Is it just me, but does Jessica Chastain seem to have appeared from nowhere to become one of the most talented and acclaimed actresses working today?
Is it just me, but does Jessica Chastain seem to have appeared from nowhere to become one of the most talented and acclaimed actresses working today?
Since her film debut in 2008 she’s hardly put a foot wrong, and has been consistently nominated for awards for performances in films such as Jolene, The Help, The Tree of Life, Zero Dark Thirty and Take Shelter, which Rialto Channel is playing this Saturday (Saturday 16th February, 8.30pm).
Take Shelter is a film by writer/director Jeff Nichols about a young father (Michael Shannon) who begins to suffer from visions of an apocalyptic storm. Unsure whether he’s afflicted with the same mental illness that affects his mother, or if these visions are premonitions, he prepares for the worst and in the process risks alienating his devoted wife and deaf six-year-old daughter.
Chastain plays the wife and, as we’ve come to expect, she presents us with a fully formed character that is a joy to watch. Shannon too gives a remarkable performance in what is a suspenseful and well-directed drama.
But back to Chastain - where did she come from? Well, her career hasn’t been as easy as it looks. After graduating from Juilliard, the Yale of acting schools, she “just couldn’t get an audition”. After a variety of guest spots on television shows she scored the lead role in Jolene, about a teenager who spends ten years travelling across America, and roles in The Debt and Take Shelter.
Her big break came thanks to Al Pacino, who hired her to play Salome in an Oscar Wilde play he was starring in and directing at the Wadsworth Theatre in LA. When Terrance Malick was thinking of hiring her for The Tree of Life, it was Al Pacino he rang as a reference, and needless to say the reference was good. Interestingly, Salome was later turned into a film called Wilde Salome - as yet unreleased.
Since then Chastain has graced the biggest film festivals in the world and been nominated for two Oscars. This time she will face off with a woman 12 years her junior, who has been upstaging her at awards recently; Jennifer Lawrence. According to the gossip websites they are fast becoming nemesis, which is a shame as they are two of the most interesting women to watch on screen these days.
Also this week, Rialto Channel is screening a great new Irish crime drama series called Love/Hate, on Mondays at 8.30pm in Rialto’s British Theatre slot. The series kicks off with Darren Treacy (Robert Sheehan) seeking revenge for his brother’s murder and who is slowly dragged into the criminal underworld. The series started last week, but you’ll be able to MySky your way through these first episodes thanks to the occasional repeat.
The first series was criticised for glorifying Dublin gangland criminals, the second series was critically acclaimed, a third series has been filmed and a fourth is in production. Don’t miss these episodes as Rialto Channel will be premiering Series 2 in March.
Also featuring this week is All About My Mother (Sunday 17th February, 8.30pm) - one of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s finest pieces of work, starring Penelope Cruz as a good-hearted nun! If you only catch one of Almodovar’s films in the Director’s Series this month this is the one to watch. A character driven drama not to be missed, it won Almodovar the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999, and an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2000.
Enjoy.