The Paper's reporter Cheng Xiaojun
After years of battling lung cancer, American actress Linda Manz died on August 14, local time, at the age of 58. Linda Manz's screen debut was to star in the literary film director Terrence Malik's "Days of Heaven", and her acting skills were highly praised by critics, and the starting point was quite high.
Terrence Malik's "Heaven's Day" made Linda Manz, who had never acted in a movie, a "star of tomorrow."
Linda Manz was born in New York City on August 20, 1961. As a child, she had little interest in acting, and it was sophie, her mother, who worked as a cleaning lady in the World Trade Center, who was very eager for her daughter to become a star in the future, so that their somewhat unfortunate little family, whose husband left them and ran away from home when Little Linda was only two years old, could have a day of soaring.
In 1976, Linda, who was studying at an acting school at the behest of her mother, was caught by Terrence Malik and stood out from hundreds of candidates for the audition, winning the role of Linda's younger sister in "Heaven's Day". It is said that Malik chose her because of Linda Manz's sense of maturity that surpassed her peers. "I like your script." The first time she met Malik, she told the director.
"But she basically doesn't know what it's like to make movies." Billy Weber, the film's editor, later recalled, "I thought the names of the actors' characters in the film were their real names in life." As a result, the director had to change the name of the little sister in the script to Linda. Because if you call her another name, she doesn't respond at all. ”
During the filming of the film, director Malik boldly let go and let Linda play according to her own ideas, giving her great freedom to play. Filming, Malik found that Linda's recitation was quite unique, with a detached chic style, so he revised the script, wrote a large narration for Linda, and used it as a clue to connect the whole film, giving "Heaven's Day" a new look. In this sense, without Linda Manz, a newcomer who was only 15 years old at the time, there would be no "Heaven's Day" that we see today. In a media interview in 1979, The director Malik, who has never been polite or accustomed to flattery, also said that Linda Manz is the core of the film, "15 years old, with the maturity of a 40-year-old woman" in her body.
In the end, the film won four nominations at the 1979 Academy Awards, Malik also won the best director honor at the Cannes Film Festival, and Linda Manz's wonderful performance in the film also won her acclaim for Hollywood's "Rising Star". Director Philip Kaufman tailored a role specifically for her and invited her to star in her new film, The Wanderers. Subsequently, she starred for the first time in Dennis Hope's "Out of Blue" directed by Dennis Hope, challenging the role of a young woman who loves rock and roll, and still showed a very good acting skill. Unfortunately, this work was not recognized by critics at that time, and it was not until many years later that it was recognized as a cult masterpiece and its value was re-recognized.
Linda Manz in Dennis Hope's Out of the Blues.
In the 1980s, Linda Manz suddenly chose to retreat. She started a family with cinematographer Bobby Guthrie, had three children, and became a full-time housewife. It wasn't until 1997 that she reappeared as the American independent director Harmony Korine's debut novel, Gummo, and in David Finch's The Game.
Linda Manz in David Finch's Mind Games.
After that, Linda Manz once again fell completely silent, as if all the fame and fortunes of Hollywood were nothing more than floating clouds for her. "At that time, a lot of new actors suddenly emerged, and I also had a bit of a feeling like I was out of the crowd, so I simply stepped back and gave birth to three children." Then I found myself enjoying staying at home cooking and making soups. She said in a brief comeback in 1997 in an interview with the media.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu