| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| richfed |
Posted - February 16 2003 : 10:55:59 AM
Courtesy of Doctor Mary:
Daniel Day-Lewis: Hollywood's most wanted
He is one of our greatest actors, a mercurial talent who can bring any character to life. So why has Daniel Day-Lewis spent the past five years turning down roles? As his latest film, Gangs of New York, premieres in London, David Thomson studies a secretive star
07 January 2003
For the third time in his life, Daniel Day-Lewis has delivered a stunning portrait of an American, in Gangs of New York. That broad villain, the discreet gentleman in The Age of Innocence and the frontier scout inThe Last of the Mohicans were all period figures. Indeed, it is an important part of Day-Lewis the actor that we hardly know what he looks and sounds like as an Englishman now. But is he an Englishman – or has he gone away?
Was he ever exactly English? Or did it mean more to his creative nature that from his father, the poet and novelist Cecil Day-Lewis, he inherited Ireland, the literary world and a dash of political radicalism – just as from his mother, the actress Jill Balcon (daughter of the great Ealing producer Sir Michael Balcon), he inherited eastern Europe and Jewishness? Yes, he went to Sevenoaks and Bedales, and he was apprenticed at the Bristol Old Vic. And then, at varying class levels, he was Englishmen in Gandhi, The Bounty, A Room with a View and My Beautiful Laundrette. He came to an early peak in the late Eighties with a furious, romantic Hamlet on stage (but had to withdraw with nervous exhaustion) and as Tomas in Philip Kaufman's film of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
He was poised to be the new Olivier. He turned down Philadelphia, Interview with the Vampire, and so on, all the way to the role that is making a star of Viggo Mortensen in The Lord of the Rings. By withdrawal or a polite "no", Day-Lewis has been the godfather to so many other careers, without ever losing the sense of range or intensity that could do... anything. But "anything" is sometimes next to nothing.
If you're as good as Day-Lewis, it amounts to a large theatrical gesture, a kind of displayed disapproval, that he hasn't acted for five years. And if, as rumoured, he was instead learning the anonymous craft of shoemaker in Tuscany, I take it that Day-Lewis's shoes were closer to humble wooden clogs than to the calfskin Gucci loafers that also come out of northern Italy. Somehow, with Day-Lewis we take it for granted that the gesture and the large personal hope that prompts it tend towards something simple and common. But when such an actor grants that it is time to come back to his trade, then the particular choice is crucial. And Gangs of New York does not remotely live up to the preliminary gesture. It leaves one thinking that maybe Daniel Day-Lewis is an odd fellow. And starts you thinking how easily actors – the best and the worst of them – could go a little crazy.
Don't misunderstand me. I suspect that Day-Lewis will win the best actor Oscar for his performance as Bill Cutting, the Butcher of Five Corners, in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York. Miramax, the distributor, is now trying to sell its ailing picture as a romance between the Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz characters. That's a hopeless task. The ads for Gangs should be for a strange circus in which Day-Lewis is hero, villain, ringmaster, knife-thrower and one-eyed demon. His energy is everything. For surely, once back in harness, Day-Lewis felt how flimsy this immense, expensive venture was, and guessed that its plausibility depended on his flamboyant confidence as Bill Cutting. And so he is the film's tent-pole, holding up a flailing script and doing all he can to suggest that the painfully callow DiCaprio is a proper rival in a life-and-death struggle.
We have seen this kind of commitment before from Day-Lewis. A little over six feet tall, but slender and shy, he went into six months of training to alter his stamina, his body and his attitudes |
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| Wilderness Woman |
Posted - February 17 2003 : 4:13:35 PM
Yeah! I noticed that photo immediately. Put the long hair back on him, and there's our Hawkeye!!
I enjoyed the above article. The more I learn about DD-L, the more I like him. I watched a PBS program a month or so ago, on which he and Scorsese were guests. The man who was interviewing them asked DD-L about the long periods of time between his movies. DD-L gave an answer that made me sit back and think for a moment, then say to myself... Of course! That makes absolutely perfect sense!
He said, in essence, that he needs the time to step back and regain himself. The analogy he used was that farmers who practice good land management will rotate their crops and let a piece of land lie fallow for a few seasons, so that it can recover and replenish soil nutrients. If the land is used too much for the same crops year after year... it will stop being productive.
As I learn more about him and how he puts himself so completely into a role, I can see how he must do this. If he doesn't, he will burn out and will stop being productive. Sensible man! |
| Theresa |
Posted - February 16 2003 : 5:25:48 PM
OMIGOD, Diane! You are exactly right about that picture. I didn't see that expression the first time I looked at those but it looks amazingly like the expression he has while on the George Road right before he says, "We'll take you as far as the fort."
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| Diane B. |
Posted - February 16 2003 : 3:45:17 PM
Theresa,
Thanks for the link! I checked it out & I was immediately impressed by the very last picture on the right side of the page. I successfully saved it but so far, I have not been able to insert it here & I really wish I could!  Daniel's expression in this picture reminds me of a scene right out of LOTM...Hawkeye, Uncas & Chingachcook have succeeded in coming to the rescue of the Munro sisters and Hayward on the George Road. Hayward says, "We were headed to Ft. William Henry" and Hawkeye looks at them with a bemused look on his face...Take this picture from the Berlin Film Festival, add long flowing hair and buckskins, and you've got a 21st century Hawkeye looking right at you!  |
| Diane B. |
Posted - February 16 2003 : 3:20:54 PM
Chris wrote: quote:
I hardly know how to respond to the first article. It's very strange.
Yes, Chris, it is a very strange article and like you, I'm not sure how to respond. Mr. Thomson devotes the majority of his article to lavish praise of Daniel Day-Lewis, his extraordinary talent and the magnificence of his performances but in the last couple of paragraphs, he suddenly seems to convey disappointment in the man, his acting, and his latest role:
quote:
But then there is something else to report...the character has to generate such villainy to keep the precarious story going, that he has to over-act, or find a Grand Guignol tone, to make DiCaprio wake up. ...And then you realise that it's "acting". And "acting", I fear, is what actors can be reduced to if the script isn't good enough and if they're out of condition.
OK, so maybe "the script isn't good enough" in Mr. Thomson's opinion; he wouldn't be the first to throw stones in that direction regarding GONY. And there are many others who, like Mr. Thomson, were less than impressed with the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and/or Cameron Diaz. But for Mr. Thomson to imply that Daniel's performance in GONY was "over-acting," and that he is "out of condition," is totally uncalled for and completely false (in my humble opinion!).  
On the other hand, I was especially delighted to read what he had to say about LOTM and Daniel's performance as Hawkeye! It's great to read such wonderful things about LOTM and DDL's perfection in the role, especially since it's been more than ten years since the film's release! I've visited other websites where DDL and his films are the main topics of discussion & when the conversation turns to opionions on DDL's best film & best role, I'm sad to say that a lot of those posting seem to regard LOTM & the Hawkeye role as more "eye candy." It's refreshing to hear Mr. Thomson state that "The Last of the Mohicans made Day-Lewis" and it's a shame that more people don't share that opinion. For those of us in Mohicanland, of course, Mr. Thomson is just stating what we have known all along!  |
| Chris |
Posted - February 16 2003 : 2:15:04 PM
I hardly know how to respond to the first article. It's very strange. A lot of what he says rings true, but I got the feeling that he believes DDL owes his audience more of his private life, not just what he gives us in films. I don't believe that. I treasure every moment he is on the screen (except maybe "Eversmile, New Jersey"), and of course, I read all I can find on his off-screen life. However, I don't believe he owes any of his off-screen life to me.
The article from the Berlin Film Festival was good. I think DDL's shaved head is growing on me. He looks great in the pictures. As his hair line recedes more and more, I think he's found a good way to deal with it. He'll always be my favorite actor! Sigh... |
| Theresa |
Posted - February 16 2003 : 1:39:06 PM
Here's another link from the Berlin Film Festival. This is from the press conference w/pics.
http://www.filmfestivals.com/cgi-bin/fest_content/festivals.pl?debug=&channelbar=&fest=berlin2003&page=read&partner=&year=2003&lang=en&text_id=23783
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![The Mohican Board! [Bumppo's Redux!]](images/wwwboard.gif "The Mohican Board! [Bumppo's Redux!]")
