Stannis wrote:
I generally don't get into the personal lives of celebrities.
i similarly have no interest in the personal lives of "celebrities". i only acknowledge their abilities to act.
Stannis wrote:
The exception is that i'll read anything by William Shatner. His autobiographies are great.
autobiographies? i thought he had only one life. how can one write more than one autobiography ? (unless one has a multiple personality disorder (and even then, all those personalities are contained within a single life)). i never really liked shatner. i was never captivated by his "kirk" rendition in star trek.
anyway, enough with the small talk...
Stannis wrote:
If I had to pick a favourite actor, I'd pick Robert De Niro, for his work throughout the 70s and 80s. Most notably: (..........................................) King of Comedy.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3mV8rVsb8[/youtube]
i agree that his portrayal of pupkin was immaculate in that movie. that movie is among my few favourite movies.
incidentally, there is a sequence that starts at 52:49 where pupkin enters the langford household on the flimsy premise of a personal invitation, and the performance by the male asian actor (who plays langford's domestic servant) is an extremely entertaining rendition that lends itself to classic comedy in a natural way. it was one of my favourite scenes. the way he enunciates his lines from 53:44 is very authentic and due to it's studious adherence to authenticity, it is hilarious to me. the movie itself is not really a comedy unless one sees it that way.
other actors i like are richard burton (most notably for his performance in who's afraid of virginia wolfe.
example from final sequence:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT7mcT8THRM[/youtube]
jeremy brett for his portrayal of sherlock holmes (the grenada series)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX6a--uu6QM[/youtube]
peter falk for his portrayal of columbo ( a disheveled genius who uses his propensity for being assumed by others as "simple" to his advantage)
here is a clip that shows the penultimate phase of a movie where the culprit (who had previously assumed a smug state of intellectual relaxedness due to his (erroneous) perception of columbo's diminutive mental agility) is being rattled by columbo as columbo moves in for the "kill". it is very well acted by falk indeed.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZiv8vkxMac[/youtube]
i can not illustrate why i am captivated by some performances and not by others, but i guess it has to do with elementary authenticity.