GameBanshee Forums

Originally posted by C Elegans:
<STRONG>I think it's "Branagh" if we are talking about the same guy, Emma Thompson's former husband and also a former member of Royal Shakespeare company. He left RSC and went on to make Shakespeare films - Henry V was his debut, a masterpiece He's also made very good adaptations of Much ado and Hamlet. If this is the man, I like him a lot too

His films always feature Brian Blessed, btw And Christian Bale (famous from American psycho) actually had a small part in Henry V as a young boy </STRONG>

Yes, Branagh. I seem to have a block on his last name.

By the way, you referred to "Yoshiro Mifune," above. It's Toshiro Mifune, and you're right: great actor.

He also employs as old men a favorite comic actor of mine, a fella who used to have one of the four leads in an excellent British comedy series, Good Neighbors--his name completely escapes me. I've seen him in all three of Branagh's Shakespearean films (including his relatively recent Hamlet).

If we're not just speaking about the living, I could add the following among favorite actors:

Peter Lorre: a lot more talented and diverse than his later Hollywood films lead people to suspect: Check out Fritz Lang's M.

Vincent Price: another highly talented, typecast actor.

Basil Rathbone (as above)

Mickey Rooney: despite the horde of bad films he was in after the 1950s, he had a truly ferocious energy and extraordinary focus in earlier years--even in those awful family comedies he made with Judy Garland.

Louise Brooks: extraordinary looks, combined with remarkable acting skills. She also had a great deal of intelligence, and apparently radiated an aura of pure sex in real life(judging from the fact that she had plenty of lovers into her seventies). It's her acting ability that takes her above the level of Davis or Bogart, always playing a version of themselves.

Conrad Veidt: This man not only added to film history, he *was* film history. He played the sonambulist in The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1918), the oldest surviving art film and an enormous impact on expressionist film making. He was still making films in the 1940s, where he played the villainous Colonel Stroesser in Casablanca. Wonderfully charismatic actor. In real life, despite the fiends he tended to play, apparently Veidt was a kindly sorta guy who was addicted to golf.

Originally posted by Bloodstalker:
<STRONG>Actually, who is that guy that played Gabriel in the Prophecy movies? He is an awesome actor. His name has slipped my mind...... </STRONG>

I presume you are talking about Christopher Walken. Yeah I like quite alot of his stuff as well, King of New York one of my favourites

As to my favourite actor, Richard E Grant plays absolutely wicked roles in most the things I've seen him in, both stage and screen. Jeremy Irons is another favourite for his character acting abilities although definately not in the D&D movie.

Favourite Actress, There can only be one, Cameron Diaz, she's sexy and quirky both at the same time which is kind of what I like.

s to worse actors/actresses, Steven Seagull, Arnie, Stallone, van damm, need I go on.

I presume you are talking about Christopher Walken. Yeah I like quite alot of his stuff as well, King of New York one of my favourites

THAT'S IT!!!!!

Falls of chair as he strikes his hand against forehead.

Originally posted by fable:
<STRONG>By the way, you referred to "Yoshiro Mifune," above. It's Toshiro Mifune, and you're right: great actor.

He also employs as old men a favorite comic actor of mine, a fella who used to have one of the four leads in an excellent British comedy series, Good Neighbors--his name completely escapes me. I've seen him in all three of Branagh's Shakespearean films (including his relatively recent Hamlet).
</STRONG>

Toshiro, that's it The name "Yoshiro" seems more common, at least I know of several people with that name, but I've never heard of another Toshiro, so my brain was probably following the "most familiar patter" path.

I haven't seen Good Neighbours. Do you remember what parts this man played in Branagh's films? They are all stuffed with very well known and skilled actors from theatre, film and TV series - he must have a great contact net.

@Bloodstalker: I loved Christopher Walken in Deer Hunter.

@CE, it was Richard Briers. I don't believe he's in Branagh's Hamlet, but he's got a major role in Much Ado, and a good small one in Henry V.

Richard Briers is a highly aclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company actor who also has done some pretty good comedy in the past as well (the good life, monarch of the glen) If you think he's good in Much ado, and Henry V you should see him live on stage, I saw him in Corelenius (Sp?) recently and he was amazing.

Posted by Saruman -

I saw him in Corelenius (Sp?) recently and he was amazing.

I actually bumped into him IRL walking his dog in our local park. He seemed quite normal to me

Originally posted by fable:
<STRONG>@CE, it was Richard Briers. I don't believe he's in Branagh's Hamlet, but he's got a major role in Much Ado, and a good small one in Henry V.</STRONG>

He played Polonius in Branagh's Hamlet

@Fable: Aha, Richard Briers - yes, I know who he is.

Originally posted by Saruman:
<STRONG>Richard Briers is a highly aclaimed Royal Shakespeare Company actor who also has done some pretty good comedy in the past as well (the good life, monarch of the glen) If you think he's good in Much ado, and Henry V you should see him live on stage, I saw him in Corelenius (Sp?) recently and he was amazing.</STRONG>

I wish I could go to the RSC and other UK theatre companies more often - but nowadays I don't go to the UK even once a year

Originally posted by Georgi:
<STRONG>He played Polonius in Branagh's Hamlet </STRONG>

I finally got an opportunity to see Branagh's Hamlet: fascinating. Every last scrap of dialog, including the one hour or more's material that is usually cut because it either lessens the effectiveness of the whole or contradicts so much of what is already there. Huge, sprawling piece of work, which I've only read in this state, but never seen. It's much easier now to understand why the Classicists hated it, and why the Romantics and Symbolists loved it.

Briers did a very different Polonius, much more in keeping with Branagh's Hamlet: a late middle-aged minister, used to the ways of power, narrow of focus, highly intelligent, scheming, utterly devoid of humor, though not without affection for his son and daughter. There was a barely concealed animosity between Hamlet and Polonius in this retelling, almost as though there were an ideological battle going on beneath the surface between youthful dreams and aged cynicism.

(Typically, Polonius is portrayed as much older, a doddering, well-intentioned wreck of a counselor.)

Very well-done film; I can recommend it highly. Better than Much Ado About Nothing (which is a tedious play, in any case), and equal to, and a lot subtler than, Branagh's Henry V.

Tea Leoni because she's cute and she has cool name.

Originally posted by fable:
<STRONG>I finally got an opportunity to see Branagh's Hamlet: fascinating.</STRONG>

How would you compare it to Mel Gibson's version (j/k) Although I do think there is some basis in comparing: Hamlet to me is a role that no actor can really play effectively - the play is wonderful to read, but in real life no-one has the right combination of physical AND intellectual. For instance with Branagh he really reads the lines well, and you have the sense that he understands what he is saying and that helps you to understand. He seems intelligent enough to play the role. Obviously Mel Gibson doesn't have that sense of being intelligent, but I felt he brought a good physicality to the role - and hence the insanity came across better, and also the swordplay was more believable. He seemed more like a man of action. One problem i have is that most actors are way to old when they attempt Hamlet - they should be doing Macbeth or Lear

I can't say that I've seen Mel Gibson in it, but the idea strikes me as kind of strange. I mean, Gibson, while an intelligent man and a good action-oriented actor, is not known for classical theater, or the kind of speaking it requires. I'm not putting him down; he may manage it well. I'll certainly try to find the version, and see it.

The only other Hamlet I've seen on film is Olivier's: a fine performance, very sleek and dangerous, based upon a Freudian interpretation of the play. One or two of the scenes were just plain strange, but the dark rooms in the labyrinthian, almost Kafkaqesque corridors of this internalized Elsinore worked very well. Branagh used an Elgarian type of score in the background, which struck me as jarring. Olivier used a score by William Walton, which was especially potent in the play actors' scene, and in a death march for Hamlet at the end.

It's interesting that Branagh has done two of the three Shakespearean films now that secured Olivier's early cinematic reputation. I'm wondering if he will ever do Richard III. That's so damn hard to do effectively these days, what with its blatant melodrama (with a hunchbacked villain). Not to mention the revelations that have shown that Richard III was actually a great king, and that his Shakespearean character was a lot closer in reallife to that of his successor--the first Tudor, whose great-granddaughter ruled with an iron fist and a civil-based inquisition during Shakesepeare's day.

[ 11-13-2001: Message edited by: fable ]

favorite

Nicholas Cage
Sean Connery

Originally posted by fable:
[QB]I can't say that I've seen Mel Gibson in it, but the idea strikes me as kind of strange

You're telling me! I looked it up - 1991 (was it that long ago? time flies, ah I remember Karen, who dragged me to it...sigh) dir: Franco Zeffirelli, starring Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Helena Bonham Carter. They cut the story down to two hours, Gibson does pretty well, he spits out his lines really quickly but you have this nagging suspicion that he has no idea what he's saying. Kind of like when Keanu Reeves does Shakespeare.

BTW my favorite actors and actresses are Humphrey Bogart, Buster Keaton, Peter Sellers, Gabriel Byrne (oh why couldn't they have made HIM the new James Bond!) Clint Eastwood, James Woods, Sean Penn.....Katherine Hepburn, Faye Dunaway, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Janeane Garafalo, Judy Davis, Madeleine Stowe (12 monkeys!), Jane Horrocks.

WOW ! This is one tough question, I'll try to breakdown some here :
Favs
Western actors :
Marlon Brando
Robert De Niro
Al Pacino
Mel Gibson
Anthony Hopkins
Rowan Atkinson
Mel Brooks
Leslie Nielsen
Billy Christal
Patrick Steward - He's a role model captain

Eastern Actors :
Jackie Chan
Amen Chow Yen Fat - He's very cool on A better Tomorow series
Jet Lee
Samo Hung
Stephen Chow

Western Actrees :
Merryl Streep
Raquel Darrian
Christy Canyon

Eastern Actress :
Joey Wong
Kelly Chen
Gigi Leung

Seiyuu :
Hayashibara Megumi

Celebrity / Model :
Lisa Matthews (PMOY 1990)

Hate List
Western Actors :
Keanu Reeves
Charlie Sheen
Martin Sheen
Brad Pritt

Eastern Actors :
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Nicholas Tse

Western Actress :
Renee Zelweger
Angelina Jolie
Jennifer Lopez - greedy are we ? being successful in singing then try the luck on acting
Lisa Kudrow

Eastern actress :
Brigitte Lin
Hsu Chi

Originally posted by THE JAKER:
<STRONG>Obviously Mel Gibson doesn't have that sense of being intelligent, but I felt he brought a good physicality to the role - and hence the insanity came across better, and also the swordplay was more believable. He seemed more like a man of action.</STRONG>

Isn't half of the point about Hamlet that he *isn't* a "man of action", though? I mean, he spends the whole play deliberating rather than actually doing...

<STRONG>One problem i have is that most actors are way to old when they attempt Hamlet - they should be doing Macbeth or Lear</STRONG>

So I have to ask - has anyone seen the recent modern version of Hamlet with Ethan Hawke? I haven't seen it myself, so I'm interested to know, because he's not a bad actor

Haven't seen the Ethan Hawke version.

Re: Hamlet: Man of Action?
I can definitely see your point, but he does do quite a bit, he kills a bunch of people, arranges the play etc. So he takes a few days to come up with a plan and break off his relationship with his girlfriend, that doesn't mean he's passive.

Best IMHO : Jackie Chan (comic genius), Bruce Lee (fists of fury), Chow-Yun Fat (sp?), Michelle Yeoh, Russel Crowe, Laurence Fishburn.

Worst IMHO : Jim carey (irritating now).

[ 11-13-2001: Message edited by: Recoba ]

Actors I enjoy:

Johnny Depp
Patrick Stewart
Keanu Reeves (only because he has the ability to turn an awful movie into a comedy).
Peter Sellers
Willem Dafoe
Tim Robbins

borrowed from Bloodstalker
Favorite actress: Kobe Tai



Least Favorite
Julia Roberts
Richard Chamberlain
Kevin Costner