The dialog continues as Annette struggles to free her flesh from its spandex jail, the pillbox nonetheless on her head. It stays in a bra, thong and clear help pantyhose. The digicam captures Ms. Curtis right here from varied angles, every shot revealing the true physique of a 65-year-old lady, spherical stomach, barely saggy and all.
But the scene is unremarkable as a result of Ms. Curtis permits us to see her in her underwear. That is exceptional due to Annette’s (and Mrs. Curtis’s) complete consolation in her personal pores and skin. Annette by no means stops chatting with Shelly and by no means makes a transfer to cowl up or cowl up.
Additionally notable is the director’s refusal to objectify Annette’s physique. It is simply an natural a part of the second. And this, in flip, encourages viewers to take it in the identical means: it is simply two girls speaking, and one is half-naked – as occurs daily in gyms and locker rooms.
Annette could also be a former stripper, however this was no striptease. What’s revealed within the dressing room just isn’t a “physique” or a set of fetishized elements, however an individual. Annette carried out an anti-strip.
Later, Ms. Coppola provides Ms. Curtis a second, poignant scene through which to rethink — and undo — the traditional motifs of feminine dancers. This time, a presumably drunk Annette, wearing her leg-and-chest-baring uniform, climbs onto a on line casino desk and, uninvited, begins a solo dance to Bonnie Tyler’s “Complete Eclipse of the Coronary heart,” the 80s ballad of determined longing . We will not inform if the music is definitely enjoying or simply exists in Annette’s head, however that is irrelevant. Dance is a completely inside expertise for her.
Annette dances with extra coronary heart than ability. She twists and turns, clenches and unclenches her fists, arches her again, runs her arms throughout her physique, closes her eyes in focus. And despite the fact that she is on a desk, an improvised stage, it’s clear that she is dancing for herself, having fun with her personal sensuality, inhabiting her physique from inside.
