Jeremy Irons and sex conventions
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ecjones1951 — 19 years ago(May 17, 2006 05:56 AM)
In director Louis Malle's commentary that's included on the DVD, he says Jeremy Irons wanted to play Stephen because he would have nothing to hide behind no period costumes or conventions or accents or anything like that.
Not to say that Irons is Stephen, but he understood he could explore just pure, raw emotion with this part.
Stephen is selfish, reckless, vulnerable, obsessive. The book makes clear he has never felt anything in his life until he meets Anna. And I think Irons conveys that emptiness brilliantly. His Stephen appears to have the "perfect life" before he meets her, but he's really just playing a role. He could have broken out of that mold in any number of ways, but he chooses the most immoral, inappropriate way imaginable. And at the end, in his scenes with Ingrid, he still thinks that but for fate, he could have gotten away with it. -
filmfancy — 19 years ago(May 22, 2006 09:56 PM)
After seeing the dvd of "The Mother" with Anne Reid as an aging widow who embarks on an affair with her daughter's lover, I'm wondering why anyone would risk just about everything for what amounts to some temporary steamy sex. Is sex more valuable than maintaining good family relationships?
I'm just trying to think this one through. I did like "The Mother" more than "Damage" because it explores the issue of loneliness quite well. The scenes between the mother and daughter are really well-done and explosive, as are the scenes between the mother and the younger lover.
I always enjoy watching Jeremy Irons. No one does obsessive lust like him! I loved him in a little-known British film "Waterland." And Juliette Binoche is high calibre as well.
I agree that a good actor will take on a role which allows him/her to express the utmost of raw emotion. So what if they get typecast in that kind of roleI'd rather see Jeremy Irons or Ewan McGregor in a raw performance than watching yet another Bruce Willis action flick.
"Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night." -
ecjones1951 — 19 years ago(June 15, 2006 06:33 PM)
Thanks to your comments, filmfancy, I'm going to seek out "The Mother."
One reason I like
Damage
so well is that I am a fan of most all of Josephine Hart's novels. She seems to be a fairly ordinary, upper class British lady who writes about characters with incredible dark sides. It's hard for me to imagine that her inspiration might come from real life. I don't think it does, but I don't really know much about her.
My fascination with characters like Hart's, who break time-tested taboos or who are guided solely by their obsessions, is that I cannot really identify with them, and yet these characters seem at first glance to be normal, even ordinary people just like "the rest of us." A cunning person can conceal his obsessions pretty well up to a point. A normal, "sane" person is never ruled by them.
To me, the quintessentially obsessive movie character is Scotty in
Vertigo
. His obsession not only rules his life, it
becomes
his life, to the point where he barely even exists anymore. Bizarre, disturbing, but compelling and subject to almost endless analysis. -
filmfancy — 19 years ago(June 23, 2006 02:36 PM)
Another hauntingly raw film about obsession and loneliness is "l'Adversaire," starring Daniel Auteuil. He brilliantly portrays a true-life character who led a double life for many years, deceiving all those who knew him.
If you want to talk about 'emptiness,' this character personifies it. Auteuil is a french actor who rivals Jeremy Irons for playing ordinary characters with extraordinary depths of depravity lurking below the surface.
Be forewarned though, this film is not for the faint of heartit is extremely disturbing, all the more so because the events actually happened. It's not graphic per se, but chilling in its depiction of a man slowly losing his grip on reality.
"Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night." -
PoppyTransfusion — 14 years ago(January 04, 2012 08:11 AM)
I'm wondering why anyone would risk just about everything for what amounts to some temporary steamy sex. Is sex more valuable than maintaining good family relationships?
To answer your question in relation to The Mother, which is a brilliant film and the only one I've ever liked Daniel Craig in, sex is more than a physical, sensual activity to May, the mother of the title. She is recently bereaved and the sexual affair she embarks on is as important, if not more, to her self identity as the physical enjoyment because she is an elder widow. The affair with Darren matters also because it is transgressive and incredibly affiriming of her wish to be a full-blooded woman who is still desirable as well as desiring. Her lines to Darren about believing no one would ever touch her sexually again were just heart wrenching.
my vessel is magnificent and large and huge-ish -
RainyNightHouse — 13 years ago(July 07, 2012 04:11 PM)
"The Mother, which is a brilliant film and the only one I've ever liked Daniel Craig in" - DITTO! I've never liked him in anything till I watched 'The Mother'. In both 'Damage' and 'The Mother', I find myself wondering, beep up families/people? Or just people fumbling along and making mistakes, some bigger mistakes than others
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Chinnogirl — 18 years ago(August 03, 2007 06:36 AM)
Jeremy Irons and Kevin Bacon are brave actors in my opinion. They're not afraid to appear in movies that are sligthy diffirent from the usual ones. And take Leonardo DiCaprio too, he's not afraid of it either (Total Eclipse).
Actors who do the usual stuff all the time are just the ones you get bored of.
And I don't mind the theme of Lolita and Damage. Let's just be glad that Irons isn't ugly and fat. XD hehe
"It's so weird how your eggs have an expiration date. They're just like eggs" -
WarpedRecord — 17 years ago(December 20, 2008 11:27 AM)
His butt is neck-and-neck with Richard Chamberlain's in 'The Thorn Birds.'
Excellent use of picturesque speech!
And we could use more actors like Jeremy Irons and Kevin Bacon who are willing to reveal their dark sides and their back sides (and occasionally front sides) when the role requires. -
sadfilmophile — 14 years ago(June 12, 2011 03:12 AM)
I dont think anyone's mentioned another part of why Jeremy Irons does these challenging roles - the fact that directors specifically choose him to do these roles, ie he got more offers to play these twisted minds than his contemporaries.
With his wiry body type (as opposed any muscular hero) and the way in which he carries himself (gentle and refined) he is easily cast as the protagonist whose love/lust story is all about the mind.
I remember a chat show where a panel of women were discussing Damage and the thing that really struck me was when one of them said, he's so slight and fey that his characters can get away with a sccene like the one where he bangs Juliette Binoches' head on the ground. Somehow you stay with the story - if any other actor did that you'd turn off the movie at that point.
In other words, with a different attitude and body shape, you'd be more focussed on the physical side of these stories - Damage, M. Butterfly, Lolita. That's why the diretors want him for these more complex roles.
Plus he knows how to tread that fine line that makes us ok with his take on destructive/non-conventional passions. -
WarpedRecord — 14 years ago(June 26, 2011 11:14 AM)
Excellent food for thought on Jeremy Irons.
I think he uses his body type to an advantage because he's initially quite unassuming, so the viewer assumes his character is benign. With a beefier actor, we'd make more assumptions about the character, and we'd probably be right. In irons' case, we let our guard down, he fools us.
Irons often plays characters who are so much larger than their bodies, and this is another example. The mind is capable of so much more than the body. -
filmfancy — 14 years ago(January 05, 2012 02:04 AM)
And we could use more actors like Jeremy Irons and Kevin Bacon who are willing to reveal their dark sides and their back sides (and occasionally front sides) when the role requires.
Just saw ShameI think Michael Fassbender is now in this category! I would also add that he is a terrific actor, as well as being sexy and edgy.
"And all the pieces matter" -
Exit-song — 13 years ago(May 17, 2012 04:51 PM)
I agree Filmfancy.
I just watched FishTank with Michael Fassbender and the character he plays should be hateful, however, there is a rawness about him and (like you mentioned) his physique is slight and mannerisms gentle. I'm not suggesting that any of this negates his character's behaviour, but it does lull us into a false sense of security.
In Fish Tank his character appeared to be sympathetic and even empathetic to the main character but he ultimately crossed a line. However, due to his gentle nature and unassuming build we did not see him as a direct threat or bad guy in the story.
I'm fast becoming a fan of Fassbender. I love how he can convey so much emotion without words. His facial expressions tell it all. I watched one of the viral clips for Prometheus. I don't think Prometheus will be my kind of film, but I will say I thought the part where 'David' is asked what makes him sad, was a brilliant piece of acting without words from Fassbender. I know he speaks at some point but that initial raw sadness with tears in his eyes is extremely powerful.
Oh and as for Jeremy Irons
I think I will be hunting down the Cronenberg one next. 