In the different sequences, Aviva is played by different actresses, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is forty-three an attempt, apparently, to universalize the theme.

NEWYORKER: Palindromes

Of the twenty-two principal actors, a handful do terrific work here: Jack Lemmon, Bruce Davison, Julianne Moore, Lily Tomlin, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Madeleine Stowe.

NEWYORKER: Short Cuts

Jennifer Jason Leigh, in one of her more somnambulant moods, plays an interactive-game designer named Allegra, who is attacked while showing off her new creation, eXistenZ.

NEWYORKER: Existenz

Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rebecca DeMornay also show up, but only Robert De Niro, as an arson investigator, and Donald Sutherland, as a pyromaniac, rise above the material.

NEWYORKER: Backdraft

Celebrity watchers had complained at the absence of big Hollywood names this year, though those stars who did turn up included Sean Penn, Frances McDormand, Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

CNN: Italian film wins at Cannes

Margot (Nicole Kidman), a novelist with a disconcerting habit of sticking a verbal knife into people, shows up at the house of her unhappy sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who is about to marry an out-of-work rocker (Jack Black).

NEWYORKER: Margot at the Wedding