Vanessa Redgrave, that venerable scion of one of the greatest of all acting families, will turn 75 on January 30th. Yet the celebrated star's career is still in full swing. Here, she arrives for the premiere of "Coriolanus" at the Paris Theater in New York on January 17th, 2012. She's been tipped for an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of the title character's mother, Volumnia, in this screen adaptation of the Shakespeare play.
In Contention's critic, Guy Lodge, reports that although he admires the dual contributions of Ralph Fiennes as the lead actor and the director, he is absolutely in awe of Redgrave's performance. After seeing the flick at the Berlin Film Festival, Lodge wrote "It's safe to say she hasn't had a big-screen showcase this generous since 'Howards End' nearly 20 years ago, and still, her work here outstrips that for difficulty and magnitude …. Just listening to the richly controlled tremors and modulations in her voice as she powers her way through a titanic final monologue — turning her son’s political persuasions through reams of exquisite language — is enough to raise hairs on the back of your hands; all too rare are the opportunities to watch our greatest actors wrestle such material on screen."
According to IMDb, on January 30th, 1937 Michael Redgrave was in a production of Hamlet in London and the show's leading man, Laurence Olivier, told the audience during the curtain call that "tonight a great actress was born." Three quarters of a century later, Vanessa Redgrave continues to prove how accurate that prophecy was.
