From Maine to Japan

So Fresca did some posts on women in movies, promping me to ask myself which women came to mind when I thought of my favorite actresses and characters. The ones that most immediately leapt to mind:

Dame Judy Dench as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love. I liked this movie, but it did tend toward the glurgy...but Dench cut through any glurge in her brief appearances as the cynical, world-weary Virgin Queen, raising a dubious eyebrow at the shenanigans of the young lovers.

Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lee Holloway in Secretary. Secretary is a love story about a shy, damaged woman who wants to be dominated sexually, and the man she finally cajoles into doing it. There's lots of room for squick in that description, but Gyllenhaal completely sold her part and made me believe totally that this was what she wanted and what she reveled in. In fact, she was so convincing that I found the end of the movie--a more conventional sort of happy-end where it's fairly clear that the humiliation and BDSM are more safely compartmentalized into the bedroom--rather disappointing.

Katherine Hepburn as Rose Sayer in The African Queen. Resourceful, passionate, intelligent and funny, Rose discovers the depths of her abilities over the course of the movie and ends up grabbing life with both hands, fighting Nazis, and falling in love. She's awesome, and of course Hepburn plays her with zing and energy.

Kim Novak as Madeleine Elster/Judy Barton in Vertigo. Yes, she's a cypher. But what a cypher she is! Novak's tormented performance in the second half as the man she loves slowly remakes and destroys her is stunning and terrifying.