Showing posts with label actors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label actors. Show all posts

Thursday, January 17, 2008

survived by three cats


Death is a morbid topic. (It's a bit redundant to put it that way, but i was hoping to catch your attention with a clever opening line) No one wants to think that every one they know will eventually end up pushing up daisies, but at some point your mind will go there and if your quick enough to turn it back to something else, you're much more clever than I.

Wikipedia is a fascinating source of information of a vast array of different people, places and things. Today I skipped places and things and went straight to people. I read the biography of Capucine. She was a beautiful girl who was a model and actress from the late 1940s - 1990. She was a bright girl with a B.A. in Foreign Languages. And like all girls, she had a few strange ideas. She was once quoted as saying, " A woman needs to know that the man is her master". She also was a manic-depressive. She was fabulously happy one minute and tragically suicidal the next.

Although Capucine was seen as a sex object to men around the world, and she obviously had some interesting ideas about men's roles, she never had a long term relationship with a man. (and there is no evidence that she was a lesbian either so you can get that thought out of your head!). She had affairs. The longest known was two years with a man who was married and known to have been "in love" with her friend Audrey Hepburn. But none of her affairs really lasted.

After other suicide attempts, Capucine finally jumped from her 8th floor apartment on 17 March 1990. Her obituary read that she was survived by her three cats. Either the columnist didn't like her much, or she lived a very lonely life.

Forgive me for being a bit morbid today...but this was a life glimpse I thought worth telling. Hopefully our obituaries will have more to say than "survived by three cats".

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

top 5 actors

In a shameless attempt to actually post something on my blog, i've devised a top five actors who are worth watching. i feel i should define "worth watching". Worth Watching refers to their ablity to craft a believable character that is fun and interesting to watch.


5. Liam Neeson

Status: Sold soul to Hollywood for a title role in Star Wars...(somewhat forgivable)
Great Characters: Jean Valjean, Oskar Schindler, Daniel,
Why he's goood: He brings an earthy sort of feel to his characters. You actually believe you might bump into one of them on the street.


4. Kevin Kline

Status: Pure actor
Great Characters:Otto, Luc Teyssier, Nick Bottom
Why he's goood: He manages to create unique characters for each movie is in. He also seems to be able to distingish (for the most part) between a quality film and a quality paycheck.


3. Edward Norton
Status: Unknown. he's scheduled to play the Hulk. If he does, he sells out.
Great Characters: The Narrator, Monty Brogan, Brian Finn, Aaron Stampler
Why he's goood: His nice guys are good, his bad guys are terrifyingly believable. (anyone remember the stutterer from Primal Fear?)


2. Christian Bale-
Status: Soul sold to Hollywood when he stared in the movie Batman Begins
Great Characters: Cowboy, John Preson, Alfred Borden
Why he's goood: He has the ability to change accents subtly to fit any character. I have never known him to use the same accent on two characters.


1. Johnny Depp

Status:
sold his soul to the big hollywood scene when he filmed Pirates of the Carribean
Great characters:
Edward Scissorhands, Ichabod Crane, James Matthew Barrie, and even Jack Sparrow.
Why he's goood:
He flaws his characters in ways that are believable and yet intice you to want to understand the person more. The flaws are often believably exaggerated, so that the audience can laugh at the character while still recognizing the flaw as realistic.