Categories

The Great Acting Blog: “The Shy Poetry Of Irene Jacob”

Irene Jacob, Trois Couleurs: Rouge, bright light
I suppose Irene Jacob will always be inextricably linked with Krzysztof Kieslowski, and the two masterpieces she made with him: The Double Life Of Veronique (for which she won the best actress award at Cannes), and Three Colours: Red, which made her name. I am convinced had Kieslowski lived on, he and Jacob would have made many more films together; the aesthetics of Jacob’s acting and Kieslowski’s cinema are utterly compatible, both marked by an unpretentious poetry and a sensitivity – no other actor is as seemless in Kieslowski’s films as Jacob, infact, the BFI’s Geoff Andrew wrote that Kieslowski was “making those films around her”. However, it could be said that Jacob has never quite reached the heights of those films with Kieslowski since. After Red, the offers poured in, from Europe and Hollywood*, but Jacob instead retreated and took nine months off, spending most of her time “reading Tolstoy, Balzac, Singer and several autobiographies”.She worked with Louis Malle before Kieslowski, and Antonioni after, and latterly delivered a masterpiece of screen acting in Theo Angelopoulos’ The Dust Of Time.

irene jacob, clapper board

 

What is unusual about Jacob on screen, is her shyness. She is never aggressive, or flamboyant, and hardly makes any attempt at intensity, even though her performances are vivid. There is a gentleness about Jacob, with a hint of melancholy. However, there is always joy in her performance, it is the energy source for all her work, and it may be re-shaped in all kinds of ways, such as sadness or confusion, depending on the needs of the moment in the scene. Jacob’s performances flow from her, which sometimes gives her an ecstatic quality. Her performances are unfettered, and unmolested by vanity. There is a sensitivity and delicacy about her which can at times be heartbreaking. Her acting has the absolute ring of truth to it. As with all great actors, it is her essential goodness we respond to. Further, we also sense that her performances are coming from a deep place, they are important to her. Although she is physically small, she has a magnitude of soul, as though there is so much more to be explored, as though we are only seeing a fraction of what she may express.

Jacob, by her own admission, came from a “shy” family, who rarely if ever expressed their feelings. As a result, through much of her childhood, she will have repressed much of what she felt, locking it away somewhere. Then she discovers cinema:

“They made me laugh and cry, and that was exactly what I was waiting for in a film: to awaken me to my feelings”.

Suddenly those repressed feelings are stirred, and the possibility of being an actor, offers the possibility of an escape from introversion, albeit temporarily and under imaginary circumstances (ie – for the duration of the performance), and the possibility of giving expression to that repressed material. Here’s Jacob again: –

“…the protection of a character….it’s the distance that creates the poetry”.

The protection of a character is an interesting point – there is no character, everything the actor expresses is of himself, not of anybody else. In Jacob’s case, an introvert, the objectivity of playing a character, creates a vehicle to transport the repressed material out into the world. However, she is such a captivating actor because there is a tension between her inclination for introversion and the demands of the scene (her performance). The poetry is the repressed material touched off by the actor’s response to the scene, and reconfigured as truthful fiction by the actor’s performance.

Jacob (as with all true actors), possesses a surfeit of thought and feeling brought about by shyness, and from this surfeit, Jacob creates her poetry.

 

* she was offered the lead role in Indecent Proposal but turned it down because she “didn’t feel comfortable with the film’s sensibility”.

 

RELATED

Poetry Of The Mundane

Peter Mullan In My Name Is Joe – Acting Is Poetry

 

Subscribe To The Great Acting Blog

James

No Comments
  • avatar

    source/ 06.04.2023Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] There you can find 72230 more Information to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    passive income investments/ 11.04.2023Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    เว็บตรงไม่มีขั้นต่ำ/ 27.05.2023Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] There you can find 72083 additional Information to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    bio ethanol burner/ 16.10.2023Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More Information here to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    ทางเข้า lsm99/ 07.12.2023Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    site/ 08.12.2023Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More Information here to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    ks lumina pod/ 18.01.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Info on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    url/ 02.02.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More here to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    ทำเว็บไซต์บริษัท/ 08.03.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More here on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    are magic mushrooms legal in india/ 15.04.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Here you will find 70116 more Information to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    Cartel carts/ 02.05.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Find More to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    ks quik/ 06.06.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Find More here on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    เครื่องกำจัดยุงแมลง/ 09.06.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    ฟิล์มกรองแสง/ 20.06.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Here you will find 41898 more Info on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    ks quik/ 20.06.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Here you can find 28824 additional Info on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    poolvilla pattaya/ 07.07.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Find More Information here to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    junk listings/ 19.08.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Info on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    หวยดวงดี แทงหวยออนไลน์หลายแบบ เว็บหวยออนไลน์เว็บตรง/ 23.08.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More on on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    จำหน่ายอะไหล่อุตสาหกรรม/ 05.09.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Here you will find 96784 more Information to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    3+3 사이트/ 21.09.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Find More Information here to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    ซื้อทราย หาดใหญ่/ 25.09.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] There you will find 77674 additional Information to that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    cartel oil oklahoma/ 02.10.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Read More Info here on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    xo666/ 05.10.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] Information on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

  • avatar

    lucabet88/ 22.10.2024Reply

    … [Trackback]

    […] There you will find 62585 more Info on that Topic: jamesdevereaux.com/the-great-acting-blog-the-shy-poetry-of-irene/ […]

Leave a Comment