\n<\/p>\n
The conversation continues as Annette wrestles her flesh free of its spandex prison, pillbox still on head. She\u2019s left standing in her bra, thong, and sheer support pantyhose. The camera shoots Ms. Curtis here from multiple angles, each shot exposing a real, 65-year-old woman\u2019s body, rounded tummy, slight sag, and all.<\/p>\n
Yet the scene is not remarkable because Ms. Curtis lets us see her in her underwear. It\u2019s remarkable because of Annette\u2019s (and Ms. Curtis\u2019s) utter comfort in her own skin. Annette never stops chatting with Shelly, and never makes a move to conceal or cover herself.<\/p>\n
Also remarkable is the director\u2019s refusal to objectify Annette\u2019s body. It\u2019s simply an organic part of the moment. And this, in turn, encourages viewers to take it similarly in stride: It\u2019s just two women talking, and one is half-naked \u2014 as happens every day in gyms and dressing rooms.<\/p>\n
Annette may be a former showgirl taking off her clothes, but this was not a striptease. What gets unveiled in the locker room is not a \u201cbody,\u201d or a collection of fetishized parts, but a person. Annette has performed an anti-striptease.<\/p>\n
Later, Ms. Coppola gives Ms. Curtis a second, poignant scene in which to reimagine \u2014 and undo \u2014 classic showgirl motifs. This time, a possibly drunk Annette, wearing her leg-and-bosom-revealing uniform, climbs atop a casino table and, unbidden, launches into a solo dance to Bonnie Tyler\u2019s \u201cTotal Eclipse of the Heart,\u201d the \u201980s ballad of desperate longing. We can\u2019t tell whether the music is actually playing or if it exists only inside Annette\u2019s head, but it\u2019s immaterial. The dance is a wholly internal experience for her.<\/p>\n
Annette dances with more heart than mastery. She writhes and swivels, clenches and releases her fists, arches her back, runs her hands over her body, closes her eyes in concentration. And although she\u2019s on a tabletop, a makeshift stage, it\u2019s clear she is dancing for herself alone, enjoying her own sensuality, inhabiting her body from within.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n