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Post by jaqs on Sept 25, 2022 14:26:47 GMT
Have thoroughly enjoyed the exerts in the guardian over the weekend.
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Post by frappuccino on Oct 2, 2022 16:20:07 GMT
The BFI is holding an event hosted by Mark Kermode in his honour on 2nd October, with guests including Emma Thompson, Ian McKellen and Juliet Stevenson (there’s a screening of Truly Madly Deeply on the same day( Is anyone going today? Would love an update!
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Post by frappuccino on Oct 3, 2022 1:19:12 GMT
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Post by frappuccino on Oct 3, 2022 1:19:37 GMT
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Post by frappuccino on Oct 3, 2022 1:20:55 GMT
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Post by frappuccino on Oct 3, 2022 1:22:04 GMT
His wife (Rima Horton). She said she did not read or open his diaries until after he died. i wasn't there. Someone who was shared that anecdote.
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Post by frappuccino on Oct 12, 2022 12:57:00 GMT
Who is reading?
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Post by frappuccino on Oct 18, 2022 13:34:29 GMT
Has anyone read his diaries? So much is left out. Sometimes it makes no sense. There are entries about filming Dark Harbour with Norman Reedus. Alan plays a husband secretly having an affair with Norman. The entries he writes are so cryptic. I guess he took precautions in case his diaries were found.
6 October
A truth, of course, is that when I am preoccupied with one individual, everything else seems secondary. Idiotic.
26 October 11 Headache. Heartache
30 October Very difficult to describe in coded form except to say various takes of Scene 105. Once the hair and costume had been decided we basically got on with it. At times the temptation was to stop in the middle and just say Who’s kidding who here – this is mutual isn’t it? Was it? Wasn’t it? Will I ever know (editors note on this date he was talking about filming w Norman reedus)
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Post by talkingheads on Oct 19, 2022 9:11:56 GMT
Has anyone read his diaries? So much is left out. Sometimes it makes no sense. There are entries about filming Dark Harbour with Norman Reedus. Alan plays a husband secretly having an affair with Norman. The entries he writes are so cryptic. I guess he took precautions in case his diaries were found. 6 October A truth, of course, is that when I am preoccupied with one individual, everything else seems secondary. Idiotic. 26 October 11 Headache. Heartache 30 October Very difficult to describe in coded form except to say various takes of Scene 105. Once the hair and costume had been decided we basically got on with it. At times the temptation was to stop in the middle and just say Who’s kidding who here – this is mutual isn’t it? Was it? Wasn’t it? Will I ever know (editors note on this date he was talking about filming w Norman reedus) Is the whole book like that? I was interested in reading but if it's just sparse sentences I might give it a miss.
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Post by frappuccino on Oct 19, 2022 23:41:50 GMT
Has anyone read his diaries? So much is left out. Sometimes it makes no sense. There are entries about filming Dark Harbour with Norman Reedus. Alan plays a husband secretly having an affair with Norman. The entries he writes are so cryptic. I guess he took precautions in case his diaries were found. 6 October A truth, of course, is that when I am preoccupied with one individual, everything else seems secondary. Idiotic. 26 October 11 Headache. Heartache 30 October Very difficult to describe in coded form except to say various takes of Scene 105. Once the hair and costume had been decided we basically got on with it. At times the temptation was to stop in the middle and just say Who’s kidding who here – this is mutual isn’t it? Was it? Wasn’t it? Will I ever know (editors note on this date he was talking about filming w Norman reedus) Is the whole book like that? I was interested in reading but if it's just sparse sentences I might give it a miss. It often is just sentences saying. "I ate dinner in this restaurant and saw nicole kidman." "Sigorney Weaver is trying to get in my shot" " Blabla... He seemed to have a problem with Fiona Shaw during John Gabriel Borkman but what the problem is is never disclosed
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Post by Jan on Dec 24, 2023 22:37:51 GMT
I finally got around to reading Alan Rickman’s diaries. I was very surprised, he comes across as a really unpleasant character - egotistical, rude, self-important, happy to hand out unsolicited criticism to directors and actors but very thin-skinned himself. And a thumping hypocrite too - for example spending Xmas in some luxury resort in the Caribbean but saying he hates all the other guests because they’re not left-wing and one of them even said that Communism couldn’t work. He must have been an absolute nightmare to direct (and indeed he reports Howard Davies said he was undirectable). How strange - a good actor though.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2023 3:17:48 GMT
I finally got around to reading Alan Rickman’s diaries. I was very surprised, he comes across as a really unpleasant character - egotistical, rude, self-important, happy to hand out unsolicited criticism to directors and actors but very thin-skinned himself. And a thumping hypocrite too - for example spending Xmas in some luxury resort in the Caribbean but saying he hates all the other guests because they’re not left-wing and one of them even said that Communism couldn’t work. He must have been an absolute nightmare to direct (and indeed he reports Howard Davies said he was undirectable). How strange - a good actor though. Bit sad to hear that as he was such a fine actor and whilst I might not have agreed with his politics, that doesn't matter as far as his talent was concerned. I could have imagined him being a bit aloof and a perfectionist but not to the degree it seems he was. But these were his own words and not others saying things about him after his passing, his family were happy for them to be published so fair enough. Maybe he was playing himself in Galaxy Quest after all
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Post by Jan on Dec 26, 2023 11:06:28 GMT
I finally got around to reading Alan Rickman’s diaries. I was very surprised, he comes across as a really unpleasant character - egotistical, rude, self-important, happy to hand out unsolicited criticism to directors and actors but very thin-skinned himself. And a thumping hypocrite too - for example spending Xmas in some luxury resort in the Caribbean but saying he hates all the other guests because they’re not left-wing and one of them even said that Communism couldn’t work. He must have been an absolute nightmare to direct (and indeed he reports Howard Davies said he was undirectable). How strange - a good actor though. Bit sad to hear that as he was such a fine actor and whilst I might not have agreed with his politics, that doesn't matter as far as his talent was concerned. I could have imagined him being a bit aloof and a perfectionist but not to the degree it seems he was. But these were his own words and not others saying things about him after his passing, his family were happy for them to be published so fair enough. Maybe he was playing himself in Galaxy Quest after all He often seemed to choose roles based on commercial rather than artistic considerations (Die Hard, Galaxy Quest, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves) - nothing at all wrong with that but you wouldn't know it from his high-minded diaries. But amongst the roles he turns down in the diaries you can see a different career he could have had - he personally turns down Brian Friel, The Madness of George III, Persuasion and many others but most disappointingly Richard III which he surely would have been perfect for.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 26, 2023 23:41:15 GMT
Alan as Richard III would have been amazing.
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Post by Jan on Jan 4, 2024 17:08:26 GMT
There are some laughs along the way in his diaries. They cover the notorious NT Antony and Cleopatra with Helen Mirren directed by Sean Matthias that got really terrible reviews (including here). They start off all sweetness and light in the rehearsal room until little by little it starts to become alarmingly clear they're involved in a disaster. By the time they get to the first matinee:
"Somewhere around 6.25 . . . Sean comes in, looking wired. He doesn’t drink but I found myself looking at his can of orange juice wondering about the effect of carbonated water. For some reason he was on the attack. ‘Would it hurt you to show some f***ing charm?’ I was stunned, asked him not to speak to me like that, he nearly stormed out."
Rickman blames the director, he always does, there's barely a director he has a good word for whether he's working for them or not, and Matthias is obviously hopelessly out of his depth, but it's clear Rickman himself is not entirely blameless.
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Post by Mr Snow on Jan 4, 2024 19:54:31 GMT
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Post by Jan on Jan 5, 2024 8:42:00 GMT
Another interesting fact is that his fee for that 1998 NT Antony and Cleopatra worked out at £100 per performance. Actors have always appeared there as an act of charity.
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Post by Fleance on Jan 5, 2024 13:57:54 GMT
I met Alan Rickman once, in New York, at Irene Worth's memorial service. He was appearing in Private Lives with Lindsay Duncan at that time, directed by Howard Davies. He seemed rather a sourpuss, yet he was brilliant in that production of Private Lives. New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote:
"Here at last are two people on the same wavelength... As Ms. Duncan and Mr. Rickman present it, there's a tension and even a sadness beneath the linguistic game playing. Clever words, like smart clothes, are a counterweight to the urgent demands of the naked self. When Amanda and Elyot bolt from their honeymoons to her Paris apartment, the air is thick with equal parts glee and alarm...
Mr. Rickman and Ms. Duncan convey this stinging self-consciousness beautifully. There are tasty hints of feminine vanity in him and masculine belligerence in her that make them seem all the better matched. When they sing snatches of songs to each other, you sense a shared language beyond language.
Mr. Davies, Mr. Rickman and Ms. Duncan translate that sense of a secret self, searching with hope and fear for its other half, into universal terms. Against this shadowy terrain, the glitter of ''Private Lives'' shines all the more bewitchingly."
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Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2024 16:36:36 GMT
Another interesting fact is that his fee for that 1998 NT Antony and Cleopatra worked out at £100 per performance. Actors have always appeared there as an act of charity. That is £185 today so £1,480 per week if we assume 8 performances. Not poor money by what a lot of people earn but take out tax, agent's cuts etc Alan wouldn't be working for much. But it was probably doing the mainstream films which pay hugely allowed him to take on these sort of challenging but not lucrative theatre roles.
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