Jill Clayburgh -- a reflection
I recalled Jill this afternoon, reading her obit -- she died so young! One of the comments on it (by someone with the nick, "4ward") was "...Will never forget her carefree faux ballet dance in her panties in 'An Unmarried Woman.'"
And, you know, I likewise remember that dance from 1978, undoubtedly the first woman in panties I'd ever seen in a movie,**
so I googled it. Sure enough, I found a girl named Bonnie, at -- http://peculiarbeautyblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/old-movie-beauty-jill-clayburgh-in.html. She wrote about Jill a year ago,
"...in just her panties (yes, I am obsessed with underwear) and this manages to set the fashion tone of the film for me. Her underwear is just that: plain white cotton underwear (okay, a hint of lace). Jill is quite lovely, but she is not overly sexualized in this scene, or in the film. There is plenty of sex in the movie, and her character is a sexy woman but there is a difference.
"I think that if the same movie was made now, thirty years later, the star would have been in racier underthings, and the camera would have lingered on her breasts, toned abs, etc. Jill's body doesn't looked worked out, or worked on. This film manages to be far sexier than anything recent I have seen."
Yes, there was far more to Jill's life -- movies and Broadway and marriage to Playwright David Rabe, and a 27-year struggle with the leukemia that killed her. One scantily clad appearance is only MY eccentric take, but it WAS memorable.
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** Another movie girl, clad only in panties, who remains in my mind is Scarlett Johansson in 2003's "Lost in Translation," with Bill Murray. Confirming my memory, I googled -- finding reports that Scarlett "said that she was reluctant to be filmed in panties until [Director] Sofia Coppola modeled the panties herself to show her how they would look."
London's Guardian adds "...Coppola's an aesthete. These kind of things aren't negotiable. And in the end, after Coppola had [modeled the panties] personally, and Johansson had admired the way they looked on her director's minuscule frame, she agreed."
Another reviewer hated the film: it was "...as transparently thin as the pink panties that [Scarlett] strips down to whenever she decides to stare wistfully out of her Park Hyatt window."
And, you know, I likewise remember that dance from 1978, undoubtedly the first woman in panties I'd ever seen in a movie,**
so I googled it. Sure enough, I found a girl named Bonnie, at -- http://peculiarbeautyblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/old-movie-beauty-jill-clayburgh-in.html. She wrote about Jill a year ago,
"...in just her panties (yes, I am obsessed with underwear) and this manages to set the fashion tone of the film for me. Her underwear is just that: plain white cotton underwear (okay, a hint of lace). Jill is quite lovely, but she is not overly sexualized in this scene, or in the film. There is plenty of sex in the movie, and her character is a sexy woman but there is a difference.
"I think that if the same movie was made now, thirty years later, the star would have been in racier underthings, and the camera would have lingered on her breasts, toned abs, etc. Jill's body doesn't looked worked out, or worked on. This film manages to be far sexier than anything recent I have seen."
Yes, there was far more to Jill's life -- movies and Broadway and marriage to Playwright David Rabe, and a 27-year struggle with the leukemia that killed her. One scantily clad appearance is only MY eccentric take, but it WAS memorable.
_____________________
** Another movie girl, clad only in panties, who remains in my mind is Scarlett Johansson in 2003's "Lost in Translation," with Bill Murray. Confirming my memory, I googled -- finding reports that Scarlett "said that she was reluctant to be filmed in panties until [Director] Sofia Coppola modeled the panties herself to show her how they would look."
London's Guardian adds "...Coppola's an aesthete. These kind of things aren't negotiable. And in the end, after Coppola had [modeled the panties] personally, and Johansson had admired the way they looked on her director's minuscule frame, she agreed."
Another reviewer hated the film: it was "...as transparently thin as the pink panties that [Scarlett] strips down to whenever she decides to stare wistfully out of her Park Hyatt window."