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Actors We Miss: Alec Guinness

By Mel Valentin (Subscribe to Mel Valentin's posts), Posted Feb 11th 2011 6:00PM
Filed under: Features, Cinematical


In a career spanning six decades, Alec Guinness (actually, Sir Alec Guinness, as he was knighted in 1959) made more than 60 appearances in film and on television. Like many British actors of his and subsequent generations, Guinness trained for the stage, developing a lifelong friendship with John Gielgud. Guinness's extensive theater background helped him prepare for a career in film defined not by a single role or star persona (he was everything but a movie star) but by versatility, by range and depth few actors of his generation (or since) have possessed. Guinness could seemingly handle any role, from memorable supporting turns in various dramas, intimate or epic, to light comedies that allowed Guinness to display masterful comic timing.

Collaborating with Oscar-winning director David Lean in Guinness showed remarkable range and depth. A small, if still substantial part, in Lean's 1946 adaptation of Charles Dickens' oft-filmed classic, 'Great Expectations,' led to a larger part in Lean's follow-up two years later, 'Oliver Twist,' another Dickens' adaptation. Guinness' performance as Fagin, the unscrupulous, unseemly criminal who adopts the title character into his den of teen and preteen pickpockets, wasn't without controversy. Guinness, with Lean's obvious approval, played Fagin too close to the then still prevalent Jewish stereotype, including an extra-long proboscis. Guinness' performance led to a delay in 'Oliver Twist's' stateside release. When it was, additional editing worked out some of the rougher edges in Guinness' performance.
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Scenes We Love: 'The Descent' (2005)

By Mel Valentin (Subscribe to Mel Valentin's posts), Posted Feb 1st 2011 8:30PM
Filed under: Horror, Cinematical


At its best (or worst, depending on your perspective), horror taps into our most basic, most elemental, and most primal of fears. No fear is more basic, more elemental, or more primal than fear of the dark. As our ancient ancestors learned, what you don't see can most certainly, definitively cause you grievous bodily harm, up to and including dismemberment and/or a painful, excruciating death. Add to that primal fear of the dark a labyrinthine cave system, lost spelunkers, and cannibalistic mutants and you get something like Neil Marshall's ('Centurion,' 'Doomsday,' 'Dog Soldiers') second (and, so far, best) film, 'The Descent.' Released in the UK and Europe in 2005, but not released stateside until the following summer (with an alternate ending no less), 'The Descent' is survival horror at its most compelling (and terrifying, of course).

Like Steven Spielberg three decades earlier with 'Jaws,' Marshall smartly saved the big reveal, the mutants who pose said grievous threat to the lost spelunkers at the center of 'The Decent,' until close to the halfway mark. Marshall instead focuses on the spelunkers, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald), Juno (Natalie Jackson Mendoza), Beth (Alex Reid), Rebecca (Saskia Mulder), Sam (MyAnna Buring), and Holly (Nora-Jane Noone). Onetime best friends and extreme sports enthusiasts, Sarah and Juno's friendship has frayed since the death of Sarah's husband and daughter in a car accident. Juno hopes spending their vacation exploring caves in the Appalachian Mountains will help repair their relationship. She's wrong, of course.
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Actors We Miss: Bruce Lee

By Mel Valentin (Subscribe to Mel Valentin's posts), Posted Jan 14th 2011 9:30PM
Filed under: Features, Cinematical


Despite completing only four films (a fifth, 'Game of Death,' was never finished), one season of 'The Green Hornet' TV series in the mid-1960s, and a handful of minor film and TV roles, Bruce Lee left an indelible mark on moviegoers and film history. Lee died at the age of 32 from an allergic reaction to medication only days before the premiere of the Hollywood studio-financed 'Enter the Dragon.' He didn't get the chance to see 'Enter the Dragon' become a major commercial hit, based primarily on his star-making turn, or the long-lasting pop culture influence his last film would have on Western audiences, including countless imitations on film and related media (e.g., Marvel Comics' Shang Chi character), and a renewed (if not just new) curiosity in studying Asian martial arts.

Born in San Francisco, but raised in Hong Kong, Lee didn't return to the United States until he was a teenager, studying philosophy (among other subjects) at the University of Washington. A serious martial arts student, he developed his own variation on Wing Chun (a form of Kung Fu), Jeet Kune Do, opening his own school in Oakland and after being discovered at the Long Beach International Championships, Lee headed for Hollywood, winning the role of Kato, martial arts-trained bodyguard and driver to Van Williams' Britt Reid/Green Hornet, an adaptation of the radio series that first aired in the mid 1930s. 'The Green Hornet's' millionaire playboy character by day, costumed vigilante character by night, served as one of several inspirations for Bob Kane and Bill Finger when they created Batman in 1938.
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Their Best Role: Chris Cooper

By Mel Valentin (Subscribe to Mel Valentin's posts), Posted Dec 22nd 2010 6:30PM
Filed under: Features, Cinematical
As an actor, Chris Cooper has appeared in almost sixty films and television shows since 1987 (a remarkable run for any performer), receiving a nomination and winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor eight years ago for 'Adaptation.' 'Adaptation' gave Cooper the opportunity to break away from his typically taciturn, thoughtful, introspective roles. As John Laroche, the "orchid thief," the subject of Susan Orlean's book fictionalized in 'Adaptation,' Cooper turned his performance style on its head. With Laroche oozing a hyper, obsessive, borderline delusional mania for orchids, Cooper was practically unrecognizable. Moviegoers, critics, and the Academy agreed.

In 1999, Cooper appeared in two noteworthy films. One, 'American Beauty,' received eight Academy Award nominations, winning four, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Best Original Screenplay, and Best Cinematography. Cooper played a repressed, repressive ex-marine colonel, a standout role that the Academy ignored. It's an earlier performance in a film released the same year, however, that shows Cooper at his best, due in part to a strong, nuanced script, a compelling story defined by the particulars of a time and place, and a character that proves that reacting is a key component in any actor's repertoire. That film, 'October Sky,' primarily a star vehicle for a then up-and-coming young actor, Jake Gyllenhaal, arrived in movie theaters in February, 1999, a time usually reserved for studio cast-offs and low-rent genre entries. The lack of studio faith, however, was unwarranted.
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Actors We Miss: Dennis Hopper

By Mel Valentin (Subscribe to Mel Valentin's posts), Posted Dec 17th 2010 7:02PM
Filed under: Features, Cinematical


When Dennis Hopper passed away earlier this past May at the age of 74 due to prostate cancer, he left a remarkably varied body of work as an actor. Over five decades, Hopper appeared in more than two hundred films and television shows, some, maybe most forgettable, but rarely because Hopper chose to appear in them. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Hopper mixed appearances in film and on television, usually in supporting roles. Substance abuse, however, undermined Hopper's career multiple times (he went more than seven years without a film role at one point). Despite those setbacks, he continued to act, on television or in small, supporting roles. He also cultivated a talent for photography and, briefly, directing, most notably 'Easy Rider,' an existential biker flick that far exceeded its modest, low-budget origins as a B-level programmer.

Early in his career as an actor, Hopper crossed paths with James Dean, appearing in supporting roles in 'Rebel Without a Cause' and 'Giant.' The director of 'Rebel Without a Cause,' Nicholas Ray, obviously saw something in Hopper, featuring him prominently in several, non-speaking scenes. Hopper's character, a member of a rival group, says little (if anything), appearing in the foreground, once in a car, oddly rubbing his nose and later, at the Griffith Observatory, again central to a visual composition. Hopper had more to do in Dean's last film, 'Giant,' but it was in a Western, 'Gunfight in the O.K. Corral,' that he gave his first, truly memorable performance as an ill-fated Clanton. Family loyalty trumps his character's survival instinct, leading to a tragic, unnecessary end. A lead role in 'Night Tide,' a woefully underseen, low-key dark fantasy in 1960, did little to spur Hopper's career as a lead actor.
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Scenes We Love: The Incredibles

By Mel Valentin (Subscribe to Mel Valentin's posts), Posted Nov 10th 2010 5:30PM
Filed under: Sci-Fi, Cinematical

Pixar Animation Studios has made 11 feature-length films in 15 years (not counting the in-production 'Cars 2' and 'Monsters, Inc. 2', scheduled for next summer and fall 2012, respectively, and a non-sequel, 'Brave,' set for a summer 2012 release), each, to varying degrees, created with an admirable combination of aesthetic/critical and commercial appeal, each sufficiently multi-layered to invite, maybe even demand repeat viewings. Despite an emphasis on fantasy- or science fiction-related premises, only one, Brad Bird's ('Ratatouille,' 'The Iron Giant') 'The Incredibles,' deals directly with a subject near and dear to many (geek or otherwise), superpower ed heroes in a superhero universe not dissimilar to our own.

'The Incredibles' is set in a Silver Age-inspired world where super-powered superheroes, not just costumed vigilantes (e.g., Batman), are the norm. Riffing on Marvel Comics' 'The Fantastic Four,' 'The Incredibles' mixes and matches superpowers (the better to avoid copyright infringement), focusing primarily on Mr. Incredible/Bob Parr (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), a super-strong, near-invulnerable superhero unhappily turned insurance company clerk; Parr's wife and former superhero, Helen/Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), modeled after Mr. Fantastic (superpower wise), and their two children, Dashiell 'Dash' (Spencer Fox), a super-speedy preteen, and Violet (Sarah Vowell), a sulky teen with self-esteem issues (she can turn invisible and create force fields too).
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Scenes We Love: Dawn of the Dead (1978)

By Mel Valentin (Subscribe to Mel Valentin's posts), Posted Oct 26th 2010 10:15PM
Filed under: Horror, Cinematical

A camera pulls back from what appears to be a 1970s-style shag carpet. It's not. It's the lining in a soundproof room. A woman awakens, shaking, but she's not waking from a nightmare; she's waking into a nightmare of the walking undead stalking, killing, and consuming the living. The nightmare, of course, belongs to George A. Romero's fertile imagination and the film 'Dawn of the Dead' released unrated in 1978-1979 due to violence and gore, remains a high-water mark for the undead/zombie sub-genre Romero redefined a decade earlier with 'Night of the Living Dead.'

Taking 'Night of the Living Dead' as a given, Romero set 'Dawn of the Dead' mid-apocalypse. The well-ordered world as we know still exists, but it's quickly unraveling, leaving the voracious undead in its wake. The sleeping/awakening woman in the first scene, Francine (Gaylen Ross), is one of 'Dawn of the Dead's' central characters. A mid-level television station manager at WGON-TV in Philadelphia, Francine watches first-hand as the station's management structure breaks down, mirroring, apparently, events in the outside world.
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