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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 21, 2018 10:29:56 GMT
Here is an example of poetry in acting and it's not a "big" moment but it illustrates the point I think.
Look how he throws his coat and immediately controls this scene from the start and then the interpretation of the dialog and how it's highlighted by what he doesn't necessarily say but rather how he controls his environment - the piano, mannerisms, certain key words he does say like the "isn't it", how he smiles, nods, how he pointedly stops playing when he talks.
There is no way to know how this scene is supposed to be played on paper but after you see it, you can't imagine it played any other way. That's poetry in the best sense, the mundane seems extraordinary here.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Jul 22, 2018 19:55:40 GMT
Here is an example of poetry in acting and it's not a "big" moment but it illustrates the point I think. Look how he throws his coat and immediately controls this scene from the start and then the interpretation of the dialog and how it's highlighted by what he doesn't necessarily say but rather how he controls his environment - the piano, mannerisms, certain key words he does say like the "isn't it", how he smiles, nods, how he pointedly stops playing when he talks. There is no way to know how this scene is supposed to be played on paper but after you see it, you can't imagine it played any other way. That's poetry in the best sense, the mundane seems extraordinary here. I think it's interesting that in both this scene and the Brando scene from The Fugitive Kind that you posted a while back, the actors use an external sound source (the record player and the piano) as a means of controlling their environment, as you put it. It's two scenes where characters are trying to manipulate the power dynamic through a similar gesture but for different expressive ends.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 22, 2018 20:24:32 GMT
It's a good observation and actors can only attempt to shape scenes in so many ways (and by what the film itself allows and by extension what the director will allow). So external or environmental props are one way if used wisely - and of course, you want to serve the scene, it's not a competition.
Some actors are poetic in how they use language or their voice - but not as many Americans there either - I'm thinking more say of Richard Burton and some are poetic in establishing a performance style in which they work - like some have said Clift here - although he's not really that poetic himself to me except in that one single way.
He in some ways mirrors the sensitive aspect of poetry which is sort of the same but not quite imo because it shuts off every other aspect and the use of the imagination the inspirational side of acting is crucial to me (I gave the example that Brando in anything is more poetic than Clift in everything for example, again that doesn't in and of itself make an actor better but it often makes an actor more interesting to me if I can classify them in that way) .
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2018 1:58:36 GMT
Anjelica Huston's performance in The Dead is basically my definition of "poetic."
Oh, that film. *Swoon*
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 27, 2018 12:39:55 GMT
That clip of Huston illustrates the non-speaking part of acting that we often look past that's great at capturing an essence of something. You often see that type of thing with British actors far more, I spoke of it recently with Anthony Hopkins who can convey more with a profound slight hesitation or by showing you what he's feeling by showing you what he's thinking more than actually merely "reacting" directly.
In fact, it weirdly is sometimes also where some American actors specifically who are not overtly poetic find their most poetic acting. In my first post I mentioned not many Americans have it (at all), but sometimes in the role or in the moment do (Beatty in McCabe & Mrs. Miller).
There is a clip, that I cannot seem to find (if anyone can feel free to post) of Tom Hanks coming into a village in Saving Private Ryan where propaganda is blasting over a loudspeaker and Hanks sort of responds with this silent, wtf, and bemused horrified-comic expression that's one of the most poetic things he's ever done.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Jul 27, 2018 13:19:43 GMT
Rooney Mara
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2018 2:17:18 GMT
Susan Sarandon
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Post by SeanJoyce on Sept 6, 2018 4:25:41 GMT
Ben Johnson
John Cazale
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Post by PromNightCarrie on Sept 9, 2018 0:09:53 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2018 0:30:07 GMT
It's Jean Simmons, who is British.
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Post by stephen on Sept 9, 2018 0:32:50 GMT
For some reason, "poetic" and "tragic" go hand-in-hand. Maggie McNamara and Elizabeth Hartman were textbook definitions of poetry on screen.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2018 0:35:19 GMT
So, so good in A Patch of Blue.
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Post by HELENA MARIA on Sept 9, 2018 1:16:31 GMT
It's Jean Simmons, who is British. She had the dual citizenship
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Post by HELENA MARIA on Sept 9, 2018 1:17:47 GMT
Welcome back Carrie And yes , it's the late Jean Simmons .
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 2, 2019 23:23:09 GMT
I gave Burn After Reading a re-watch (love it) and thought I'd post this scene - this is what I mean about poetic acting and not in the cliched sense but in the imaginatively florid sense - as I said earlier in this thread not many Americans have it. Malkovich who is particularly adept at not being like anybody else - any other American at least. I often talk about how amazing he is at self-loathing which most actors can't do or won't try. Here he's marvelously poetic, watch how he not only speaks to everyone in the room (great touch), how what they say to him sticks in his head (drinking problem!) how he "acts" the crucifixion part of the scene . It's just really marvelous - think how this scene is written vs. played by him.............even rubbing his head at the beginning - its not mannered and its not naturalism it's just......poetic. @tyler and The_Cake_of_Roth (since it's Malkovich and we discussed the self loathing stuff before)
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Post by demille on Apr 3, 2019 7:03:29 GMT
I think Robert Mitchum's acting can be considered poetic, esp in Out if the Past. There is a haunting, world wearniness to him, and a simultaneous heaviness and lightness in his movements, in that performance.
Also, maybe Lon Chaney.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2019 13:02:11 GMT
pacinoyes - I'm not a huge fan of Malkovich - Personally, I think there's an inherent creepiness to him, similar to Kevin Spacey - for instance, I think he's pretty miscast in Dangerous Liaisons, lacking the outer beauty requisite for the part but also the charm (like, who would actually believe THIS man?) - but I love him in Being John Malkovich!!!
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 3, 2019 13:31:35 GMT
pacinoyes - I'm not a huge fan of Malkovich - Personally, I think there's an inherent creepiness to him, similar to Kevin Spacey - for instance, I think he's pretty miscast in Dangerous Liaisons, lacking the outer beauty requisite for the part but also the charm (like, who would actually believe THIS man?) - but I love him in Being John Malkovich!!! Totally know what you mean and actually that's a rather fascinating area to me - why does the audience respond to an actor or not based on an inherent characteristics in the person. Like if you use "audiences love him, he's great/likable/I would watch him read the phone book (no you wouldn't!!) " argument it doesn't hold up. You can't use that for Hanks/Washington/DiCaprio etc. really - I mean it is part of it sure, but in a weird, non-linear way - because sometimes you can't get over it, and "it" can be weirdly irrational at times and not at others. Like this is off topic but I personally can't stand Robert Duvall as a person but I do respond to his acting and have loved him at times ........ although with say Richard Gere, who I often criticize as my "least" favorite actor - it affects everything about him - ie he is only good to me at playing fools/dupes/or complete scumbags/cuckolds.......because he comes off to me as so pompous I'm literally rooting for him to lose completely all the time (Primal Fear, Internal Affairs, Unfaithful).
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Post by TerryMontana on Apr 3, 2019 17:04:15 GMT
I'd argue old Pacino is equally as poetic as young Pacino in a different way - although young Pacino is that perfect storm of actor and movies so maybe not quite. Here's a clip of one of his more poetic older roles..... Just happened to spot this thread. Read it, very interesting. I'm just posting to declare my utter love to Chinese Coffee. Al's performance is amazing and subtle and all. But I liked Orbach more in it.
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Post by theycallmemrfish on Apr 3, 2019 17:10:57 GMT
He might be young, but Robert Pattinson is certainly making a case for himself.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2019 17:12:34 GMT
He might be young, but Robert Pattinson is certainly making a case for himself. Make America Great Britain Again.
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Post by pacinoyes on Apr 22, 2019 18:16:33 GMT
Another very poetic scene imo - these 2 guys evoke 2 other Italian actors who shall remain nameless but:
Look at how this scene is written and how it's played or improvised. These are lifelong friends - when Falk starts to talk Cassavetes backs away because he knows Falk may hit him or something like that - he isn't sure where he's going - and Cassavetes has the gun.....Falk invades his space later........later the conversation gets darker "you make me out a joke to Resnick", so Cassavetes backs away, things have become menacing on the person holding the gun ........Falk doesn't budge his ground later when Cassavetes moves forward, he smiles throughout - and doesn't look at Cassavetes as he tells the stories most painful part. One character is performing (Cassavetes) to get the other character to change - the other character is being sincere (Falk) to get the other to change.
Almost never has a scene like this - and you've seen these scenes a lot - played out with so much happening at once - humor (Cassavetes is laughing at the joke that has hurt Falk "the echo" - Falk is laughing at Cassavetes' "act" trying to justify himself), ominous tension, sadness, misunderstanding, betrayal, compassion (note the sad way Cassavetes touches Falk's arm and looks at him). Where the two actors are in the frame, in relation to each other, and not, and the way the dialog shifts as they fill the frame.
It's less than 2 minutes.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 19, 2019 16:01:41 GMT
Here's a good poetic scene from an actor who sometimes is and sometimes isn't - Duvall often does it by acting the grander emotions of the text or representing something he's not speaking - think Boo Radley, Lonesome Dove, a sparse poetic general "feeling" in some things ("Tomorrow") - the way he "looks" in character at something often he seems to be the only one seeing.
Here however, his acting choices are explicitly poetic - he achieves that effect I described above by acting it not embodying it - you wouldn't necessarily think of Duvall as someone who could play Shakespeare but what is this scene if not Shakespearean - an act of evil, an act of madness, the act takes 1 second but look at how he frames the act before and after - he manages to convey an awful lot here - drunk but not blindly so, love and concern (for her and the kids), then hatred of her - note how he flirts with her and also can't maintain eye contact, he's like a child before and after the event, he's jealous, angry, controlled (he doesn't tell the guy he's going to hurt him as a threat but simply as a statement of fact) and not controlled at all, you realize it in increments......a lesser actor plays this scene by just going from car to field to assault........but Duvall goes 15 places at once and I would venture to say if you've never seen this clip, you won't forget it. It's a poetry and a horror in the acting - it's literally "unspeakable" ......
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Post by eyebrowmorroco on May 26, 2019 10:25:50 GMT
Mickey Rourke
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2019 21:30:12 GMT
An unconventional choice, but I'm going to add Ava Gardner's name in the ring. She's a bit of a blank slate in her signature film (The Barefoot Contessa), but I think her work in films like Show Boat, Bhowani Junction, On the Beach, and The Night of the Iguana are full of intelligence and grace - more "earthy" than "ethereal," but no less sensitive.
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