{"id":138909,"date":"2018-08-22T09:22:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T13:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=138909"},"modified":"2018-08-22T09:45:19","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T13:45:19","slug":"r-i-p-barbara-harris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=138909","title":{"rendered":"R.I.P. Barbara Harris"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nIn the final scene in Nashville<\/i>, a homegrown truly American masterpiece, the ditzy hopeful singer Albuquerque, played by Barbara Harris, who has been haunting the periphery of the film, staggering around in her skimpy clothes, waiting for her shot at the big time, finally gets her moment. The film ends with her. It is one of the great scenes in American film, and Altman – who tended to find<\/i> his films as<\/i> he shot them – knew that he had found his ending, found the scene that would continue on through the credits roll. You may think all along that Albuquerque is silly, or delusional, or maybe just a starry-eyed floozy. It doesn’t seem like she could be a “player” at all among the Nashville elite. But when her “chance” appears … she’s ready. I have goosebumps just thinking about the scene, and what she does with it. Albuquerque’s moment in the spotlight is not an unadulterated triumph. Nothing in an Altman film could be. His view was too jaundiced and cynical for that. But he countered that attitude with love and curiosity about the characters, about the actors, about people in general. His “attitude” towards Albuquerque could have been cruel. In a less sensitive filmmaker, she would have been used as a joke, as a symbol for all the delusional singer wannabes who bomb out in their American Idol<\/i> audition, and think they sound awesome. Instead, she emerges as a courageous hero. <\/p>\n

It could be argued that Harris’ stage work was far more important and influential than any film she did. People talk about seeing her on Broadway – and here it is 50 years later and they still remember the impact of seeing her live. It’s amazing. I am sorrowful I never got to have that experience. Well-known to audiences mostly from the original Freaky Friday<\/i>, she also was amazing in Family Plot<\/i>, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? <\/i>, and Plaza Suite<\/i>. Nashville<\/i> gave her an epic scope in which to do her thing, and she rose to the occasion. Her final credit was 20 years ago in Grosse Pointe Blank<\/i>. <\/p>\n

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\nHarris emerged out of the brand-new (at the time) improvisation sketch-comedy scene. A contemporary of Mike Nichols and Elaine May (they were all in an improv troupe together), Harris made her real splash in theatre, appearing on Broadway in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever<\/i>, Oh Dad Poor Dad<\/i>, Mother Courage<\/i>, and 1967’s The Apple Tree<\/i>, for which she won the Tony Award. <\/p>\n

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\nShe was a lifetime member of the Actors Studio. <\/p>\n

But the first thing I thought of when I heard of her passing was that final scene in Nashville<\/i>. Not only does her character get a long-delayed pay off, what she does in that scene is the payoff for the film entire. That’s not a job for an amateur. That’s a job for an actress who can BRING IT, and Harris did. <\/p>\n

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In the final scene in Nashville, a homegrown truly American masterpiece, the ditzy hopeful singer Albuquerque, played by Barbara Harris, who has been haunting the periphery of the film, staggering around in her skimpy clothes, waiting for her shot at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,23],"tags":[388],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138909"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138931,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138909\/revisions\/138931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}