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Post by pacinoyes on May 26, 2019 23:03:58 GMT
The most poetic American male performance in quite some time by arguably the best (and on the most amazing hot streak) American film male actor of that 80s generation. The entire film is conceived as a poetic expression of its subject even. Not merely fantastic, but also amazing the Academy wouldn't look past it and recognized it.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 28, 2019 14:50:41 GMT
Like Duvall, here's 2 guys I wouldn't generally call poetic but who can be in certain circumstances: Dustin Hoffman - the absolute smartest actor of his 70s generation at his peak - and Denzel Washington the absolute iconic actor of his 80s generation.
Here they do what all good actors should and as I said at the start of this thread - they organically use their whole environment: props, body and facial language in relation to space and positioning etc. - they even use more or less the same prop here - but in a way that's appropriate to their own character - it's not just a stunt or a mannerism, at all.
Hoffman's is the better written scene and opposite Streep no less, and it's HER scene even on paper - he slowly builds in simmering tension and release. Washington on the other hand is set off by one specific word, the word "police" and the fact that he has to talk to a police officer, in close proximity, at all.
One does it at the end that makes you reconsider what you've just heard; one closer to the beginning which makes you focus more closely on what you will hear.
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Post by TerryMontana on May 28, 2019 15:31:05 GMT
The way he's building the tension, the way he's moving the glass before he breaks it...
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Post by pacinoyes on May 29, 2019 16:49:59 GMT
See, here's the thing...........there's good poetry and there's bad poetry - but when you describe it in an actor, you ONLY mean it as a positive. You wouldn't say "Brando is so poetic and he's off in this performance" .......well, with that in mind this is a definition of the word too: having an imaginative or sensitively emotional style of expressionThis is a performance I just reviewed in most recent films seen thread and praised Cage for (nobody cared of course, except Mattsby, lol). For much of the film he is funny, restrained, and here, he is decidedly not - but how would you play it smarty pants? - how would any number of (boring as fnck) actors routinely called "great" on here (are they really?) play it. You might see this scene and think - oh it's Cage doing that Cage thing yawn - but not really and you'd be wrong just like you would if you thought the slapping of the glass/cup didn't evoke the poetic aspects of environment/space/context. In this film, in the dynamics of this scene, and for this character in relation to his co-star it's absolutely...........poetic.
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Post by TerryMontana on May 29, 2019 16:58:44 GMT
See, here's the thing...........there's good poetry and there's bad poetry - but when you describe it in an actor, you ONLY mean it as a positive. You wouldn't say "Brando is so poetic and he's off in this performance" .......well, with that in mind this is a definition of the word too: having an imaginative or sensitively emotional style of expressionThis is a performance I just reviewed in most recent films seen thread and praised Cage for (nobody cared of course, except Mattsby , lol). For much of the film he is funny, restrained, and here, he is decidedly not - but how would you play it smarty pants? - how would any number of (boring as fnck) actors routinely called "great" on here (are they really?) play it. You might see this scene and think - oh it's Cage doing that Cage thing yawn - but not really and you'd be wrong just like you would if you thought the slapping of the glass/cup didn't evoke the poetic aspects of environment/space/context. In this film, in the dynamics of this scene, and for this character in relation to his co-star it's absolutely...........poetic. So, apparently you needed all this prologue to say Nic Cage gave a good performance in his life (kidding obviously...)
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 2, 2019 22:32:51 GMT
An actor that isn't usually that poetic like some of the ones above - or not as much as you'd think - anyway. But clearly he has his moments - and this scene is one.
Another greatly acted pair of speeches from a guy who when he's on his game is one of the best at it. He has a lot more famous speeches than these ones but that isn't the point - this is a nothing movie, and nothing scenes, and he doesn't have to do anything here, but he does so much. I saw this movie once when it first came out .........I still remember both speeches.
Speech 1 : He is funny, menacing, wise, scary - changing the depth of his voice, his inflection, his tone, so he is clearly understood. The speech is only for him and the kid.
Speech 2 : The speech is for the whole room but now, it's for himself ..........he implements speech #1 for himself now.
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Post by TerryMontana on Jun 3, 2019 17:47:23 GMT
I thought I should post the Weapon of Choice video clip by Fatboy Slim I really love Walken, he's in my top-10 actors of his era and what he did in The Deer Hunter was 100% pure art!!! Unfortunately, he seems to accept every stupid role he's offered. His crap list is huge. I mean, Balls Of Fury??? Oh, boy...
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jun 3, 2019 19:52:34 GMT
the conversation isn't complete without Chalamet.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 5, 2019 16:28:22 GMT
I don't think Sam Jackson is poetic that much (maybe as Gator he was - that's one for him) but he's excellent in this, one of his best.
But TLJ is poetic far more than you'd think - and at times is achingly so - like in the Duvall example.......he is here, very much so, and he uses actor techniques - no blinking, rueful slight laugh, quavering voice, reactions and busy hands that hold on to nothing to clue you in and then catch up with the (great) text. What is this scene if not a short version of Barton Fink really - you concerned yourself with Art while Hitler rose to power is a theme in that film........Jones here articulates that too - he is articulating the death of poetry to the rise of the horribly prosaic, but acting it poetically.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 6, 2019 21:16:47 GMT
I realized I've posted a lot in this thread but no females. That's because if American males aren't poetic much - females even less so - they rarely get room to inspire such leeway and creative sparks. Streep.....Williams nowadays....some others...etc.
But here's one - don't watch as you if you haven't seen, it's the ending - and Geraldine Page - the Streep of her day and a GOAT actress contender across the 3 mediums grabs this scene and acts the hell out of it. If you're going to be a poet you have to do something - very few are ever poetic and underplaying (though that's possible, Streep in several scenes in Bridges of Madison County is one for that).
In less than 2 minutes Page goes all across the range of human emotions and she fills you with a great aching sadness - the effect on you in this film is the effect that good poetry can have on you too.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 7, 2019 10:06:49 GMT
I've often talked about Sissy Spacek and how she's one of those very few performers - male or female - that has no discernible ego in her performances. Most of her great stuff seems to come from within her - she can seem open and warm or turn it inward so that it curdles into something wan and distant.
Here's a great example of the opposite of the Gerladine Page clip - and what I mentioned about Streep at times in Bridges Of Madison County - Spacek is underplaying poetry here - really rare for an American. With Tom Wilkinson (British though) here in performances that were arguably the best of the Oscar nominees in the respective categories - they achieve that almost perfect balance of what goes unspoken in poetry, the unsaid said .......
Or as T.S. Eliot said memorably in a poem -
If one, settling a pillow by her head Should say: “That is not what I meant at all; That is not it, at all.”
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Post by hugobolso on Jun 8, 2019 13:55:10 GMT
What exactly poetic means?
When I compare an actor to a Poem I think in Isabelle Adjani or Anouk Aimee. American comparisons are Winona Ryder and Anne Bancroft.
Maybe Glenn Close. A young Michelle Pfeiffer
Poetic Men are even more difficult. Because I associate them too a maudit poet ir a young Werther? Chamalet or Joseph Gordon Levitt are american? Ir someone cynic as hell like Paul Newman or Jack Nicholson. MAY BE AL PACINO.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 8, 2019 14:26:24 GMT
Today is Piper Laurie poetic day (say that fast 4 times) I guess - featured in the Best Actress Across 3 Mediums thread, she also dovetails with yesterday's high priestess of poetry Sissy Spacek. Watch this beautifully acted scene - and watch it just for Laurie this time. She's a poetic tour de force here flowery and expressive never for one second off. This scene could have gone very, very wrong, instead it's a classic in every way.
On the street by their house there is a white cross, the mirror is cracked, so De Palma in full genius mode here obviously shoots it all "off" and distorted, like a cracked mirror - everything we see is fractured/split - the Laurie character remembered for being famously crazy in this film is actually achingly sad - she uses God, fear, her own self abuse, deception and bullying (I might have know they'd be red!), vulgarity, and by the end everything she's been using is turned back on to her (real "abuse", her own fears and deceptions, her own lies, her own vulgarity which is in a way a mocking of God of course).
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Post by Deleted on Jun 9, 2019 22:31:18 GMT
I think Bradley Cooper's performance in A Star Is Born is very poetic - such soulful, sensitive work. Interesting since Julie Christie (the most "poetic" of all actresses) is his cinematic crush -
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 12, 2019 10:25:10 GMT
This scene, more on the Laura Linney side since this is her scene - although Penn at times, in other roles and even here is one of the most poetic American actors too (and I mentioned him in my first post in this thread even).
This is of course, the great "Lady Macbeth" scene and not only is Linney all sorts of whispering menace/comfort here and she shrewdly couches her what she says with a poetic depth of feeling - you couldn't imagine her being this nuanced with the bold underlining they do in say something more literal like Ozark (I like it but it's ridiculous).
Nothing Linney says here is a lie..........yet all of it is a lie.....like a poem, how do you interpret - the scene doesn't have to be played this way and Sean Penn is the star of the picture but he has to merely react here. In Shakespeare, in each and every scene he wrote, particularly Macbeth actually, one actor is the driving force, the others, reactionary forces. The same way in a poem there's very often one central theme, surrounded by tangential ones.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 13, 2019 16:46:07 GMT
Ok, I didn't post any females for a while but I'm on a roll : Page/Linney/Spacek/Laurie and now Laurie Dern in combination with previously mentioned Cage and especially Dafoe. It's pretty hard not to be poetic when Lynch is in full Lynch-mode - all poetic undercurrents are under the surface madness, sexuality, violence, danger, odd humor. Like when you read a poem and can't quite get exactly why it's gotten to you .......I always think of this scene when a director says "Cut!" - how does he know he got it "this" right?
Laura Dern even before this film, in Smooth Talk with Treat Williams had an unusual, aching quality about her and obviously people will pick her later stuff too.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2019 0:37:53 GMT
Have we mentioned Jodie Foster? I think one of her most divisive performances is also her most poetic: Nell (her best ever IMO - and in hers!).
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Post by TerryMontana on Jun 15, 2019 13:27:11 GMT
Beloved Jodie!!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2019 1:32:49 GMT
Another possibly odd choice, but I have to mention Shailene Woodley - out of all the twenty-something actresses working today, I think she is the most grounded and her performances are so tangibly "human" - poignant and always relatable. She's doing her best work ever on Big Little Lies, and is more than holding her own against the likes of Kidman and Streep. She has such expressive eyes.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 27, 2019 18:07:40 GMT
Jeffrey Wright is a stupendous actor obviously and here on Boardwalk Empire he gives a way to poetically relent and submit to another actor in a scene - because poetry reveals truth and he very early on knows "the truth". He's the focus of the scene but he has far less text - so watch how he listens - when the other man says "daylight" his eyes almost imperceptibly look up. At other times he's acting like the man he sort of has constructed himself to be, but when things get mentioned he didn't think the other man knew - the murder - it's all on his face, unintentionally. He's a controlled man but some control is lost there now ........the last 2 words of this scene - 2 words only - couldn't be more poetic. He has started building to that last line, far earlier: For TerryMontana who is a big fan of Wright iirc:
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Post by stephen on Jun 27, 2019 18:15:58 GMT
That Boardwalk clip pisses me off when I remember how fucking great it was for four seasons and how they aborted its greatness to a truncated fifth season instead of the three-season arc that would've brought everything to the rightful conclusion. Narcisse, Rothstein, Margaret, the rise of Luciano/Capone/Lansky in the wake of their mentors' deaths and retirement, the hijinks that would've occurred with Eli and Van Alden . . . goddamn you, HBO, and goddamn you, Vinyl.
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Post by TerryMontana on Jun 27, 2019 20:20:31 GMT
Jeffrey Wright is a stupendous actor obviously and here on Boardwalk Empire he gives a way to poetically relent and submit to another actor in a scene - because poetry reveals truth and he very early on knows "the truth". He's the focus of the scene but he has far less text - so watch how he listens - when the other man says "daylight" his eyes almost imperceptibly look up. At other times he's acting like the man he sort of has constructed himself to be, but when things get mentioned he didn't think the other man knew - the murder - it's all on his face, unintentionally. He's a controlled man but some control is lost there now ........the last 2 words of this scene - 2 words only - couldn't be more poetic. He has started building to that last line, far earlier: For TerryMontana who is a big fan of Wright iirc: I'm a big fan of the man and Boardwalk Empire also. Jeffrey Wright's name belongs to almost every thread we have in the acting section of the board: Best actors across all media, poetic, intimidating and tender... When I first saw him was in Angels in America and I was really shocked!! This is one of my favorite scenes of AiA and he's mesmerizing! I mean, I didn't know the guy and he stood tall playing against Pacino!!
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 27, 2019 20:47:19 GMT
The acting back and forth between Wright and Pacino is some of the best interacting of the last 20 years imo - only exceeded by some all-timers like Phoenix/PSH obviously and things like that. If you have never seen it, Wright (and yes he's in our best actors on stage/tv/film thread!) gave a lovely speech for his Al's AFI about how they worked together - if you'd like to look that up on youtube terry, I think you'd enjoy that if you haven't seen it.
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Post by TerryMontana on Jun 28, 2019 14:25:47 GMT
The acting back and forth between Wright and Pacino is some of the best interacting of the last 20 years imo - only exceeded by some all-timers like Phoenix/PSH obviously and things like that. If you have never seen it, Wright (and yes he's in our best actors on stage/tv/film thread!) gave a lovely speech for his Al's AFI about how they worked together - if you'd like to look that up on youtube terry, I think you'd enjoy that if you haven't seen it. I've seen the whole ceremony back in 2007. Ummm... twice But I'm posting the video if anyone wants to see it. Very nice speech, actually saying what we all know: Pacino loves rehearsing more than he loves filming... (We still discussing Jeffrey Wright?? )
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 6, 2019 19:11:43 GMT
One of these actors went to Tufts and Julliard the other was a guy who joined the Marines at 17. At times both were poetic in their acting but I'd say the Marine even more over his career - improbably so even - a very poetic scene from a poetic movie (not made by an American) where Keitel is so gentle he almost makes you feel what Hurt is feeling.
It's in the way he holds and puffs on the cigarette, his hand to the back, the smile. "It's my corner after all" ........lovely scene, good for a 4th of July weekend too.
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