In the darkness of the room we can see Jessica Chastain holding her hands on her cheeks, smiling at herself with tenderness but there is something strange in her gaze as a sequence of The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick. The lights come back on in the room and she bursts into tears: I haven’t seen my favorite film in ten years as something separate from my career. a poem in images. I considered the script, Malick told me not to read it. as if he were writing on water, his films are life that always moves, he told me that I had to be alive and present in the moment, so that you discover the magic.
The sequence, during the meeting at the Film Festival moderated by director Antonio Monda, ends with Jessica saying: Forgive me. And this brings us back to the heart of The Eyes of Tammy Page by Michael Showalter, with the unrecognizable redhead actress for exaggerated make-up & hair and long false eyelashes that were the trademark of the television predictor who gives the title to the film, followed yesterday at the Auditorium also by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.
In the 70s and 80s Tammy and her husband Jim Bakker created the best known religious TV network in the US and founded a theme park, a sort of Christian Disneyland. They preached for the least and lived in splendor trying to reconcile consumerism and devotion. They believed in Jesus Christ and the god of money. They were accused of fraud. They ended up overwhelmed by greed, self-centeredness and tax wrongdoing. Jessica Chastain in the film asks her husband, also involved in a sex scandal, played by Andrew Garfield: We are not doing harm, are we ?. And he: a question ?. Tammy Page in the TV shows was looking for empathy in a frenzied way with the faithful, which at one point she calls audience. I am sure she was sincere in her faith. She had grown up in the conservative Pentecostal church, where wearing makeup was not allowed. The father left the family, he was the embodiment of shame, Tammy was not worthy of being loved. He knew what it feels like and wanted everyone to feel love.
He loved luxury, an American Wanna Marchi with a crucifix in his hand. But poor and rich for her had to be equally loved. It was not on the path of feminism. Childish and naive, she mixed laughter with tears. She had a feeling with people, she was limitless, open, vulnerable, exposed… I felt so empathetic that after a while I wanted to be on my own and eat ice cream.
Jessica reproduces the shrill, shrill voice of Tammy, who passed away in 2007. She met her children: They grew up without privacy, they carry their surname like a scar. They were terrified, I reassured them, I didn’t want to tell the scandals. And the diaphanous-skinned actress stands up taking her moon charm with her.
October 14, 2021 (change October 14, 2021 | 19:55)
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