Linda Manz

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djross
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Linda Manz

Post by djross »

When Linda Manz was a teenager, she gave a remarkable debut performance as the sister in Terrence Malick's masterpiece, Days of Heaven (1978). Here she is doing a tap dance in that movie (which doesn't really show why she was remarkable but if you haven't seen the movie, better to just go see it, if any way possible at the cinema):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cMQBeUu-nc

Her importance to the film is indicated in this 2011 article:

When Malick couldn’t find his 70mm epic in the editing room, he had the crazy-brilliant idea to let his 15-year-old starlet lead the way: “This was later on: They took me into a voice recording studio,” remembers Manz. “No script, nothing, I just watched the movie and rambled on . . . I dunno, they took whatever dialogue they liked.” Laid over the images, these extemporaneous monologues abut God, the Devil, and some kid named Ding Dong (“I just made that up”) gave the movie its perspective—and a surreal humor Malick never matched.


I don't know if I never knew or I just forgot that almost twenty years later the same Linda Manz was in Harmony Korine's great debut film, Gummo (1997), playing the mother, also very memorably. Here she is tapping in that:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjE1lV-ivaQ

She hasn't been in anything since 1997.

Looking closely at the first clip, if I'm not mistaken that's Stuart Margolin sitting in the background (he played Angel Martin in The Rockford Files). If so, it is a kind of continuity error, because he is in the first scene of the movie, in Chicago, playing the factory foreman that is assaulted by Richard Gere (with indeterminate consequences), and it makes no sense for him to be in this scene in Texas.

As an aside, perhaps Criterion took a little too much yellow out of Days of Heaven.

I think I need to see Out of the Blue (1980).

Bojangles
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Re: Linda Manz

Post by Bojangles »

Yup, her voiceover in Days of Heaven is greatest ever. Melancholy and extremely naturalistic. No self-awareness or falsity. It makes sense that it was just her rambling into a microphone, because that's exactly what it sounds like. Ray Liotta in Goodfellas is the only other example of VO I can think of that approaches it.

Never heard of Out of the Blue before but it looks pretty great. I'm gonna track that down.

djross
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Re: Linda Manz

Post by djross »

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Last edited by djross on Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Suture Self
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Re: Linda Manz

Post by Suture Self »

djross wrote:
djross wrote:I think I need to see Out of the Blue (1980).


I was right.

I'm gonna watch this today! I'll post my thoughts in this thread once I have.

djross
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Re: Linda Manz

Post by djross »

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Last edited by djross on Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Suture Self
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Re: Linda Manz

Post by Suture Self »

djross wrote:
Suture Self wrote:I'm gonna watch this today! I'll post my thoughts in this thread once I have.


Change of plans?

I didn't realize I had a really low-quality version of the movie with terrible sound, so it was unwatchable. I stopped after about 10 minutes. However, I found a better quality version just recently so hopefully I'll get around to it sometime soon. Sorry for the tease.

iconogassed
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Re: Linda Manz

Post by iconogassed »

She has passed away, aged 58. Indiewire

Just a few weeks ago I was raving about her with my boss, to whom I'd lend my Gummo DVD. He loved it/her but hadn't made the Days of Heaven connection. Now to force Out of the Blue on him.

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