I’ve been watching Charlotte Rampling in films for years but learned more about her this past month than ever before.
She was featured in an interview on CBS Sunday Morning in January 2016. I had always assumed she was French, because she has lived for most of her adult life, and she’s known as “La Legende.”But she, in fact, an English actress.
Charlotte Rampling had a sister who had committed suicide, someone she was very close to; they even were in a singing group together. She and her father conspired to keep the method of her sister’s death from her mother, which led to Rampling’s nervous breakdown, a depressed state for nearly a decade. But now she’s back, and better.
When asked about the controversy about the fact that, for the second year in a row, there were NO performers of color in the four acting categories in the Academy Awards, Rampling called that criticism “racist to whites” in comments on France’s Radio 1. She later clarified, “I regret that my comments could have been misinterpreted. I simply meant to say that in an ideal world every performance will be given equal opportunities for consideration.” That is something that, in a perfect world, one would not argue.
One of those Oscar nominees this year was Rampling, as Best Actress in the movie 45 Years, which is about a “marriage suddenly destabilized as the couple approach a landmark anniversary.” It is on the list I’d like to see, as it’s scheduled to play at The Spectrum Theatre in Albany.
What HAVE I seen of her films?
Swimming Pool (2003)
The Verdict (1982)
Stardust Memories (1980)
Seriously? That’s it? I would have guessed that there would have been more.