Her interpretations
We must confess that the first Rampling´s role we saw, her performance didn't dazzle us. Let's just say the character was too kind-hearted within the viper's nest that parades in Lucchino Visconti's "The Damned." Therefore, we won't be reviewing that role.
When she appears in Liliana Cavani's "The Night Porter," the situation is different; it's a fascinating role, one that could hardly have been played by another actress. Set in 1957 in Vienna, the film depicts the reunion, after 13 years, of Lucia, a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp, with Max, her captor (played by Dirk Bogarde), who has become her lover during her captivity. Rampling is able to show the nuances of the character: in the raccontos, we see the initial fear and disgust at the abuse to which she is subjected, but we also see how the relationship transforms and how she becomes involved (as a causal factor) in the crimes committed there. In the scenes of their reunion and the reestablishment of their relationship, she conveys Lucia's duality: she is a victim, but also an accomplice and, to some extent, a victimizer of her former captor, who, despite his violent behavior, is actually subject to the dynamics and will of his former prisoner.
In Francois Ozon's "The Swimming Pool," Rampling plays a role as an English writer, Sarah, a heavy smoker and drinker, who is in a phase of questioning and annoyance with her novels, bestselling crime novels quickly read by adult women. This becomes evident when she meets one of her readers on the subway and denies being the author of the book she is reading. Faced with this crisis and creative drought, her editor lends her the house he owns in southern France, there she could relax and write. At first, all the intentions are good; she quits smoking and drinking and begins a healthy life. The writing flows, everything is perfect, until one night the editor's daughter, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), arrives. She is a sexually very liberal, hard-drinking, and unstable young woman. It is interesting how the relationship between them develops, too similar to be friends and at apparently very different stages of life. Rampling brilliantly captures, with her trademark sobriety and accuracy, the envy that Julie's youth generates in her compared to her own aging, which is reflected in their interaction around the pool in the house. Eventually, events lead to the establishment of a relationship of complicity and support between them, leaving the question of whether Sarah's Julie existed or was a reflection of herself.
In director Andrew Haigh's "45 Years," Rampling plays Kate, a retiree about to celebrate her 45th wedding anniversary with her husband, Geoff (Tom Courtenay), a dull and rather apathetic man with whom she maintains a good relationship. The film's trigger is a mail addressed to Geoff informing him that, due to the melting of a glacier in Switzerland, the frozen corpse of his youth girlfriend has been found. From this point on, the entire plot develops, from the morbid nostalgia that invades Geoff for his dead girlfriend to the infinite bitterness that overwhelms Kate when she realizes that her entire married life was determined by the loss of her husband. Once again, Rampling is able to convey desolation, hopelessness, and sadness. The expressiveness of her movements and the delivery of her lines manage to compel the viewer to take sides and feel the emptiness she leaves behind, discovering that she was nothing more than a substitute and that, if Geoff had the strength, he would leave her to go rescue the remains of his former love.
We believe Charlotte Rampling is an actress who still has a lot to offer. Although we saw her in Dune in recent years, there are roles in which only she would be capable of embodying the character. One of them is that of the medieval sage Heloise in her old age. Although the film doesn't exist, we hope a screenwriter will take on the subject.
We couldn't find her website, but we did find her fan club page: Fan account.
We invite you to visit our sections of Sound films of the first half of XXth an the novel Travel to the Southwest