There are lots of reasons not to take the Oscars seriously, but here’s a really good one:
Mia Farrow has not only never won an Academy Award, she’s never been nominated!
People often assume she was nominated early on for her amazing performance in “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) but the Oscar attention that year went to the zany supporting player Ruth Gordon for her comeback as one of Rosemary’s devil cultist neighbors at the Dakota.
During her rather astounding decade-long collaboration with Woody Allen, Farrow gave one distinguished performance after another — in comedies and dramas written and directed by her companion — but again the Oscar voters looked to co-stars such as Dianne Wiest and Michael Caine who both won Academy Awards in 1986 for “Hannah and Her Sisters” while Farrow’s anchoring role went unrecognized.
Tonight at 7 at the Fairfield Theatre Company I’m hosting a free “Martini and a Movie” showing of one of my favorite Allen-Farrow pictures, the hilarious 1984 show biz comedy, “Broadway Danny Rose.”
Farrow was cast wildly against type in the role of the tough-talking Mafia widow Tina Vitale and scored what might be the biggest coup of her career to date.
There are perils in personal relationships between directors and actors — a filmmaker can be blinded by his passion and indulge in disastrous casting decisions — but there can also be unexpected triumphs when a director sees something in his muse that no one else has (yet).
Allen knew that although Farrow was often type-cast as rather delicate creatures, she had lots of personal experience with ladies like Tina from her Las Vegas days with first husband Frank Sinatra. The writer-director took a chance on Farrow playing a rather crass moll and the result was nothing short of spectacular. The part released new down-and-dirty comic elements in the actress and also gave her a tougher edge in the comedy byplay with co-star Allen.
The Allen-Farrow partnership eventually exploded in one of the biggest public scandals of the early 1990s, but they left behind a large and unique body of collaborative work.
(Doors will open at 7 tonight at the Fairfield Theatre Company, 70 Sanford St. The movie will start at 8. Admission is free.)
