauline Kael hated her beyond belief) and even experienced a brief slump towards the end of the 1980s, when it became fashionable to find her virtuosity annoying.
His consistency in the remarkable quality of his performances, however, ensures his professional longevity, and overcomes the bad faith of his detractors. It was also during this period of backlash that Meryl Streep was honored for the first time at Cannes, when she won the actress prize for A Cry in the Dark (A cry in the night), in the true role of Lindy Chamberlain, an Australian woman wrongly accused of having killed her baby, and whom the population there resented.
On this occasion, the popular critic Roger Ebert wrote:
“In the lead role, Streep is given a thankless task: showing us a woman who has deliberately refused to open up and let herself be known. She succeeds and, of course, there are times when we feel frustrated, because we don’t know what Lindy is thinking or feeling. So we start to hate the character… and we therefore know how the Australian population felt at the time. Streep’s performance is risky, but masterful. »
It should be noted here that, unlike many stars of her stature, Meryl Streep does not fear unsympathetic scores, putting herself at the service of the character rather than her own glory. Like his “inherent intelligence and goodness”, the public undoubtedly perceives this humility as well…
For many, Meryl Streep is quite simply the greatest living actress. Others go further, like his partner in Heartburn and of Ironweed, Jack Nicholson, who, during his speech at the AFI, summed up: “She is perfect. » Keeping this in mind, this honorary Palme d’Or does not constitute yet another reward so much as recognition of the obvious.
François Lévesque is in Cannes at the invitation of the festival and thanks to the support of Telefilm Canada.