Geneviève Bujold
Profile
Geneviève Bujold (born July 1, 1942 in Montréal, Quebec) is a Québécois actress.
Related to famous Québécois strongman, Louis Cyr, Geneviève Bujold was raised by strict Roman Catholic parents who sent her to a convent school for her full twelve years of education. She disliked her school and its strict discipline and escaped the bleak world she was raised in to pursue a career in acting.
Dramatically trained at Montreal's Conservatory of Dramatic Art, she got her big break while on tour with a theatrical company in Paris, France when prominent French director Alain Renais selected her for a role opposite Yves Montand. This led to her staying in France for a time where she made more films with noted French directors such as Louis Malle.
Bujold appeared in a variety of film roles for Canadian and U.S. television earning a 1967 Emmy Award nomination for her performance as Joan of Arc in an NBC "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation. That year, she married director Paul Almond with whom she had a son. In 1968, she was awarded the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as the most promising young actress in French film and starred in Isabel, directed by her husband.
In 1969, she starred opposite Richard Burton in the film, Anne of the Thousand Days. For her powerful performance, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a motion-picture drama as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Her considerable acting skills had the media touting her to become one of the brightest stars but Bujold's temperament led to run-ins with her employer Universal Studios and she walked away from her contract, resulting in a lawsuit. In the ensuing years she gave many sterling performances but never reached the heights to which many believed were possible.
In 1995, she signed to play the lead character Kathryn Janeway in the American television series Star Trek: Voyager. However, she dropped out after filming just a few scenes of Caretaker, the series first episode, stating that the work schedule was too demanding. Kate Mulgrew replaced her.
Geneviève Bujold continues to work in film, primarily with independent production companies. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genevi%E8ve_Bujold [Nov 2004]
Tightrope (1984) - Richard Tuggle
Tightrope (1984) - Richard Tuggle [Amazon.com]
Audiences were a little unprepared for this version of Clint Eastwood when Tightrope, a little ahead of its time, was released in 1984, but today, in the wake of movies like 8mm, it almost seems tame. Eastwood plays a New Orleans cop who likes his loving a little on the rough side, and when a serial killer starts murdering a series of prostitutes whom he has hired for his dalliances in the past, he must confront the fruits of what his dark side begets. Geneviève Bujold costars as a rape-crisis counselor who titillatingly badgers and teases Eastwood where he's most vulnerable. The finale devolves into standard-issue psycho-revenge and woman-in-peril fodder, but the psychological exploration of Eastwood's character is compelling--the quease factor is elevated as he balances his shadow life with his public life as a man with two innocent young daughters. Eastwood isn't afraid to stretch his persona to its limits--when asked why he doesn't try boys as partners, he cryptically replies, "Maybe I have." --David Kronke, amazon.com
Obsession (1976) - Brian De Palma
Obsession (1976) - Brian De Palma [Amazon.com]
Though he had made comedies with Robert De Niro (Hi Mom, Greetings!), a horror movie (Sisters), and a rock musical (Phantom of the Paradise), it wasn't until this 1976 film that Brian De Palma truly announced himself as the heir to Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Paul Schrader, this film is an homage to Vertigo, with its own stylish twists and turns. Cliff Robertson plays a businessman who, while traveling in Italy, meets a young woman (Genevieve Bujold) who is a dead ringer for his late wife, who had been killed in a kidnapping years earlier. As he woos and wins her, the vibes get creepier and creepier because, well, something's not right about this woman. Interestingly, this film came out the same year as De Palma's Carrie, a much more successful movie at the box office. But it was this movie that, for all its flaws, proclaimed De Palma as a stylist with a sure-handed command of visual storytelling. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
Dead Ringers (1988) - David Cronenberg
Dead Ringers (1988) - David Cronenberg [Amazon.com] 
David Cronenberg, for so long an auteur of films typified by schlocky, low-budget splatter effects and a profoundly disturbing intelligence, turned to drama with his 1988 masterpiece "Dead Ringers". It flirts with some of his usual themes - a fusion of the brain and body, mad doctors (with weird names), and decay - but there's a level of sophistication here that tops all of his previous work. Here, special effects are used in the background, as Jeremy Irons gives an utterly compelling (and damn convincing) performance as two twin gynaecologists, whose descent into drugs and madness will surely leave even the most ardent horror viewer deeply disturbed. On one level, it works almost as Shakespearean tragedy, as the two brothers imitate each other in an affair with Genevieve Bujold. When the less confident twin wants to "keep it for myself", it sparks instant dissonance between the disturbingly close kin. On another level, it's a crazed horror film involving bizarre medical instruments, and gynaecological mutations. The truly tragic conclusion leaves the viewer dazed, confused, but above all, deeply emotional, and for that alone it should deserve the term "masterpiece". Other factors that allow it such a term are the truly masterful performances (Cronenberg a master of getting Oscar-contending acting out of even the most mediocre performers), the genius use of special effects, the compellingly cold direction, and Howard Shore's extraordinary score. To say it's not for all tastes is an understatement, as it's probably the darkest film of the past decade, but for those with an interest in grippingly-executed, profoundly disturbing psychological horror/drama, "Dead Ringers" is one of the most marvellous films around. -- Allan Harrison, amazon.com
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