While viewing the clips comprised during Monday night’s Gala Tribute to Jessica Lange at Lincoln Center, I experienced a reaction I hardly anticipated. In a nutshell, I started to wonder if Lange might be the American actress most taken for granted–the one we know is out there, whom we know is good but whom we just expect to churn out one tight, powerful performance after another. Not that I would say she is consistently brilliant (though it should be noted that her noble tries in crap from King Kong to Hush are worth infinitely more than the sum of the parts surrounding them), but she might be our own Catherine Deneuve–a gorgeous utilitarian icon who works when she wants to, usually choosing good roles and all the while defying fear, age and easy categorization.

Belle of the Ball: Jessica Lange soaks in the love at Monday’s Gala Tribute at Lincoln Center (Photos: STV)
Whatever that means, right? You would have to go back through the films in their entirety to get the nuance (the relatively histrionic nature of Lange’s clips represented the running joke of the evening), but the versatility and the accomplishment is there: an Oscar for “basically playing a girl” in Tootsie, (as longtime Lange friend and colleague Charles Grodin described her onstage); another Oscar for her volatile turn in Blue Sky; nominations for her wildly divergent leading roles in the biopics Sweet Dreams and Frances; and, last night, the Film Society’s accolade, awarded in a low-key celebration inching closer to a canonization with each reverent speaker.
“I love the organization and I love what they stand for,” Lange told The Reeler before the event. “It’s great to be a New Yorker and to be singled out for this particular honor.”
Fair enough, but have you been to one of these before? Do you know what you are in for?
“No, I don’t yet, but–”
A publicist interceded. “Don’t tell her!” she said. “Don’t tell her about the water balloons!”

OK, fine. Three days shy of her 57th birthday, the typically stunning actress occupied a first-tier box in Avery Fisher Hall with a family entourage led by beau Sam Shepard (left), while pals Grodin, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Alan Cumming and Amy Madigan appeared in support and admiration. All of them spoke in Lange’s honor, with a particular gravity overtaking most. Shepard’s tribute was especially touching, with the playwright and actor stopping just short of tears with his declaration, “I tip my hat to her as an artist, and I love her with all my heart.” Cumming’s recollection of shooting Titus with Lange yielded its own awkward “romance”; his praise of her breasts garnered her reaction, “Honey, if your hand wasn’t there, it’d be halfway around my back.”
Bates and Allen lightened things up with their own schtick–“the stick and the olive,” as Bates put it. “Now you might think from watching these clips that Ms. Lange lacks a sense of humor,” she said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
“The Jessica that we have come to know and love is a barrel of laughs,” Allen said.
“What were some of the fun things that she did?” Bates asked Allen, refelcting back to their experience shooting the upcoming Bonneville. They thought it over. And thought. And thought.
“Oh, I remember!” Allen said. “Remember the time we were in her trailer and she told us not to buy any gas from Exxon because their profits were too high?”
“And when she walked into the glass door when we were filming on the houseboat and broke the whole crew up?”
“No, that was you, Kathy. You did that.”
At least they tried, right? Closing out the night, Lange was not to be outdone. “It’s an amazing moment when you sit and you watch bits and pieces of 30 years of what you’ve done, because it still feels like I’m just barely getting started,” she said. “I’m just beginning to learn how to do this incredibly mysterious thing called actiung. And when I hear people talking about how they’ve seen my work or perceived my work over the years, it’s incredibly touching and emotional for me. Because the truth is I never know really how it’s going.
“But I want you to know,” Lange added, pausing. “I really can do comedy.”

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