Re: FilmCouch #20

joem18b — Thu, 24 May 2007 18:42:21 GMT

Continuing the thoughts on villains:

One type of villain that stands out for me is the bad guy portrayed by an actor playing against type. It threw me when Lee Van Cleef showed up in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly as Angel Eyes (bad guy), when I had him down as Col. Mortimer (good guy in For a Few Dollars More).

Some others:

Henry Fonda - Once Upon a Time in the West

Kathleen Turner - Serial Mom

Burt Lancaster - Sweet Smell of Success, Elmer Gantry?, Bird Man of Alcatraz?

Robert Mitchum - Cape Fear

Dustin Hoffman - Dutch Schultz in Billy Bathgate; Meyer Lansky in Lost City; Winston King in Confidence; David Sumner in Straw Dogs?? (How many times can you play a bad guy and no longer be playing against type?)

FilmCouch #20

paul — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:40:48 GMT

Interview with Christopher Smith director of Severance, a fall-down-funny-then-cover-your-eyes slasher flick opening in theaters tonight. The FilmCouch group reloads discussion on what makes a villain from FilmCouch 18, and somehow draws a connection between American Beauty and Star Wars. A 33 year old German film is more relevant today than ever--Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), by New German Cinema pioneer Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

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