John Wayne in The Quiet Man
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Showing posts with label Jose Ferrer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jose Ferrer. Show all posts
Best Actor 1952: Results
John Wayne in The Quiet Man
Best Actor 1952: Jose Ferrer in Moulin Rouge
Jose Ferrer received his third and final Oscar nomination for portraying Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and actually his father The Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec.
Moulin Rouge tells the story of troubled dwarfish painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and his time in Paris.
First the father Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec is a short role, and I must say that it is strange they chose to have Ferrer play the son and the father. He is in flashbacks as a prideful man, and happy one who wants his son be like him. Ferrer is fine but we see little of him as the father. He also has one scene where he is in the same scene as Henri. It is a strange scene to see Ferrer act as himself, and frankly it probably would have been better for someone else to play the father, since it ended up just being mostly distracting. He is basically functional as the father, except at the end where he shows some honest concern for his son, which is well handled actually.
As Henri himself Ferrer seems lacking. I must say it is visually striking to see Ferrer as the dwarfish Lautrec, but this aspect of the character requires little acting from Ferrer. Although when he is clearly actually walking I suppose he had to hide the pain he had from walking on his knees, which to tell you the truth I do not think he managed to completely hide.
Ferrer plays a sad weakened man but he does not try to really ever gain the viewers pity. He never though manages to really bring in the viewers of his feelings too well though. I never really felt what he was feeling most of the time. I will grant that at times in some quiet reaction shots he was fairly effective, but still these are short and most of the time, he does very little to create any honest feeling from his portrayal.
Despite looking like Henri well enough he never really gets under his skin with his performance. He always stays at a distance much like the film. He also fails to really to show any of the brilliance of the painter, or any desire or cause for his artistic desire. He equally has trouble really suggesting the self destruction of his character otherwise than his disability. He drinks in the film, but Ferrer fails to create any underlying causes otherwise that this single facet of his.
Overall Ferrer's performance just is lacking. He has a moment or two, always the quiet reactions that show some promise, but he never capitalizes well on this, and he offsets this a bit with his overacting in many scenes when he is trying to show louder emotions. Ferrer performance overall simply is a missed opportunity. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec should have or could have been a great characterization if an actor really delved deep into the mind of this man, but Ferrer never does this in this lacking performance.
First the father Comte de Toulouse-Lautrec is a short role, and I must say that it is strange they chose to have Ferrer play the son and the father. He is in flashbacks as a prideful man, and happy one who wants his son be like him. Ferrer is fine but we see little of him as the father. He also has one scene where he is in the same scene as Henri. It is a strange scene to see Ferrer act as himself, and frankly it probably would have been better for someone else to play the father, since it ended up just being mostly distracting. He is basically functional as the father, except at the end where he shows some honest concern for his son, which is well handled actually.
As Henri himself Ferrer seems lacking. I must say it is visually striking to see Ferrer as the dwarfish Lautrec, but this aspect of the character requires little acting from Ferrer. Although when he is clearly actually walking I suppose he had to hide the pain he had from walking on his knees, which to tell you the truth I do not think he managed to completely hide.
Ferrer plays a sad weakened man but he does not try to really ever gain the viewers pity. He never though manages to really bring in the viewers of his feelings too well though. I never really felt what he was feeling most of the time. I will grant that at times in some quiet reaction shots he was fairly effective, but still these are short and most of the time, he does very little to create any honest feeling from his portrayal.
Despite looking like Henri well enough he never really gets under his skin with his performance. He always stays at a distance much like the film. He also fails to really to show any of the brilliance of the painter, or any desire or cause for his artistic desire. He equally has trouble really suggesting the self destruction of his character otherwise than his disability. He drinks in the film, but Ferrer fails to create any underlying causes otherwise that this single facet of his.
Overall Ferrer's performance just is lacking. He has a moment or two, always the quiet reactions that show some promise, but he never capitalizes well on this, and he offsets this a bit with his overacting in many scenes when he is trying to show louder emotions. Ferrer performance overall simply is a missed opportunity. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec should have or could have been a great characterization if an actor really delved deep into the mind of this man, but Ferrer never does this in this lacking performance.
Best Actor 1952
Kirk Douglas in The Bad and the Beautiful
Marlon Brando in Viva Zapata!
Gary Cooper in High Noon
Jose Ferrer in Moulin Rouge
Alec Guinness in The Lavender Hill Mob
Best Actor 1950: Results
3. William Holden in Sunset Blvd.- William does an incredibly good job at being cynical, and finds the right if sometimes bizarre tone for his scenes with Gloria Swanson. The only reason he is third because I though he had more help from the film than the other two.
Deserving Performances:
Edmond O'Brien in DOA
Toshiro Mifune in Rashomon
Best Actor 1950: Jose Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac
Jose Ferrer won his Oscar from his second nomination for portraying Cyrano De Bergerac.
Cyrano De Bergerac is not a particularly good film, many of the scenes are very stagy, and most of the actors beside the lead are either terrible or very dull.
Cyrano De Bergerac and Jose Ferrer's portrayal of him defies my standard method of reviewing. For one thing Cyrano is an incredibly theatrical character, and Ferrer portrays him in the same sort of fashion. Now I would say for other characters a performance like this would be outrageous or over the top but here it is rather different. The rather loud nature of his performance works rather well, and goes along with the character of Cyrano. Cyrano has to be theatrical because that is the way Cyrano is. The character is loud, always going off with his speeches and poetry whenever he has the chance. This is the way the character is written and the actor has to be equally theatrical back.
Ferrer does just that and goes for utter theatrics with his performance. He certainly throws himself into the role, and is on for every moment of the film. He always makes sure that he is front and center for almost the entire film which is a good things since his performance is the only thing in this film. Ferrer goes always for larger than life portrayal of Cyrano which is the right portrayal. Since he always has so much conviction in his performance, I actually found myself believing in Cyrano as a character, which he could have easily seemed like a false character due to the nature of the character but since Ferrer always is completely confidant in his performance Cyrano works as a character.
Ferrer has a whole lot of speeches to make of many different types. He has romantic speeches, poems to says, and rather dramatic story telling speeches. Ferrer excels in all three types of these speeches. He always puts the right amount of gusto in all of his speeches, he moves around and acts out each one with the utmost amount of energy. I will admit not every speech is as good as the last, but Ferrer always attempts his best to make them entertaining since most of the movie is just a whole bunch of speeches from him. His best speeches I would say are his early strings of them where he makes these string of scenes as effective as they can be considering the weakness of the other actors. Also his final speech is incredibly well handled and finds the right amount of poignancy despite the fact that Mala Powers as Roxanne adds basically nothing to the scene.
The only time he is not making speeches is whether he is sword fighting or teaching an inept but good looking man Christian how to make speeches to woo Cyrano's own secret true love Roxanne.
Ferrer puts his usual energy in Cyrano's fight that does add to them, he always shows the rush in Cyrano's face he gets from the fight, and again succeeds well in making a speech at the same time as sword fighting. Cyrano's scenes of helping Christian I though actually were the best in the movie, because Ferrer added actually a lot of humor into these scenes. His correcting and amusement at Christian is really well handled by Ferrer adding much needed actual humor in the film. I would say the biggest weakness of the performance is the film, and this really is a film not deserving of a performance. Ferrer performance is in fact weakened by the film since he has almost no support.
Cyrano De Bergerac and Jose Ferrer's portrayal of him defies my standard method of reviewing. For one thing Cyrano is an incredibly theatrical character, and Ferrer portrays him in the same sort of fashion. Now I would say for other characters a performance like this would be outrageous or over the top but here it is rather different. The rather loud nature of his performance works rather well, and goes along with the character of Cyrano. Cyrano has to be theatrical because that is the way Cyrano is. The character is loud, always going off with his speeches and poetry whenever he has the chance. This is the way the character is written and the actor has to be equally theatrical back.
Ferrer does just that and goes for utter theatrics with his performance. He certainly throws himself into the role, and is on for every moment of the film. He always makes sure that he is front and center for almost the entire film which is a good things since his performance is the only thing in this film. Ferrer goes always for larger than life portrayal of Cyrano which is the right portrayal. Since he always has so much conviction in his performance, I actually found myself believing in Cyrano as a character, which he could have easily seemed like a false character due to the nature of the character but since Ferrer always is completely confidant in his performance Cyrano works as a character.
Ferrer has a whole lot of speeches to make of many different types. He has romantic speeches, poems to says, and rather dramatic story telling speeches. Ferrer excels in all three types of these speeches. He always puts the right amount of gusto in all of his speeches, he moves around and acts out each one with the utmost amount of energy. I will admit not every speech is as good as the last, but Ferrer always attempts his best to make them entertaining since most of the movie is just a whole bunch of speeches from him. His best speeches I would say are his early strings of them where he makes these string of scenes as effective as they can be considering the weakness of the other actors. Also his final speech is incredibly well handled and finds the right amount of poignancy despite the fact that Mala Powers as Roxanne adds basically nothing to the scene.
The only time he is not making speeches is whether he is sword fighting or teaching an inept but good looking man Christian how to make speeches to woo Cyrano's own secret true love Roxanne.
Ferrer puts his usual energy in Cyrano's fight that does add to them, he always shows the rush in Cyrano's face he gets from the fight, and again succeeds well in making a speech at the same time as sword fighting. Cyrano's scenes of helping Christian I though actually were the best in the movie, because Ferrer added actually a lot of humor into these scenes. His correcting and amusement at Christian is really well handled by Ferrer adding much needed actual humor in the film. I would say the biggest weakness of the performance is the film, and this really is a film not deserving of a performance. Ferrer performance is in fact weakened by the film since he has almost no support.
Best Actor 1950
William Holden in Sunset Boulevard
James Stewart in Harvey
Jose Ferrer in Cyrano De Bergerac
Spencer Tracy in Father of the Bride
Louis Calhern in The Magnificent Yankee
What is your prediction? Who do you pick?
Best Supporting Actor 1948: Results
4. Oskar Homolka in I Remember Mama- Homolka overacts very heavily in his scenes being far too obvious in his performance. I did like his last scene where he toned it down but that was not enough.
3. Charles Bickford in Johnny Belinda- Bickford is good showing the transition of a father from believing his daughter to being dumb to truly loving her despite the fact the film and script are really built away from him.
2. Cecil Kellaway in The Luck of the Irish- Kellaway fulfills his role perfectly, he just seems right as a Leprechaun. Even though the part is not the most complicated Kellaway still gives a very nice performance.
Edward G. Robinson in Key Largo
Ward Bond in Fort Apache
Best Supporting Actor 1948: Jose Ferrer in Joan of Arc
Jose Ferrer received his first Oscar nomination for portraying the Dauphin in Joan of Arc.
Joan of Arc is a pretty poor telling of the story of Joan, that always seems unrealistic and over the top, and never becomes very interesting or very good.
Ferrer is not in the film for very much of the time but when he is he makes little to no impact. He plays a Dauphin who is a poor ruler in all regards who is incompetent and basically sells out Joan for his own gain. Ferrer shows the Dauphin's incompetence well enough but that is all he does well enough. I will admit he does not seem kingly at all or in charge and he is not suppose to. But Ferrer really does very little to show this except read the lines that say this.
He does not really do anything with this performance at all. He adds no depth to his character, he is just the incompetent Dauphin in the script and he adds nothing to the character from there. He leaves everything really to the script never giving little hints to more or adding anything interesting about the character. He is a bit theatrical in his way of speaking yet somehow he is always incredibly dull at the same time. He made no impact on the movie at all and is one of the weakest parts in a movie that is already weak. Ferrer does not give a very interesting or well played film debut. He clearly seemed to be inexperienced in film acting and shows really none of abilities that would be seen in later films, such as say for example his brilliant single scene in Lawrence of Arabia.
Ferrer is not in the film for very much of the time but when he is he makes little to no impact. He plays a Dauphin who is a poor ruler in all regards who is incompetent and basically sells out Joan for his own gain. Ferrer shows the Dauphin's incompetence well enough but that is all he does well enough. I will admit he does not seem kingly at all or in charge and he is not suppose to. But Ferrer really does very little to show this except read the lines that say this.
He does not really do anything with this performance at all. He adds no depth to his character, he is just the incompetent Dauphin in the script and he adds nothing to the character from there. He leaves everything really to the script never giving little hints to more or adding anything interesting about the character. He is a bit theatrical in his way of speaking yet somehow he is always incredibly dull at the same time. He made no impact on the movie at all and is one of the weakest parts in a movie that is already weak. Ferrer does not give a very interesting or well played film debut. He clearly seemed to be inexperienced in film acting and shows really none of abilities that would be seen in later films, such as say for example his brilliant single scene in Lawrence of Arabia.
Best Supporting Actor 1948
Cecil Kellaway in The Luck of the Irish
Jose Ferrer in Joan of Arc
Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Charles Bickford in Johnny Belinda
Oskar Homolka in I Remember Mama
Who do you pick? What do you predict my ranking will be?
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