photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen |
GREAT PERFORMANCES:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
Part 2
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
Part 1
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince
Bottle Shock
Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban
Love Actually
Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Galaxy Quest
Dogma
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Closet Land
Die Hard
Alan Rickman entered the acting
profession very late in life. And yet he has given some of the most
memorable performances that the silver screen has seen.
Let's start with his first and, arguably, his most iconic role: Hans Gruber in Die Hard. I think
people often forget what a surprise Die Hard was in its day. It was
a big action film with the star of Moonlighting. What could have
easily been a direct-to-HBO movie was instead an action masterpiece.
And Rickman's villain is a huge part of that. Rickman conveys raw
ruthlessness and intelligence. You have no trouble believing that he
could kill a whole building full of innocent people but he there was
a part of you that kind of pulled for him. When he gets the vault
open, you get a little happy for him because he sees his plan come to
fruition. He charms you by his skill and makes you want to be him a
little bit.
But above all he showed great restraint
and I will speak more about this later. First, it should be noted
that he can turn up the volume on a performance in a way that few
actors can. Watch his deliciously over-the-top turn as the Sheriff
of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He has none of
Gruber's silent menace. He is all puffed-up bluster. The character
is written in a very one-dimensional way, but Rickman makes his
horrid personality so big and lively that cannot take your eyes off
of him. He just chews the scenery up and it is fun.
And he can also bring the volume way
down. I loved his performance as Steven Spurrier in Bottle Shock. A
frustrated, small man, he seems well worn from living. There is a
hang-dog melancholy to his character, but his absolute love of wine
makes him endearing. He loves the beauty of wine and wants other
people to see it too. He does all this while maintaining his
deflated tone and stature.
He can disappear into roles like few
others. His alternately sympathetic and sadistic interrogator in
Closet Land is riveting. He is also the only good thing in Kevin
Smith's blasphemous movie Dogma. His Eeyore-voiced Marvin in The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy provided the film's biggest laughs. He even brings both gravitas and goofiness to his frustrated tv-star in Galaxy Quest
But his most amazing work was his role
as Severus Snape from the Harry Potter movies.
(WARNING. SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO
HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIES).
On the surface, he appears to be only
playing the “mean teacher” stereotype from so many school
stories; he's a wizard-world Assistant Principal Vernon. Look at
some of his deliveries in Sorcerer's Stone and Goblet of Fire and it
could seem that he's simply rolling out lines dripping with venom and
condescension
But the brilliance of casting Rickman
was his restraint. Severus Snape is a character who must constantly
be in control of every thought, word, and action. He cannot give
away what he is really thinking or feeling. He needs to be
inscrutable. It would me much simpler and easier to play the
character as a blank slate. But when you watch what Rickman does,
you feel his hand on the brakes, keeping the torrent of feeling from
coming through. This leads to that signature Snape style of slowly
speaking out each word so that every syllable lands a punch with
either dramatic weight or comedic flair. And only on the rarest of occasions do you see the weight of it behind the words. The last line he ever delivers in the series is one word: "Always." And that one word spoken by Rickman is more eloquent than pages and pages of heart-felt dialogue.
Rickman uses every acting tool at his
disposal and none of them are wasted. His change in voice inflection
or subtle shift in eye contact do more to convey his character than
what most actors could do. He seamlessly transitions from comedy to
drama, knowing the exact right tone to take with his characters and
he disappears into them in order to create something truly great on
screen.
No mention of Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility?!?! Gasp.
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