Ellen Burstyn can make a plain admission of unhappiness more troubling than the noise around it. We rate her for that restraint; the frustration comes when films ask for her authority and give her too little to do.
Fi1m perspective
Sara Goldfarb speaks about her unhappiness in Requiem for a Dream (2000), and Ellen Burstyn lets the words do the work. Darren Aronofsky gives her room here, away from the relentless cutting that can crowd out the people elsewhere in the film. We were moved by that quiet admission because she made the wish for relief seem ordinary and difficult to dismiss. We value her most in scenes like this, where she trusts a plain statement to hold our attention. Her restraint also makes us wish Aronofsky would give the other performers as much time.
Her breakthrough was The Last Picture Show (1971), playing Lois Farrow, followed by Chris MacNeil in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973). Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) gave her the title role. Lead and supporting work continued through the following decades before Requiem for a Dream brought a notable return to a leading part. Women facing emotional or family crises recur in her work. Those parts suit her ability to make strain convincing, though the later tendency to cast her as a mother can narrow what she is asked to do.
David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer (2023) brings her back as Chris MacNeil, with little screen time to spare. She looks towards Victor with the recognition of one parent watching another about to learn something painful, and her monologue briefly gives the sequel someone worth listening to. The film’s quiet opening promises more than its loud, crowded exorcism delivers. Burstyn is good in a poor film, and the script’s treatment of her is its most wasteful decision; we will leave the particulars alone. A familiar face is a thin reason to bring a character back unless there is something for her to do.
For a first encounter, choose Requiem for a Dream, with a warning about its relentless cutting and how punishing it can be. Sara’s quiet admission is reason enough to face it. Do not expect much comfort.
Biography
Ellen Burstyn is an American actress. Born Edna Rae Gillooly on 7 December 1932 in Detroit, Michigan, she began her career on Broadway in the late 1950s, later credited as Ellen McRae and Ellen Burstyn.
She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and received further Oscar nominations for The Last Picture Show (1971), The Exorcist (1973), Same Time, Next Year (1978), Resurrection (1980) and Requiem for a Dream (2000). Burstyn also won a Tony Award for Same Time, Next Year (1975) and two Primetime Emmy Awards, for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2009) and Political Animals (2013).
Her other notable film roles include Interstellar (2014), The Age of Adaline (2015) and Pieces of a Woman (2020). She reprised the role of Chris MacNeil in The Exorcist: Believer (2023).
