So what exactly was it that Jodie Foster did at the Golden Globes on Sunday night? Did she come out of the closet without actually saying she was coming out of the closet? Did she announce her retirement from acting? Was she making the case for celebrity privacy in the most public forum imaginable?
The answer to all of the above is: maybe, and I think the confusion was intentional, helpless, and nervy on Foster’s part. The six-minute-plus speech the actress gave upon receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award was as profoundly personal as we’ve gotten from her or likely ever will get. That it was emotional, at points borderline incoherent, is understandable. She was simultaneously addressing a room full of good friends, her ex-partner, their two sons, a nation of busybodies, and a culture that is addicted to both “celebrity” and “reality” without having a firm grip on what either of those constructs means. The speech held multitudes while barely holding itself together.
Comments
I am happy that she won the award. Maybe her speech was important, but I believe she was speaking from her heart, not at the instruction of a publicist.
A little young in the trade for the victory lap award and coming out speeches in ultra gay - firendly Hollywood are sooo 1990s; Jody - pick up your cell phone, the second decade of the new mellennium is calling with a message, " we just don't care that much ."
The speech was fun to watch. True to form, Foster was articulate, fierce, funny, and intelligent. She is, and has always been, a class act.
Thoughtful piece. On one level an artist wants to be judged on the art, not the collection of attributes the artist might possess (Jewish, Christian, Russian, Gay, Black). Sometimes the art itself may be inseparable from those attributes (Solzhenitsyn and Russia are inextricable) but the themes are universal (cruelty, oppression, resilience). At the same time a judgment can be made whether artists have used their standing and influence to further justice within their society and/or in their generation (Dickens yes, Tarintino no). Finally, one can respect the work and the privacy of Jody Foster and still wonder if, as a citizen, she might have done more. Reasonable people can come to different conclusions on that question.
Foster is an excellent actress (not actor). Beyond that, who cares?
May I ask, who cares? Excellent actress. Period. Ty Burr, you just play into the hype by writing an incoherent, what, review? commentary? (This message board refused to let me add the noun for passing gaseous emissions.) The woman went to Yale, I believe; she's more than capable of speaking for herself to anyone who cares about her personal life. (I don't.) And if by "we," when you say "we" all pine for this peek beyond the veil, well, no, "we" don't. I didn't watch the Golden Globes; tens of millions of others didn't either. I expect better from you, Mr. Burr. Usually this sort of idiocy comes from your tag-team partner Wesley Morris.
have you ever seen a bunch of more self absorbed people in in your life?????????????how cares??????
It would appear that you do, despite your disingenuous disclaimer. Sorry! Just saying....
Ty Burr is a WONDERFUL writer. He encompassed everything I thought about the Jodi Foster speech and then some. I was, though, upon listening to the speech trying to wade through its maze and sometimes barely cohent thought. I wondered if it was just me and worried am I cognitively loosing it.
I have great empathy for her probable frustration at the obsessive media and the star-drenched public trying to know that which they have no right TO know. But I thought she could have conveyed that with a less rambling, shorter and more direct presentation so that the entire world to whom she was afterall speaking would understand her thoughts without having to reroll the tape about three times which I did. After the third time I think I extracted all that Ty Burr mentioned.
In the end to me it was a who cares massive ego driven moment. And the fact that she could care less about the Mel Gibson friendship well she may not care but I DO. In truth if Gibson's philosophical belief had its way SHE would not be allowed to conduct the private relationship she has and neither would any of us. Sure, she has the right to do, be and say anything she wants and the way she wants to say it but I am a person too and I don't have to like it.
In truth I have to revist IDMB movie site to refresh my memory of all the films in which she has acted. Honestly, the most memorable of the films and perhaps the best, in my opionon in all these years, was "Taxi Driver." The others, and I could be wrong on this, seem to follow the Hollywood feel good formula script to make a buck in an America that often avoids plot depth and complexity like it avoids a healthful diet!