Most actors probably feel they're living outside their own lives, but it is unlikely that many have felt it to the same heartbreaking degree as Thea (Paprika Steen), the heroine of Martin Pieter Zandvliet's solo directorial debut, Applause.
A celebrated actress, Thea has been battling alcoholism for years. Her addiction led to her divorce eighteen months ago – and the loss of custody of her two sons. A lengthy spell in rehab may have helped a little, but the corrosively intelligent Thea is not the kind of person to suffer fools gladly. Frustration and anger are her only constant companions; at one point, she proclaims with venomous sarcasm, “I love ordinary people. They have such great taste in politics.” The only glimmer of hope is her two sons, with whom she is desperately trying to reconnect.
Applause is partly an anatomy of the uneasy divide between work and real life that afflicts many performers. Pampered at work, Thea is devoid of the most quotidian social skills – buying toys for her sons or giving her ex-husband's new love a present are virtually insurmountable tasks. Meanwhile, her role as Martha in a stage version of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – expertly captured by Zandvliet – forces her to confront uncomfortable truths on a nightly basis.
The film is also perhaps the most grimly honest account of a reformed alcoholic to date. With no home life to speak of, Thea starts hanging out in bars out of habit. Sipping tonic water and rebuffing potential suitors, she has the hangdog expression of a person who's arrived at a house party in a bad mood only to find that she doesn't know anyone and the people who invited her haven't shown up.
Of course, what makes everything work is Paprika Steen. One of the mainstays of Danish cinema (see Adam's Apples and last year's Fear Me Not), Steen is among the finest actresses in Europe, but she's seldom had this kind of role. It's an utterly fearless turn, suffused with regret, rage and selfrecrimination. (Her performance is reminiscent of Judy Davis's work in Gillian Armstrong's High Tide.) It's highly unlikely you'll encounter a performance as brilliant or indelible this year, and you certainly won't find one that surpasses it.
Steve Gravestock
Martin Pieter Zandvliet was born in Denmark and attended the European Film College for editing. In addition to editing several films and television programmes, he co-directed the feature documentary
Angels of Brooklyn (02) and directed the short film
Me as Usual (06).
Applause (09) is his first fiction feature film as a director.