Ghostworld: Devil Got My Woman

Beautiful scene from Ghostworld". Wonderfully directed by Terry Zwigoff. Wonderfully acted by by Thora Birch.

Enid (Thora Birch) puts on a old blues record she bought from Seymour. The song is "Devil Got My Woman" by Skip James (1931). The music is powerful, raw, and very very real. Its clear Enid has never heard music quite like this. She listens, deeply. As soon as the song ends, she plays it again. She will listen to it over and over. It changes the way she thinks of Seymour from someone she thought of just as doofus to make fun of, to a friend and confidant, someone she will see as having value.

As DVD Journal critic Dawn Taylor stated perfectly: "..Thora Birch's poignant portrayal of Enid is dead-on — she captures the character from Dan Clowes' graphic novel and then piles on layers of nuance, making Enid snotty, hard as nails, smart, vulnerable, passionate, clueless, plain, blasé, beautiful ... in short, giving an insanely complex and believable performance, far more deserving (in this reviewer's opinion, anyway) of a Golden Globe or Oscar than any other actress in 2001. "

If you want to see the rest of the scene its here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMVK16-e6GQ&feature=related

(All rights are of the original owners; short clip for educational and/or artistic commentary; fair use)

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Ghostworld
• ghost
• world
• Skip
• James
• Devil
• Got
• My
• Woman
• records
• vinyl
• 78's
• blues
• movies
• films
• enid
• thora
• birch
• terry
• zwigoff
• independant
• clowes

[richmonksgtr]

This is my favorite scene in an under-appreciated great movie. The same way that Enid could listen to the song over and over, I can watch her reaction to hearing it for the first time over and over.

[wisesatyr72]

super awesome movie..

[ianmacsmith]

Blues Hammer destroys this song with its blues fury!

[Technochick95]

All I wanted to do after watching this movie is cry, it's...beautiful.

[peacemonger1967]

I heard Blues Hammer broke up. at least we have Pickin' Cotton Blues@Netalies

[LeLimeLine]

If you guys like authentic blues, you really ought to listen to Blues Hammer. Thumbs up so everyone knows to check them out. Seriously, they're great.

[Netalies]

Love this movie. I wish there more movies like this one.

[Naddycat]

Love love love it

[mikeyole12345]

This movie made me cry... It's such a good movie.

[targetcxd]

This was me, when I fist heard Jessica Lea Mayfield, or Laura Gibson on an NPR playlist. I sat there, head tilted back hitting replay over and over. Chest caved in, I breathed out a slow, huge, thick puff of smoke... except I wasn't smoking. It felt like I was though.