Karen Black makes supporting characters worth following when the film is busy looking elsewhere. We rate her plain, unforced acting highly, and Five Easy Pieces and Nashville give us good reason to pay closer attention.
Fi1m perspective
In Five Easy Pieces (1970), Karen Black makes us want to stay with Rayette Dipesto when the film turns back towards Jack Nicholson. Her devoted waitress could easily exist chiefly to tell us more about the difficult man she stays with. Black plays her with enough emotional directness to make us care about her on her own. We felt frustrated on Rayette's behalf because Black made us want the film to consider what his company costs her. Bob Rafelson's film gives Nicholson plenty of attention; Carole Eastman's screenplay is less curious about the women who receive his dissatisfaction.
Her breakthrough came with Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces, during a period when she was frequently cast as working-class or offbeat women. Those labels say little about how plainly she can show what someone wants. Recalling her advice to Rafelson about playing Rayette, she said: “When you say action, I’ll stop thinking.” The naturalness is what we value: the character's needs remain clear even when the film does not do enough with them.
In Robert Altman's Nashville (1975), Black's contribution includes the music itself. As Connie White, she performs songs she wrote, and her credible country singing is an acting skill worth taking seriously. Altman gives the songs time, allowing us to hear why these people might deserve the attention they crave. Black and Ronee Blakley are among the credited musical contributors, which matters in a film that can laugh at performers without treating their work as a joke. We recommend its crowded company, with a little patience for the stretches that dawdle.
Her later career moved towards horror and independent productions, with her appearance as Mother Firefly in House of 1000 Corpses (2003) bringing renewed interest in her work from new audiences. There were uneven films along the way, and we would not recommend treating her presence as a guarantee. For a starting point, Five Easy Pieces gives the clearest reason to care about her acting. Follow it with Nashville, and allow time to listen as well as watch.
Biography
Karen Black was an American actress, singer and songwriter. Born Karen Blanche Ziegler on 1 July 1939 in Park Ridge, Illinois, she died on 8 August 2013 in Los Angeles.
She made her major film debut in Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1966) after stage work in New York. Black appeared as an acid-tripping prostitute in Easy Rider (1969) and as Rayette Dipesto in Five Easy Pieces (1970), for which she received an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She played Myrtle Wilson in The Great Gatsby (1974), winning a second Golden Globe, and portrayed Connie White, also writing and performing songs, in Robert Altman's Nashville (1975). Her later credits include The Player (1992) and House of 1000 Corpses (2003).
