American Horror Story: Asylum

[ldw]

How is Sevigny in this? Does she get a lot to do, or is she lost in the apparently enormous cast?

Very devastating and powerful work in episode 3. Very disturbing sequences. She is definitely not lost in the cast.

[City Lights]

Very devastating and powerful work in episode 3. Very disturbing sequences. She is definitely not lost in the cast.

Cannot wait til that episode is finally added to On Demand.

[LangeFanForever]

And a dollar for your comeback. I tried to #payitforward but no one was interested. Cheers

I double that, cuz.

Now, back to this thread...

[eoindaly2k11]

I hope if AHS:A stays in Miniseries that Chloe could get her first emmy nomination (I know there's one category). She has been stubbed for so much Big Love and If These Walls Could Talk 2.

[LangeFanForever]

We get a new episode tomorrow night!

[LangeFanForever]

A review of Lange as Constance Langdon in American Horror Story: Murder House:

December 5, 2011 | by *****

Jessica Lange is riveting in Ryan Murphy’s primetime scare-opera hit, American Horror Story. In fact, it’s safe to say she’s a revelation here. Quite a feat when one considers that the veteran actress already has two Oscars, four Golden Globes and one Emmy. What more talent could she possibly have left to reveal or be awarded for? Apparently, lots. Lange not only gives an expert, full-bodied turn, she also offers up one of the most surprising portraits of her career here, toeing various tonal lines and swinging back and forth between Grand Guignol theatre, campy satire and serious drama with as much skill, poise and precision as a trapeze artist.

There’s a “just desserts” quality to the fact that the soon-to-be 63-year-old legend, who has overcome everything from being typecast as a bimbo in her 20’s to being accused of resorting to cosmetic work in her 50’s, returns so equal-parts raw and luminous, comical and graceful, acerbic and seraphic, weathered and irresistible, old and sexy; so earthy and solid and yet so light and iridescent, all at once.
Her flexibility in this role is astonishing. It’s even more impressive when you consider that Lange is nearly a decade older than Bette Davis was when she infamously took out an advertisement seeking employment in Variety, back when 54 was considered an age well past a woman’s prime. And just like Davis during that era, in films like Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte, it’s her adept and assured brilliance in such a severe genre piece – the juxtaposition – that makes her turn so compelling and compulsively watchable here.

Lange spits her lines and holds the eye to such an intense degree, she makes an audience believe anything. What’s more astonishing is that she manages to not only stand out in a “horror show” where sex, murder and the supernatural are common fare, she also elevates and transcends the piece, almost single-handedly turning it into something Shakespearean.

Jack Nicholson once compared her to “a cross between a fawn and a Buick”. The description has never been more apropos than now. There is a lot of the world-weary in Lange who, like a Buick, is both sturdy and sizable. She’s a prized-fighter, bobbing and weaving, jabbing and blocking, her endured hits and losses etched all over her alluring, yet weathered face. She’s solid but also capable of making an audience believe she glides, like a fawn, on air, her hands flitting about, her eyes darting birdlike, to and fro, her movements by turns nervous, lithe and sweeping.

There are the lines and wrinkles, the throaty, smoke-filled voice, the tight-as-a-knot hair twist or the disheveled go-as-you-will mop of tresses, depending on her mood, and, of course, the sharp retro garb – all of it eerily conjuring up a mature version of Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. There’s also the smooth, syrupy voice that rises and falls, half-parts sing-song, half-parts firecracker-in-a-bucket, recalling the deep south, faded memories and lost loved ones, and echoing on about mimosas and hydrangeas. She’s the modern day Blanche Dubois only with a spine of steel and a dark heart far away from her sleeve. She’s a mixture of Tuesday Weld and Gena Rowlands, Kim Stanley and Geraldine Page, but with more grit, an overpowering libido and a hell of a lot more rage.

Constance Langdon is a dichotomous character in the tradition of Tennessee Williams’ tortured heroines. She’s also someone equal parts vile and heartbreaking borne out of the darkest recesses of Murphy’s imagination and, perhaps, memory (Connie Britton claims that of all the characters, Murphy’s disposition most closely resembles this one’s). She’s a faded southern belle from Virginia who moved to Los Angeles in the 1970’s as an aspiring actress. She eventually bore four children, three of which were born deformed, and gave up her dreams of becoming a star in order to raise them. Later, she entangled herself in a web of sex, crime and deceit which included shooting her lover and her maid, both of whom were having an affair together, and having one of her children killed. Additionally, the one child she bore without deformities became responsible for a massacre at his high school and was later shot to death by the police in her home. Another one of her children was killed in a hit-and-run accident, while her fourth child has not been revealed. She’s also an alcoholic, a child abuser and both plays and pays to be “the older woman” to an aspiring model a third her age.

Lange’s undeniable stature as one of the best actresses of her generation and of the modern era is fully intact and blazingly clear here. Film and television critic Matt Zoller Seitz said it best when he wrote, “Lange has never been afraid to let her freak flag fly, and in this show she’s hoisting that baby over her head and twirling it around in figure-eights.” A bit comical and over-the-top an image, but nonetheless true. She expels lines like, “Don’t make me kill you again,” with as much gravitas as one brings to Shakespeare or Williams and when she spits them out she holds the eye and means them. She is so completely and utterly at the top of her game, so easily making us forget that we are watching one of the oldest Hollywood clichés – a distinguished, older actress appearing in a Grand Guignol piece – that one wonders, in fact, if she and Murphy have cooked up this whole debacle for the sole purpose of reminding us of Lange’s undeniable genius. Yes, she’s that good.

The quiet miracle at the heart of this performance, however, is how Lange makes such an ugly, reprehensible character touching and, at times, even likable. Whether Constance Langdon turns out to be the ultimate anti-hero or not, “The real heroism,” as Los Angeles Times critic Peter Rainer once wrote of her Oscar-winning turn in Blue Sky, “is the way Jessica Lange doesn’t hold anything back. She has so much to give. It’s a fierce display.”

[Lawrence of Africa]

I double that, cuz.

Now, back to this thread...

What happened to your career girl? SMH

[LangeFanForever]

What happened to your career girl? SMH

It's called milking the Hollywood tit, hun, without blind and unquenchable ambition governing the way She's having fun and doesn't need anymore accolades. She's a Legend. Walking underbite, however, will never get so far. Pity, though, seeing as she seems to try so hard.

[dlong5665]

It's called milking the Hollywood tit, hun, without blind and unquenchable ambition governing the way She's having fun and doesn't need anymore accolades. She's a Legend. Walking underbite, however, will never get so far. Pity, though, seeing as she seems to try so hard.

I like love/hate you so much.

[LangeFanForever]

I like love/hate you so much.

[BTN]

They showed the flashback to her running over the girl but her acting made it obvious what she was thinking of!

Sarah Paulson was good. The conversion scene was crazy.

Very disturbing ending.

[LangeFanForever]

They showed the flashback to her running over the girl but her acting made it obvious what she was thinking of!

Sarah Paulson was good. The conversion scene was crazy.

Very disturbing ending.

Paulson was beyond 'good'. She was sublime.

[CINNAMON]

Holy shit! The acting this season, ensemble wise, is first rate! The depraved cruelty of sadistic humans is much more frightening than the revenge of ghosts! I really fear for Sister Jude!

[LangeFanForever]

Holy shit! The acting this season, ensemble wise, is first rate! The depraved cruelty of sadistic humans is much more frightening than the revenge of ghosts! I really fear for Sister Jude!

The acting is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G across the board. Aside from Lange, Sarah Paulson and Lily Rabe stand out the most to me.

[veritas]

Literally, if this doesn't win every single Emmy it's nominated for next year...

Sarah Paulson's attempted conversion scene broke. My. Heart. Oh my God.

[Jali]

It's terrible that with this amazing second season the Emmys doesn't have this year sup actor and sup actress, because a lot of actors of this second season would be sure nominees. This is by far the best acted show right now, imo, unbelievable.

[LangeFanForever]

...

Courtesy: Lee Kay Graphics

[City Lights]

Finally caught epidose 3. Lange was and Sevigny was good, too!

So good. The episode itself was kinda overall, but Lange & Sevigny make it worth watching. Cannot wait for episode 4 to finally hit on demand, too. (Why the delay? SO annoying).

[veritas]

Fucking wait for episode four. Off the chains amazing.

[Moviefreak]

J-Lange and Chole have been obviously been fantastic, but so has Lily Rabe.