Anatomy Of A Performance: Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (2013)

Hello, Bloggers, today I figured I would start a new type of segment where since I like to analyze film, I take a performance and dissect the internalities and such behind it. This one is called Anatomy Of A Performance. For my first segment, I will dive deep into the latest Oscar-winning performance by Cate Blanchett as Jeanette "Jasmine" Francis in Blue Jasmine. Let's take a look:

Throughout the film, the main character tends to get into episodes of anger or anxiety. In those scenes, like the one above, notice how she tends to get all sweaty and she gives a piercing look in her eyes. It is like she is a volcano just waiting to erupt. It isn't shown in the flashback scene above, but Jasmine's husband, played by Alec Baldwin, calms her by approaching her before they are about to make love. Whenever she does get into her episodes, the camera shows her being all isolated until she is near someone, almost like a calming after the storm. To me, this represents how the character of Jasmine is helpless without somebody literally by her side and how she is emotionally dependent on others.

Now in this scene, Jasmine is being offered a marriage proposal by Dwight, played by Peter Sarsgaard. As he is getting close to her, the look on Jasmine's face seems like she is thrilled yet worried about the prospect of getting married. She then pops a pill. To me, the look that she gives and the swallowing of a pill shows how while she has the opportunity to start anew, she feels she could potentially get Dwight wallowed up in her own big storm.

But in the scene from this picture above, Jasmine is left with nobody and not only is she all sweaty, but her mascara is dripping from her eyes and not only show a bit of menace, but she spews out such venomous comments at her sister Ginger and her boyfriend Chili. By looking at Jasmine's appearance in the picture, it is as if her mask has been taken off and the darkness within her has been revealed. With her hair and makeup messy and her body covered in sweat, we get a full glimpse of Jasmine behind her facade that she so desperately tries to "mask" throughout the film. I couldn't find this clip on the search engine on Blogger, so that is why I went with this picture.


So, that is my short look at Cate Blanchett's brilliant performance in Blue Jasmine and the first post on my new segment known as Anatomy Of A Performance. Please let me know what you think of it and write your comments down below. Thanks for reading!