14 replies to this topic

[winstonlegthigh]

Does anybody find this? It occurs to me that, after a certain point in cinema a lot of stars don't actually have any screen presence. They don't command attention. Most of the actors around today, even, relatively, some of the quite well known ones such as Al Pacino and Robert De Niro don't seem to have that thing that James Stewart or Robert Mitchum or Oliver Reed or Henry Fonda or Jimmy Cagney had where you were just WAITING for them to appear on screen. I dunno why this is. With a simple face value assessment, you could say that perhaps it has something to do with the desire of everyone to be the actors actor and not having a good understanding of their strengths and playing on that. Actors beforehand had this thing where, now, for instance, John Wayne couldn't act for shit but he had amazing presence and forged a place for himself in the history of cinema for better or worse (i say better) by having a distinct understanding of his capabilities and how to accentuate them and also his limitations and how to work around them. Everybody can't be Marlon Brando and they shouldn't try. James Dean, another example, if we're realistic, the jurys out on how good he actually would've turned out if he had've continued but, just on the basis of the three movies he made, he had this intense smouldering screen presence. Also, perhaps the old Studio/Star System and a lot of the post studio system thing had a thing where they cultivated personalities. There are very few real characters amongst actors anymore. People like Myrna Loy, Brando, Oliver Reed again or Tallulah Bankhead, Richard Harris, Steve McQueen, people that are just interesting in and of themselves. People like De Niro, for all their talents, seem like the most BAWWWWWWWW-RING people in the fuckin world, they seem to be such wet rags, no discernible personality at all...Pacino too, he could put an insomniac to sleep. Johnny Depp has a sort of understated screen presence i think. Why do you think this is the case nowadays? Or do you even think this is the case?

[GOAB]

James Dean Steve McQueen Robert Mitchum Charles Bronson Lee Marvin Paul Newman Clint Eastwood Daniel Day Lewis The list could go on and on but try doing that now and you would be lucky to find ten actors with any presence on screen or off it, its not just presence but believability, all of the above mentioned actors never really felt like they were acting but that they were living the story and its a rare but special gift.Like me Winston you have a passion for the older styles of acting but thats not going to change until actors with character and style come along.Im trying so hard to think of this generations great actors but i can't.Yes there are actors that can act but not the way it used to be done.Name one actor that has been better in a film like Cool Hand Luke, shit, just that one performance never mind the career.Acting for the most part is less of an art now, you can phone the shit in and the studios don't really care, society has become so used to mediocre films with mediocre casts that nobody really cares who is in a film or how good they can act. This generation will have to suffer the indignity of shitty films with shitty actors, which is a shame !

[winstonlegthigh]

[blockquote].Acting for the most part is less of an art now, you can phone the shit in and the studios don't really care[/blockquote] Exactly...or on the flipside, they are too much into the craft of it til they are in way over there head and the pheriphery of a performance takes presedence over the actual substance i.e. OMG, CHRISTIAN BALE LOST 100 MILLION LBS FOR THE MACHINIST or OMG, JARED LETO TURNED HIMSELF INTO A FATTY FOR CHAPTER 27 but it's these things that sort of become the performance as opposed to the acting involved. Loads of great actors did things like that, Marlon Brando for example in The Godfather with the black hair and the cotton wool in his mouth and the croaky voice but that was just things to develop the character, it wasn't the extent of the character y'know? So there's a balance involved that people seem to miss.

[TAP]

Oh, I don't know.

Call me shallow - but when I go to a movie featuring Johnny Depp, I can't wait to see him in every scene and it doesn't matter what he's doing. He could be trimming his toenails. Now, that's star power.

Depp was the first one I thought of in response, but that's as far as I got.....

[MrsBrisby]

Meryl Streep still has a lot of screen presence. Some of her latest work like Doubt and Julie and Julia is incredible.

[Kujo]

Thats because up to about 20 years ago, the only place you were going to see the big actor of the time was on the big screen. Now there are so many different gossip rags and entertainment television shows trying to fill pages or time, that we have these people shoved down our throats on a daily basis. When they do get around to putting out a film, you are sick of seeing their faces. As for current people that still get my attention for their acting presence: Robert Downey Jr, although he is at the point where he is playing a caricature of himself now much like Nicholson has been doing since the 80's Daniel Day Lewis. Havent seen all his movies but the ones I have, he was brilliant. Liam Neeson. Although he is starting to take alot of action roles, he can shine even in a bad movie, like "Taken" A bit of a newcomer but I think Paul Dano is going to be a great actor if he keeps choosing scripts smartly. He held his own with Steve Carrell, Alan Arkin, and Greg Kinnear in "Little Miss Sunshine". More impressively he played off Daniel Day Lewis brilliantly in "There Will Be Blood" and he even shined in a small role in the recent "Knight and Day" even though it isnt hard to out act those other two.

[Timothy]

Paul Dano is a guy who just impresses the fuck out of me.

Michael Caine and Gary Oldman just own a fucking scene when they are on screen.

[Kujo]

Even though it's an older movie, Road to Perdition has one of the best scenes ever with Paul Newman and Tom Hanks in the basement of the church. That was one of the most powerful scenes I have ever seen.

[Timothy]

Heath Ledger in the dark knight as Joker was an acting tour de force performance.

[Kujo]

True. That movie would have been good anyway, but he took it to another level.

[AxlsMainMan]

Nah, I found the movie to be quite boring when he wasn't on-screen.

[freedom78]

Nah, I found the movie to be quite boring when he wasn't on-screen.

And Bale wasn't good at all, right? With all that stupid scratchy voice shit? He almost ruined it.

[AxlsMainMan]

The Ruff McGruff the Crime Fighting Dog voice?

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgEa5AOiUic&feature=related[/url]

[freedom78]

Wow.

[Mr. Roboto]

Even though it's an older movie, Road to Perdition has one of the best scenes ever with Paul Newman and Tom Hanks in the basement of the church. That was one of the most powerful scenes I have ever seen.

That's a great flick, overall very creepy and dark.

Philadelphia with Tom Hanks was also fantastic and a big deal when it came out as far as what the content dealt with.