In a category where The Godfather had no competition from Cabaret, it was an easy win for leading actor Marlon Brando. Yet, famously, it was not he who received the trophy from Liv Ullmann (nominated for The Emigrants) and Roger Moore (currently filming Live and Let Die). Instead, Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage, and delivered remarks protesting the treatment of the Indigenous communities by the United States and Hollywood.
It was a moment that was a punchline for decades afterward, though I think history has since vindicated Brando and Littlefeather, especially since, 50 years later, Hollywood still hasn't gotten its shit together and the nation's gnat-swatting treatment of the First Nations people continues unabated. For years afterwards, however, there was a rule against acceptance speeches being delivered by a "representative;" on the other hand, the "stunt" probably inspired similar uses of the global stage in future acceptance speeches.
Supporting Actor is interesting this year, in that it seems, to me, to consist entirely of the B Squad. Not to deride the accomplishments of these fine men, but most of them aren't even the Best Supporting Actors in their own films, much less of the whole year. The one actor I would argue belongs here is Dennis Hopper, and he's nominated for the wrong movie!
On Oscar night, Jeff Bridges and Sigourney Weaver presented - remember, the previous year's winners teamed up to do Best Supporting Actress - and good Lord people, could it be that presenter banter has actually gotten better in the 30 years since? Were they ad-libbing? Sigourney seems nervous, which is understandable; even though this is her third Oscars as a presenter, it's her first as a nominee, and Best Actress is still to come.
Then comes the anticlimax of a no-show winner - but fortunately, Weaver knows Caine, having worked with him in Half Moon Street, just released the previous September. So it's a sweet moment.
Anyways, after the jump, the nominees - the adulterer of Hannah and Her Sisters, the recovering alcoholic of Hoosiers, the dueling sergeants of Platoon, and the retired journalist of A Room with a View....
If you wanted a nomination in 1983, all you had to do was open a bottle. Of the five nominees for Best Actor, four of them are hard drinkers, whether active or reformed.
In Educating Rita, Michael Caine plays Frank Bryant, a literature professor who begins private tutoring sessions with a working-class woman. His failure as a poet has brought him to the bottle - he keeps a stash behind a copy of alcohol epic The Lost Weekend. The drink has driven his girlfriend right into the arms of one of his colleagues. Did I mention it's a comedy?
In Reuben, Reuben, Tom Conti plays another poet, Gowan McGland of Scotland, based largely on poet/womanizer/alcoholic Dylan Thomas. He comes to a small town in New England to give talks and lectures, and seduce the local bored wives. The Reuben of the title is a dog Gowan befriends; his owner is the grandfather of a much younger woman Gowan falls in love with. This is Conti's first and only nomination.
Tom Courtenay is the title character of The Dresser, whose entire life is devoted to serving a Great Shakespearean Actor - and in between breakdowns, comforts, truth-tellings, bitching, and gossip, he nips from a bottle, and is quick to replenish the supply when he runs out. Albert Finney, as the Great Shakespearean Actor, does not need to imbibe, for he is already losing his mind, and surely that's just one bit of madness too many.
In Tender Mercies, Robert Duvall plays former country music star Mac Sledge - he has hit rock bottom at the film's beginning, and is more or less forced to sober up by the widow he eventually falls in love with. It's distinct from the rest for a number of reasons: the other performances are from films based on plays (Reuben, Reuben is based on a play and a novel), whereas Tender Mercies is an original screenplay. Not only that: of the five, Duvall's the only American!
Small wonder, then, that he won.
Hollywood toasting a native son? Or was he truly deserving? My thoughts, after the jump.
And Then There Were None is one of Agatha Christie's most famous works -- I reckon Murder on the Orient Express and Witness for the Prosecution are the only other ones as immediately recognizable. It has been the basis for two stage plays, a mini-series, multiple films, and infinite spoof episodes on television (even Family Guy did a season premiere called "And Then There Were Fewer").
The 1945 film version
The plot: ten strangers are invited to an island by a mysterious U.N. Owen. A recording is played during dinner, accusing each of them of various crimes. Then they start dropping off one by one, their deaths aligning with a nursery rhyme called...well that depends on the latest publication. Current editions have it as "Ten Little Soldier Boys" ... for years it was "Ten Little Indians" ... first editions have it as "Ten Little N---ers", and that was quickly amended.
There are three famous film versions, all of which take their queue from Agatha's own stage adaptation. The 1945 version features an all-star cast that includes Academy Award Winners Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston, and Academy Award Nominees Mischa Auer, Roland Young and Judith Anderson. It adheres closely to the original work -- they're all English, they're on an island. The next two films would not.
The 1974 film version
In 1965, things got groovy and international. The new ensemble of ten came from everywhere -- a Bond Girl, an American pop star, an Israeli beauty queen -- but still a majority English, all gathered in a castle atop the Swiss Alps. The same producers remade the picture, practically word-for-word, in 1974, moving to a hotel in Iraq! The ensemble comes from Italy, Germany (2), Austria, France (2), the United Kingdom (3), Argentina.
The 2015 BBC version
Last year, the BBC presented a three-part mini-series that brought things back to the art deco island. It, too, was a starry cast that included Toby Stephens and Charles Dance, and focused much more on the effects of war. But frankly, I've always liked the idea of an international who's who getting bumped off one by one. And so I've used that approach when casting my own Ten Little...People.
I have a long relationship with My Fair Lady. I first saw it the summer before middle school, as research. There was a theatre day-camp I used to attend, and that year the show was the Lerner-Loewe classic. My grandparents insisted on renting the movie and letting me see the show for myself...and I was appalled. Who in the world could possibly like this film? The leading lady was shrill, the comic relief was odious, and the "hero" of the film was a snotty, mean-spirited jerk. And it was, like, three hours! Oh, what a miserable summer this was going to be.
I was already signed up for the camp, so I thought it best to grin and bear it. After all, I loved performing, and all my friends were at camp, and who knows? Now that I was older, more experienced, and in with the teachers, I could get the role I wanted most: Colonel Pickering, the only honorable member of the entire cast. I threw myself into the dialect lessons, mastering the bearing and speech of an upper-class English gentleman. My father got me to memorize the Pickering monologue I was using as an audition (they had different monologues for each character; you chose whichever role you'd audition for). I even refused to revisit the film so that my audition was Walter Hollmann's Pickering, not Wilfrid Hyde-White's.
My mother and I would pray every morning before camp. Wanting Pickering but determined not to be too demanding, I asked God to give me a good part...as long as it wasn't Higgins. After hearing my prayer a third or fourth day in a row, Mom looked up and said, "You know, maybe you shouldn't limit God's options." Ok, fine. So my final prayer before the last day of auditions was to just do well, and get a great part.
The day came when they announced the cast. They would gather the entire camp, aged 6 - 13, to hear it, making it the very last event on the last day of the first week. There were, like, 600 of us or something. Maybe not that much. Everything seems so much larger in memory. So let's say 1,000 people were gathered, as they went through the cast -- exactly as I'm doing it now, making their way down until only the trio were left. And the role of Colonel Pickering goes to -- Michael K.!
Well, my prayers went unanswered. I was proud for Mikey, a born showman who would later star in a Florida production of A Stoop on Orchard Street some years after its off-Broadway run. Oy, but I wanted that role so. I was proud, too, of Krystal, who was just announced for the role of Eliza. She was a quiet newcomer, a wallflower -- until she went up for music auditions and belted out "I Could Have Danced All Night" with a masterful soprano that would make Kiri Te Kanawa retire in defeat. Lord, even the music director looked up from the keyboard with bug-eyes. Here's to them. My friends. They deserve it.
"And as Henry Higgins -- Walter Hollmann."
See what happens when you adjust your prayers?
So in the two weeks leading up to the show itself, I learned my script, my songs (this abridged version cut out "I'm an Ordinary Man" and "Hymn to Him"), and the Embassy Waltz. And, of course, when I watched the film again after the show (I refused to let my Higgins become Rex Harrison)....I fell in love. Maybe I was too tired before? Maybe I just didn't get it, and doing the show allowed me to further understand the story. I'm sure playing Higgins helped. Anyway, it's now one of my all-time favorite films, and Higgins one of my favorite characters. Just last week I snapped at a venomous co-worker, "Claws in, you cat!" And we all remember how much I support Harrison's Oscar win.
Harrison's was just one of eight Oscar wins. Andre Previn's arrangement of Frederick Loewe's music won Best Adapted Score over such notable nominees as Mary Poppins and A Hard Day's Night. Cecil Beaton won for Costume Design - Color (yay!) and Art Direction - Color, leaving Becket, Mary Poppins and What a Way to Go! in the cold...except for their other Oscars. Well, not What a Way to Go!, but a fun movie that one is! And, of course, it won Cinematography (Harry Stradling), Director (George Cukor) and Best Picture of the Year. And Sound (George Groves).
My Fair Lady was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress - Gladys Cooper (lost to Lila Kedrova), Best Supporting Actor - Stanley Holloway (lost to Peter Ustinov), Best Adapted Screenplay (lost to Becket) and Best Editing (lost to Mary Poppins).
A couple years ago, it was announced that Emma Thompson was working on a screenplay for a remake of My Fair Lady. At the time, Keira Knightley was attached, and it seemed Daniel Day-Lewis may play Higgins. In this post-Nine world, DDL is out, Carey Mulligan is now attached instead of Keira, and there's still been no word. I did some speculation about contenders for the roles, but only now can I offer a concrete Casting Coup. And there are many changed. All good, I think.
But surely, if one is to remake My Fair Lady, one could do a lot worse than this:
MRS. PEARCE
Who is She: Higgins' loyal housekeeper. Practical and unfazed by his nuttery.
Originally played by: BAFTA Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Stevie)
Mona Washbourne (Night Must Fall, The Collector)
My Choice: Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (My Week with Marilyn), BAFTA Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Wilde)
Zoe Wanamaker (Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, "Poirot: Cards on the Table")
FREDDY EYNSFORD-HILL
Who is He: A handsome member of the upper class who falls in love with Eliza after her gaffe at Ascot.
Originally played by:
Jeremy Brett (War and Peace, "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes")
My Choice:
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, The Woman in Black)
With paler-than-ivory good looks and proven skills at singing (and dancing!), the ex-Potter could neatly fill the role of the aristocratic love interest. Lord knows he has time now.
MRS. HIGGINS
Who is She: Higgins' mother, who thinks her son can get tiresome. She offers Eliza a safe haven after she leaves Higgins.
Originally played by: Academy Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (Now, Voyager, The Song of Bernadette, My Fair Lady)
Gladys Cooper (Rebecca, The Happiest Millionaire)
My Choice: Academy Award Winner for Best Actress (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie) and Best Supporting Actress (California Suite), BAFTA Award Winner for Best Actress (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, A Private Function, A Room with a View, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne) and Best Supporting Actress (Tea with Mussolini), Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress - Musical/Comedy (California Suite) and Best Supporting Actress (A Room with a View), SAG Award Winner for Best Ensemble (Gosford Park)
Maggie Smith (The Pumpkin Eater, "Downton Abbey")
It was a toss-up between her and Dench for this role, but Smith, I think, is much better at making an insult go down warm. With her, it may tweak you, but it's not quite cruel -- just stating the facts. "You might stick to two subjects: the weather and your health." Smith would actually make it sound like advice, but with so straight a face you know what a bitch-slap you received.
ALFRED DOOLITTLE
Who is He: Eliza's father, supposedly a chimney-sweep. In practice, he's a drunk and a layabout, but he's at least aware of it. Higgins calls him "the most original moralist in England".
Originally played by: Academy Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (My Fair Lady)
Stanley Holloway (The Lavender Hill Mob, Ten Little Indians)
My Choice: Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (Zulu), Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor (Hannah and Her Sisters, The Cider House Rules)
Michael Caine (The Dark Knight, Is Anybody There?)
The rare actor to maintain his cockney accent while still getting the plum roles and a great career. Not the worst singer, and Alfred Doolittle is a role that only demands so much. He'd really be great fun.
COLONEL PICKERING
Who is He: A dialectician, author of Spoken Sanskrit. Pays for Eliza's education in a bet with Higgins to pass her off as a lady at the Embassy Ball. A real father figure.
Originally played by: Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Supporting Actor (My Fair Lady)
Wilfrid Hyde-White (Ten Little Indians, Xanadu)
My Choice:
Ciaran Hinds (The Debt, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
He deserves it.
ELIZA DOOLITTLE
Who is She: A flower girl who wants lessons from Higgins so that she can be an assistant in a proper florist's. Aha, but the bet between Higgins and Pickering makes her the modern Galatea to their Pygmalion, as she learns to drop her accent (bit rarely her manner) to pass as a Lady.
Originally played by: Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Actress (My Fair Lady), Academy Award/Golden Globe Winner for Best Actress [Drama] (Roman Holiday), BAFTA Award Winner for Best British Actress (Roman Holiday, The Nun's Story, Charade)
Audrey Hepburn (Love in the Afternoon, Breakfast at Tiffany's)
My Choice: BAFTA Award/Golden Globe Nominee for Best Supporting Actress (The Devil Wears Prada), Golden Globe Nominee for Best Actress - Drama (The Young Victoria)
Emily Blunt (The Muppets, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen)
Oh, man, this kind of just came to me. True, I don't know if she can do a Cockney accent, but I've always assumed she could since her American accent is so impeccable. She's good as accents, is what I'm saying. She sings, but is it the same sort of singing required for Eliza? I don't care about that right now. That's probably a bad thing, but there you are.
HENRY HIGGINS
Who is He: An expert of dialects, a confirmed old bachelor and likely to remain so. Rarely does he consider the feelings of others, unless they become inconvenient to him. Little does he know how fond he is becoming of his pupil...
Originally played by: Hollmann Award Winner for Best Actor, Academy Award/Golden Globe Winner for Best Actor - Musical/Comedy, BAFTA Awards Nominee for Best British Actor (My Fair Lady)
Red Harrison (Anna and the King of Siam, The Honey Pot)
My Choice: Hollmann Award Nominee for Best Actor (A Single Man, The King's Speech) and Best Supporting Actor (Easy Virtue), Academy Award/Golden Globe/SAG Award Winner for Best Actor [Drama] (The King's Speech), BAFTA Award Winner for Best Actor (A Single Man, The King's Speech), SAG Award Winner for Best Ensemble (Shakespeare in Love, The King's Speech)
Colin Firth (Fever Pitch, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
Yes, of course, another obvious choice, but run through Higgins' lines in Firth's voice. Heaven, isn't it? And he could be as dismissive as Harrison, but with more warmth. We'd get why Eliza stays.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Best Actor: Colin Firth
Best Actress: Emily Blunt
Best Supporting Actor: Ciaran Hinds, Michael Caine, Daniel Radcliffe
Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith, Zoe Wanamaker
Harry Brown
Michael Caine gives a grade-A performance in this beautifully-lit though slow-paced social thriller that wants to make a Statement about the Way of Things while still retaining B-movie vigilante qualities. It doesn't always work, but certain sequences, like Harry's encounter with the drug dealer Slim (a mercilessly icky Sean Harris) just sing to the high Heavens with superbity. An original song plays over the credits, which is a little amusing, but cannot distract from seeing Caine dole out some street justice (not to be confused with Streep Justice). I'm amazed at how serious it is, and how determined director Daniel Barber is to stick with that vision of gritty realism. A dreary third-act twist, though hinted at before, keeps it at a three-star status instead of three and one-half.
A Prophet
True, the point of the title is really only used once, and almost randomly at that, but there is no doubt that Jacques Audiard has made quite the masterpiece, a prison movie, a gangster epic, a character piece with supernatural elements, and all mixed together seamlessly and beautifully. Everyone we meet, however briefly, is fully developed and completely individual: Hichem Yacoubi is one of cinema's greatest ghosts, and Niels Arestrup is scary and pathetic as the Corsican mobster who runs the prison from the inside. Protagonist Tahar Rahim, though, is a marvel to watch, and the transformation from naive innocent to ruthless gangster is one that sneaks up on you, so subtle and fluid is that arc. Hollmann Award Winner Alexandre Desplat (who has also been nominated four other times) contributes a wonderfully humble score, too.
MacGruber
More jokes hit than miss. If there's anything holding the movie back, it may be Will Forte's hamming it up, which clashes somewhat with Ryan Phillippe, Val Kilmer and Kristen Wiig, all of whom play it straight. It works much of the time -- dick jokes, copy toner lube, and the history of MacGruber and villain Cunth are great highlights (all crass, all hilarious) -- but in the end you know you won't remember this movie in two years. Still, you could probably keep this on as you do laundry. Can we let Phillippe do more comedies, by the way?
Because I love Michael Caine, because I had a free movie ticket, because there's nothing better to do on a Summer's eve in Tally, I went with some friends to see Is Anybody There? last night at my local art house cineplex. I'd been hearing good things, and I was delighted at the ensemble of veteran actors assembled, so off to the theater did I trip and go.
Meh.
Is Anybody There? struck me as a first-timer. Clearly, it was the work of a first-time director working with a first-time screenwriter, cut together by a first-time editor. Which doesn't mean it's bad. It's actually quite a good film, about a boy (Bill Milner) living in a rest home run by his parents befriends one of the residents, a retired magician (Michael Caine). So, it was quite winning and touching and humorous at times, but generally seemed like everyone involved was just a little inexperienced.
And then I learned that director John Crowley, writer Peter Harness, and editor Trevor Waite are not only experienced, but two of them are actually sort of admired. Crowley and Waite, I mean. Doubly surprising was the revelation that I have actually seen and enjoyed other films Waite edited -- surprising because, besides Joby Talbot's intrusive and inappropriate score, the editing is the weakest part of the film, cutting away when it should linger, lingering when there is little need to, rendering confusing the simplest of scenes. As we left the theater, my roommate made sure to stay for the credits, and upon seeing Waite's name, proclaimed, "I'm never working with him." Harsh, perhaps, especially now that I know he did Prime Suspect: The Final Act. But still, there it is, the editing was jarring and the score intrusive.
OK, that's the bad. The good, fortunately, comes from Michael Caine's brilliant performance as Clarence, struggling to keep his wits while slowly slipping into dementia. In fact, that's where the great comes from. I've never seen a Caine performance like this, one in which he gets to be crotchety, fun-loving, and so nakedly vulnerable. I read where someone called this his best since The Quiet American, but I would go a step further and say this is his best since Hannah and Her Sisters. Call me crazy, but there it is. Within his performance is all the bitterness that some people experience when facing their own mortality; the regret of past mistakes; the hope that there may be an afterlife. It's a beautiful and touching performance.
Bill Milner does quite well as the boy he befriends. And old folks -- featuring Peter Vaughan, Leslie Phillips, and the late Elizabeth Spriggs -- do quite well with comic relief, but are not developed enough. Only Rosemary Harris (Aunt May in the Spider-Man films) gets a wonderful role as a former dancer who now has a plastic leg. She pulls a Hermione Baddeley, making a fully-realized person out of a sketchily-written role. Anne-Marie Duff, as Milner's struggling and strong mother, is also great, but that may also be because she is hot and a mom.
The script could have stood with some rewriting. Some polishing on the Caine-Milner relationship. Some development of the old people. Less concern with the parents, to be honest, would have suited me. But overall, some good stuff is going on here.
Bottom line: A sweet little movie whose actors are better than what they're working with. Especially Michael Caine.
Seen on AwardsDaily, I simply have to share these two incredible items with y'all.
Yay, poster for Julie & Julia! If you recall, Julie & Julia was my Number Nine most anticipated film at the beginning of the year. Looking back at that list now, though... I mean, Wolverine? Really?
Anyway, also coming soon...
Oh, I love Michael Caine. And this kid rocked in Son of Rambow. Can't wait for this one, either. Old people and magic and Michael Caine (did I say that yet?)! Hooray!
Yesterday, my second favorite living actor celebrated his 59th birthday. Later this year, we'll get to see him in Robert Rodriguez's family-friendly Shorts.
As for today, it's the 76th year for my main man, the Number One Greatest Living Actor in the World. He's got two films due for release this year. In Is There Anybody There?, he plays a magician who befriends a boy whose parents run the retirement home where he lives. In Harry Brown, he plays the titular hero, bent on revenge. Seventy-six and doing action flicks? Hell yeah...
A friend of mine led me to this story from Empire, about a new vigilante movie in the works.
This vigilante film co-stars Emily Mortimer, the amazing actress from such gems as Lars and the Real Girl, David Mamet's Redbelt, and Scream 3. Matthew Vaughn, he who directed Stardust last year, is producing (is he directing as well? I don't know).
Anyway, the real story here is the star. You see, the movie is called Harry Brown. And playing the ass-kicking, name-taking titular hero is none other than....
Wait for it....
MICHAEL FUCKING CAINE.
Yeah, that's right. That Michael Caine. Holy shit, my mind just exploded.
The film sees him avenging the murder of his best friend. No word yet on who that'll be, but I'm just thinking how awesome it would be if Peter O'Toole, who Michael Caine once understudied, was in this movie too. Holy shit, that would be insane.
100: Weight, in pounds, gained by Christian Bale to play Batman
20: Weight, in pounds, shed by Christian Bale after initial weight gain
18: People killed
12: Actors in major roles from the United Kingdom/Ireland
8: Years since previous Batman movie
4: Villains/antagonists (Ra's al-Ghul, Scarecrow, Carmine Falcone, Mr. Earle)
3: Number of times Christian Bale lost his voice while doing the "Batman" rasp
2: Academy Award Winners
1: Original character
Monday, June 9, 2008
With all this hoopla concerning My Fair Lady: Fair Harder (mostly from you, Jenn), I think it's time we do a little discussion about all this. All this....casting. But it's not a casting coup. This is an open discussion in which we bounce ideas off of one another.
For instance, the casting of Keira Knightley. Quite daring, really. I mean, who would ever have thought to replace this:
with this:
Seriously. Casting a flawlessly gorgeous, skinny brunette in the role originated by a flawlessly gorgeous, skinny brunette? Amazing!
My issue with this is that it's too obvious. Casting Keira Knightley or Natalie Portman or Jennifer Love Hewitt in an Audrey role just smacks of safety. That's part of the reason why I needed Maggie Grace as my Holly Golightly. She's a buxom blonde, and does not immediately call to mind the original. The audience subconsciously remains unbiased. You immediately expect something different.
So, who would I have chosen? It's a tough decision. I'd like a brunette in the role, just not a waif. Maybe Martine McCutcheon: who played the role in London's West End, and won the Olivier for it:
On the other hand, I think Eliza's supposed to be younger than Martine's 32 years. Still, she doesn't look it, and she played the role onstage. Of course, film is a different medium, with close-ups and the like. On the other hand, Audrey was 33 when the original was released. Hm.
Moot point, though. Keira's a done deal. But who would you like to see cast in the role?
Martine:
Continue for the rest of the cast... The problem is, the original had such a perfect group of actors. Stanley Holloway and Rex Harrison reprised their Broadway roles of Alfred Doolittle and Henry Higgins. Wilfrid Hyde-White was an excellent Colonel Pickering, one that absolutely stole my heart when I first saw it. (As I get older, of course, I identify more and more with Higgins) Jeremy Brett, later Sherlock Holmes, was that excellent quasi-love interest, while Gladys Cooper actually managed to steal scenes from Rex Fucking Harrison as his mother.
Who in the world could possibly compete with these phenomenal actors? Who would dare try the role on for size, in a non-dubbed version with both stars and up-and-comers?
Me, I prefer to see films with an all-star cast and only one or two unknowns. This does two things: guarantees a great marquee, and allows a newcomer to cut his or teeth with some actual human beings. However, since Eliza is (once again) being cast for star appeal, that leaves only one other character who can be played by a newcomer:
Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Freddy meets Eliza outside Covent Garden, when she's still a flower girl. But, you know, she's a flower girl, so he doesn't notice her. He next meets her at Ascot, and is completely smitten by her. He gets to sing one of the loveliest songs ever written by anyone:
So, yes, I say an unknown. Or, how about a dashing British actor who we already know is a passable singer (I think, at least)?
The only thing is, for me at least, this song has to be effing beautiful. This actor was dubbed. And it's wonderful, and he sells it. Still, I'd love to a boyish Christian Bale wearing that hat. Or an unknown.
It was mentioned before that Michael Caine could play Henry Higgins. To which I reply: nnggh. I love Michael Caine, everyone knows that. He's my favorite living actor. But alas, he's far too old and far too Cockney to play Henry Higgins. One can interpret the Eliza-Higgins relationship as either paternal or romantic. It could go either way. With Michael Caine, what you have here is an old man lusting after a bright young thing. And also, he's Cockney. Far too rough to play a role like Higgins.
On the other hand, he may be suitable for the role of Eliza's chimney-sweep father, Alfred P. Doolittle, who pays Higgins to keep the girl away from him. I ask you to picture Michael Caine singing an ode to laziness:
Stanley Holloway, that guy, was 74 when he made the film. Michael Caine is 75. Hm. I say OK.
You see, Higgins need to be within the twenty-year age difference. Freddy needs to be within the fifteen-year age difference. The other characters: who cares? Twenty to forty years, I believe, is most appropriate. The only other rule of thumb is that Higgins' mother must be played by an actress who is, at least, fifteen to twenty years older than the man playing Higgins. Or, once again, she must at least look like she is.
Example: Footloose. In the movie, hot babe Lori Singer plays Ariel, the sixteen-year-old daughter of plain preacher's wife Vi, played by Dianne Wiest. And it looks passable. But did you know there's only a seven-year difference between the two? Incroyable!
Such is the case with Mrs. Higgins. Someone who can pass as much, much older than most of the cast. Maybe not Pickering, but the rest.
This gives us a number of choices. A heavily made-up Julie Walters?
A typically typecast Judi Dench?
Or a most-in-need-of-a-career-resurgence Joan Plowright?
Myself, I'm in the Plowright camp, though surely some consideration for Miss Marples wouldn't do any harm, like Angela Lansbury or Geraldine McEwan or Julia McKenzie.
Though, now that I think about, they'd be better suited for Freddy's mother. Especially Geraldine. Ooh, especially Geraldine....
That leaves us with two characters left, and anyone could play either part. Colonel Pickering, for instance, is older and wiser than Higgins, more in touch with people's feelings. Yet he can be just as playfully mischievous. He can be tall, he can be short. He can elderly, he can be middle-aged. Literally anyone who can do a British accent could play this role. Give Hugh Grant some makeup, and BOOM there you have it.
In all serious, though, there are a number of people who could play Col. Pickering. First in my mind is the great Christopher Lee, who needs to be seen outside a horror/fantasy/sci-fi flick and show off his musical talents.
Then there's Leslie Phillips, the Hollmann Nominee for Best Supporting Actor in 2006 for the film Venus. The star of that film, of course, was Peter O'Toole, who played Higgins in a TV version of Pygmalion, the straight play upon which My Fair Lady is based. He was also the studio's choice for the original film. Still, Leslie Phillips:
Not Ian McKellen, though. Too much star power for this part. You know who'd also be cool, though? Vincent Price. But he's dead, so I guess that leaves him out of it. Maybe Derek Jacobi or James Cromwell or Donald Sutherland or Michael Gambon. They'd all be great for the role.
And that just leaves us with one person. The greatest role ever written for a musical. Henry Higgins.
Like I said, Higgins should be in that twenty-year range with Eliza. For Keira Knightley, this means someone in their forties, though maybe fifty-five would be a good stop. For Martine McCutcheon, this means closer to fifty-three, maybe sixty as a stopping point. No, strike that. Fifty-five. Period. Come to that, maybe keep the age range at forty-five to fifty-five years old. Now you got something.
Ben suggested Colin Firth, who will supposedly show off his musical abilities in Mamma Mia! this summer.
Colin is forty-eight years old and can play father and lover with equal ease. Perhaps, though, he's too dashing to play Higgins. Could we believe him saying: "I'd prefer a new additon/To the Spanish Inquisition/Than to ever let a woman in my life"? Hm.
Still, that's more believable than one of my suggestions: Colin's co-star, Pierce Brosnan.
Yeah, right. Stupid me. Brosnan will eternally resemble the jerk-off friend of yours whose company you retain despite the fact that he's been with every girl you've ever had a crush on. Look at him. Can you please stop eye-fucking the room, Pierce?
As for men that push the limit, there's a 64-year-old Welshman and a 57-year-old Australian that would be great for the part:
Timothy Dalton
Geoffrey Rush.
Though Rush's Australian accent may be a distraction. Perhaps we would do better with an actual Englishman.
Yes, an Englishman who is handsome.
A sophisticated man.
One who could believably keep women away, yet still fall for Keira Knightley.
One who can sing, who has already done a Hollywood musical.
Some early word is in from a screening of Bart Got a Room, an indie teen-comedy that played at Tribeca.
Apparently, it rocks hard, at least according to Scott Feinberg (And The Winner Is...) and Lou Leminick. Lou calls it "hilarious", while Feinberg, whose comments can be found at Hollywood-Elsewhere, call it "the best surprise of the festival".
Great news. Why? Well, two reasons, really:
1. The father of the lead is played by William H. Macy, my favorite living American actor (favorite living overall goes to Michael Caine). And he has a Jewfro. Holy shit.
2. The film is set and was filmed in South Florida! Always a good thing when the old homestead can be used for films that aren't about drug trafficking. Hooray!
I really hope this gets snapped up and released within the next year. You can never have too much William H. Macy.
