RENÉE ZELLWEGER PLAYS OVER THE RAINBOW IN 'JUDY'

The Grandma & Claire Fontaine in Judy premiere

Today, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma have gone to the cinema to watch Judy, a 2019 biographical drama film about American singer and actress Judy Garland played by Renée Zellweger who has won the Academy Award for this interpretation.

Claire and The Grandma remember Judy Garland, especially her famous role in The Oz Wizard, a classic film and they love Renée Zellweger. They consider Renée one of the best actresses of the last decades with memorable roles in films like the Bridget Jones's saga, Cold Mountain, Mrs. Potter, Case 39, Jerry Maguire, The Whole Truth, Cinderella Man or Chicago without forgetting other minor roles in movies like Reality bites or Texas chainsaw.

Renée is splendid in this movie and The Grandma recommends watching Judy if you want to discover the difficult life of a Hollywood star who has to fight between being a mother and being one of the most famous and popular stars of the celluloid. A terrible struggle to find love in a loneless world.

More information: The Star

Renée Kathleen Zellweger (born April 25, 1969) is an American actress and producer. She has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two BAFTA Awards.

Born in Texas, Zellweger studied English Literature at UT Austin. Initially aspiring to a career in journalism, she was drawn to acting following her brief work on stage during college.

Academy Award for Judy, 2020

Following her film debut with a minor role in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993), Zellweger's first starring role came with the slasher film Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994). She rose to prominence with starring roles in Jerry Maguire (1996), One True Thing (1998), Me, Myself and Irene (2000), and Nurse Betty (2000), winning her first Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for the lattermost.

For her portrayals of Bridget Jones in the romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Roxie Hart in the musical crime drama Chicago (2002), she garnered consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She reprised her role as Jones in two equally successful sequels, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones's Baby (2016).

Zellweger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a loquacious farmer in the epic drama Cold Mountain (2003).

She followed this with her portrayals of Mae Fox in Cinderella Man (2005) and author Beatrix Potter in Miss Potter (2006). After starring roles in smaller scale films, such as Appaloosa (2008) and Case 39 (2009), she had a six-year hiatus from the screen.

In 2019, Zellweger starred in the Netflix anthology series What/If and garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Judy Garland in the biopic Judy, winning the Academy Award for Best Actress. 

More information: Insider

Judy, also marketed as Judy: Over the Rainbow, is a 2019 biographical drama film about American singer and actress Judy Garland.

Directed by Rupert Goold, it is an adaptation of the Olivier- and Tony-nominated West End and Broadway play End of the Rainbow by Peter Quilter. The film stars Renée Zellweger as Garland, with Jessie Buckley, Finn Wittrock, Rufus Sewell, and Michael Gambon in supporting roles.

The film follows Judy Garland's career during the last year of her life when she relocated her stage career to Britain. After some initial success for a run of sell-out concerts at the Talk of the Town in London, her efforts eventually stop making progress and even start to worsen due to health issues.

Judy premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on 27 September 2019, and in the United Kingdom on 2 October 2019.

It was a critical success, and it grossed $39 million worldwide, before theatres deducted their percentage from ticket sales. The film received positive reviews from critics, with major acclaim drawn towards Zellweger's performance, considered by many to be the finest of her career. For her performance, Zellweger has won several Best Actress awards, including the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and British Academy Film Award.

Renée Zellweger in Judy, 2019

At the outset, Judy Garland is 14 years old and is being told by her studio manager, Louis B. Mayer, that she has a gift other girls do not. Judy's talent at singing is nearly unmatched while she is able to surpass the success of Shirley Temple as a Hollywood child star.  

Judy is then shown in her forties, performing with her two children from her marriage to Sidney Luft, her third husband. Later, Judy and her son and daughter try to check into their hotel but are turned away for previous nonpayment. Because of this, Judy is forced to return home to Luft, who has since divorced her.

At a party, Judy meets Mickey Deans, a nightclub owner, and they become close friends. In a flashback to Judy's teenage years with Mickey Rooney, her studio minder interrupts a date to give Judy amphetamines to help control her appetite. The action returns to 1968, with Judy seeing an agent who tells her that Britain is open to her, but that the U.S. reception to her has cooled and become unworkable due to her growing performance unreliability and moodiness. Judy decides to embark for the U.K., leaving her two children with Luft, which is difficult for her.

In the U.K., substance abuse issues keep her from performing reliably on stage. Judy is late to her London première. Assistants are called upon to check on her health and fix her make-up. The fans are enthusiastic. Her performance is excellent. The film has another flashback to Judy at 14 years old. She complains about being fed with pills to help her meet her schedule demands. Back in London in 1968, she is performing again and starts to sing the Clang, clang, clang... lyrics to The Trolley Song to strong applause.

Judy meets two adoring gay fans at the stage door on her way out and joins them for a late-night snack at their apartment. They bond over their difficulties, and she sings Get Happy while her fan plays the piano. Mickey Deans comes to London on a surprise visit, which cheers her up. Judy still has trouble making her stage performances on time because of substance abuse issues and anxiety. Another flashback shows Mayer talking to her at 15 years of age, with Judy portrayed as exhausted by her childhood schedule, and Mayer portrayed as using emotional abuse and physical intimidation to keep her in line.

More information: The Guardian

Her sponsoring British agent has her examined by a voice specialist medical doctor. Judy says she had a tracheotomy years ago, which weakened her voice. The doctor diagnoses physical and mental exhaustion, which requires rest for recovery. Her relationship with Deans is a support to her personal life, and they marry. He is her fifth husband.

Judy still thinks about her children and suffers from being separated from them. The children, however, are happy in school in California. Deans has bad news about a money deal that fell through, which means she must stay in Britain in order to make ends meet. At her next performance, she passes out on stage and is heckled. Judy ends her singing engagement but returns for the last night on stage, where she asks to perform one last song. She breaks down while singing Over the Rainbow but recovers with the encouragement of supportive fans and is able to complete the performance. Judy asks, You won't forget me, will you? to the audience, who applaud before she ends her performance by saying, Promise you won't. The film's epilogue states that Judy died six months later, in the summer of 1969, at the age of 47.

Judy had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2019. It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September 2019. The film was theatrically released in the United States on 27 September 2019, by Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment, and in the United Kingdom on 2 October 2019, by 20th Century Fox, Pathé's British Distributor.

More information: Standard

Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922-June 22, 1969) was an American actress, singer and dancer. During a career that spanned 45 years, she attained international stardom as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage.

Respected for her versatility, she received an Academy Juvenile Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Special Tony Award, and was the first woman to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for her 1961 live recording Judy at Carnegie Hall.

Garland began performing in vaudeville as a child with her two older sisters and was later signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. She appeared in more than two dozen films for MGM and is best remembered for her portrayal of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Judy Garland

Garland was a frequent on-screen partner of both Mickey Rooney and Gene Kelly and regularly collaborated with director and second husband Vincente Minnelli.

Other notable film appearances during this period include roles in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), The Harvey Girls (1946), Easter Parade (1948), and Summer Stock (1950).  

Garland was released from MGM in 1950, after 15 years with the studio, amid a series of personal struggles that prevented her from fulfilling the terms of her contract. Although her film career became intermittent thereafter, two of Garland's most critically acclaimed performances came later in her career: she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in A Star Is Born (1954) and a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). She also made record-breaking concert appearances, released eight studio albums, and hosted her own Emmy-nominated television series, The Judy Garland Show (1963–1964).

More information: Judy Garland

At age 39, Garland became the youngest and first female recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the film industry. In 1997, Garland was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Several of her recordings have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 1999, the American Film Institute placed her among the 10 greatest female stars of classic American cinema.

Garland struggled in her personal life from an early age. The pressures of early stardom affected her physical and mental health from the time she was a teenager; her self-image was influenced and constantly criticized by film executives who believed that she was physically unattractive and who manipulated her onscreen physical appearance. Throughout her adulthood she was plagued by alcohol and substance abuse as well as financial instability, often owing hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes. Her lifelong struggle with substance abuse ultimately led to her death in London from an accidental barbiturate overdose at age 47.

More information: The Judy Room

If I am a legend, then why am I so lonely?

I just want what everybody wants.

Judy Garland