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Jacqueline Bisset

I had to TiVo and just watched the latest installment of Nip/Tuck, which I have to say, has gotten even weirder than I could have imagined. Ryan Murphy, the series creator and writer, seems to feel the only way to capitalize on going far is to go further. There is something to say about dynamic creativity, when ‘pushing the envelope’ means surprising people in a, well, surprising way.

Ryan Murphy

While his ingenuity and daring has been stunning, Murphy (who is also the adapter and director of the recently released film “Running with Scissors”) this season (so far) has shown a distinct lack of nuanced imagination. There is, however, one remarkably good thing about N/P to this point– Jacqueline Bisset‘s presence and performances as Madam/Organ Harvester (I’m not kidding) “James.” Yes, at 61 she is still easily one of the most beautiful women in the world, and what a performance. Talk about nuance. It’s amazing to watch an actor convey ‘creepy’ with a complexity that envelopes fascinating, intriguing, strangely sympathetic and mysterious as well.

Beyond the Bisset storyline, this new season has introduced us to all sorts of freakish things. Hey, don’t get me wrong–I like the challenging, the unusual, the marginal. The fact that I like the marginal is probably why I admire the traditional so much. I think the world needs both, with tradition maintaining our foundation. When you think about it, it’s tradition and general standards that are the only things that make the taboo, well, taboo. Without that benchmark things would get boring (for people like me 😉 pretty darn fast.

Unfortunately, one of the first things we were subjected to this season of N/T was bestiality. Look, when I talk about the marginal, there’s plenty of that without involving animals and children. When you go there, that’s not ‘taboo,’ it’s sick. Involving those who cannot speak for themselves is heinous, and has nothing to do with ‘pushing the envelope’ about sex, and everything to do with the disturbed. And while Murphy has not involved children sexually on the show (thank goodness and let’s hope he doesn’t even remotely go there), we are now dealing with the Joely Richardson character bedding a dwarf. There are just some things I do not want to think about.

Actors like Bisset, whose beauty distracts, I think find themselves in a difficult position when it comes to how they’re cast, the sort of roles they’re offered and ultimately what’s expected of them in front of the camera. She’s had some good roles, but nothing that has really ever fully taken advantage of what she’s capable.

Charlotte Rampling

Charlotte Rampling was very much in the same situation. Decades of roles that were just below her, where you could glimpse her range, but it was either left untouched by the material, or the director, because the camera preferred to just look at them, just have them ‘be.’

Francois Ozon

Rampling’s fortunes changed when she was in her late-50s with a 2001 film called “Under the Sand,” a French independent film about a woman in denial about her husband’s death, directed by a then-just emerging young gay director, Francois Ozon. His star rose because of UTS, which was a tour de force for Rampling, and her re-introduction to film after some time away. Critics here and worldwide have noted it as one of the most powerful and remarkable performances on film. It’s available on DVD and I urge you to see it.

But back to Bisset. She’s of the same generation as Rampling, both English, both creatures of the Sixties. Bisset has adopted America, living in Los Angeles, while Rampling has eschewed Hollywood for primarily the independent film scene in France. While Rampling can find her due there, Bisset’s fortunes rely on the Hollywood milieu of film and television, neither of which are kind to women over 35. So, she has done work including movies for cable television, smaller American independent films, a supporting role here and there in larger budget films. Now she has this stunning turn on Nip/Tuck.

I think N/T’s Murphy may very much be like Francois Ozon. A young gay man who, because of his marginality, is able and willing to go to strange places, new places, creatively. It also seems to be gay men who see and understand the power and creativity of women like Rampling and Bisset, giving them more opportunities than others in the industry. Perhaps it’s because these (particular) men look past the ‘conquest’ framework with women, allowing them to see all that is there, all that is creatively possible.

While I have no doubt Bisset will always find whatever work she wants, the truth of the matter is, an actor of that quality, of a certain age, and with a botox-free beauty that has apparently not come from a bottle, a needle or a scalpel, deserves to be working constantly and seen everywhere. Class, grace and style are missing when it comes to American network television, and dare I say more often than not, in American culture in general. While the American film industry may be hopeless when it comes to women (let’s admit it) it is about time than an older, sexy, and smart woman should be celebrated and promoted with a weekly television series.

And no, you may not think of “The Golden Girls,” for heaven’s sake. That is not of what we speak. Watch Nip/Tuck, rent or buy Bisset’s film “Crime Broker” (an unfortunately low-end Australian flick but her performance is fine) and you’ll see what I’m speaking of when it comes to relevant, edgy and sexy. It’s my generation (just on the edge of the end of the Baby Boomer gen) and the Boomers themselves, who now control the economy and the consumer marketplace. We would watch and support, as we are with Nip/Tuck, something even more mainstream, read Network Television, leading with Jacqueline Bisset.

Rampling once said she stays away from America, and Hollywood in particular, because we think women over 40 are useless and uninteresting. Our film and television casting (and consequently our culture) reaffirms that belief. But since it’s now women over 40 who control the purse strings, and because advertising agencies understand this, perhaps we should insist on a different sort of attitude when it comes to the image of women.