subject: Review Of Applause Movie 2011 [print this page] In New York, it will show at the Beekman Theatre (1271 2nd Ave.) and the Angelika Film Center (18 West Houston St.). On the West Coast, Applause will be shown in Los Angeles at Laemmles Sunset 5 Theatre (8000 Sunset Blvd.), in Beverly Hills at Laemmles Music Hall 3 (9036 Wilshire Blvd.), and in Orange County at the Edwards University Town Center 6 Theatre in Irvine (4245 Campus Drive). Be sure to check back again as the release date gets closer for additional locations.
Recovering alcoholic stage actress, Thea Barfoed (Paprika Steen) has gone through turmoil. Having divorced her husband, Christian (Michael Falch), and relinquished custody of their two boys during her heavy drinking days, Thea wants to start over. As her past alcohol use and indiscretions still haunt her, the reality of a new beginning seems bleak. Thea uses her inner actress's charm and manipulation to convince her ex-husband that she is fully recovered and capable of being a good mother to their children; however, she hasn't completely convinced herself. On stage, Thea plays the binge drinking, ostentatious Martha in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Ironically, her stage character bears an uncanny resemblance to her personal life. As her alcoholism and past regrets hang in the balance, Thea must decide whether to confront her inner demons or to let the show go on.
In the exquisite Danish film Applause, Dogme 95 muse Paprika Steen plays Thea, a successful stage actress and recovering alcoholic trying to get custody of her children. Borrowing some of that Scandinavian movement's most appealing qualities (a dizzily intimate handheld camera, unexpected ellipses, and hesitating focus), director Martin Zandvliet follows Thea in the aprs-coup of the rock-bottom of addiction and maternal abandonment.
Steen's performance is so mesmerizingly nuanced, her face so overwhelmed, almost twitching with complexity, it's like watching a volcanic explosion inside a small, very delicate flask. Her skin, which Thea calls "human packaging," works to camouflage the fractured structure inside her that is always about to collapse. Is she going to flee? Is she going to claw somebody's face? Or lick her lips before coyly exiting the frame? Hers is the body
