Post by wanderingstar78 on Mar 28, 2016 13:59:07 GMT -5
I didn't copy all the screen shots, but this is a pretty good list!
www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-10-best-stellan-skarsgard-movie-performances/
The 10 Best Stellan Skarsgard Movie Performances
28 March 2016 by Nicholas Brady
An accomplished Swedish actor who mastered the transition between European arthouse to the Americanised mainstream with the help of long-time collaborator Lars von Trier, Skarsgard is a versatile performer capable of everything from the gentlest soul to the most brutal.
Although everyday watchers may recognise him from Thor and the English rendition of Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, his greatest achievements in performance come from his European work and, of course, with filmmaker von Trier. In the following films, his performances either brought about the revelation of his brilliance to the mainstream or further cemented his true acting abilities.
*note this list is ordered based on both the quality of film and the quality of Skarsgard’s performance, with one discussed more so than the other depending on what qualified its position*
10. Good Will Hunting
Although not the best performance in the film, Good Will Hunting orientated western society to the future stardom of Skarsgard. He plays the extremely skilled mathematical professor Gerald Lambeau, who uncovers the potential talents within janitor Will Hunting (one of Matt Damon’s best performances).
After Lambeau takes the boy under his wing, Hunting is arrested for petty crime, and Lambeau offers to get him out on the condition that he goes to seek professional help from an old friend of his, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams in an Academy-Award winning performance).
The film isn’t focused on Skarsgard, but instead is heavily aimed at Will Hunting’s relationships with all those around him. Skarsgard is presented as first a beacon of hope and later an antagonistic presence. He plays one side of the father figure that Will desperately needs but is far harsher than Sean Maguire’s nurturing and compassionate idealism.
As Lambeau, Skarsgard propelled his castmates higher and higher, allowing them to feed off the confident and condescending characters’ energy to better themselves.
9. Nymphomaniac
The most recent collaboration between best friends von Trier, Gainsbourg, and Skarsgard—and the conclusion to Trier’s traumatic depression trilogy—follows a mature woman, found beaten on the street by an old man (Skarsgard), who recounts her terrifying and sex addled life experiences.
A beautifully shot and cast film which re-established Gainsbourg as one of the best working actresses today and reignited Shia LaBeouf’s surprising acting ability, it is extreme in its depiction. Although some of the best scenes are about the experiences of Gainsbourg’s past, her subtle chemistry with the seemingly humble old man makes the film’s small interludes between traumatic experiences far more bearable.
Despite an underwhelming conclusion to the tale, Skarsgard and Gainsbourg never fail in their parts as actors and we see Skarsgard adopt a far more disturbing part in later parts of the second volume, once again highlighting the actor’s chameleonic prowess.
8. A Somewhat Gentle Man
This film is aptly summed up by the word ‘somewhat’. Not entirely a funny film, but not entirely a serious one either, it is quirky, clever, and distressing at times but it gives us something far too rarely seen: a leading part for Stellan Skarsgard. He plays semi-reformed criminal Ulrik who won’t really complain about anything so long as he gets something out of it, and throughout the film this occurs in the way of sex, violence, employment, and more tragically an altercation with his son.
The film is propelled entirely by Ulrik’s initially passive, indistinguishable, and un-emotive face but, as his happiness begins to creep back in we see joy in such an adorable display that it is easy to forget the character used to butcher people for the mob.
Tragically, as we empathise with his plight, we also become amused by it and eventually form a rare bond with Ulrik, a feat few underacting performances are able to accomplish, making every blow to his own personal happiness all the more tragic.
Not the greatest film to come out of European cinema, but certainly a film worth seeing- if not purely to admire Skarsgard’s work.
7. King on Devil’s Island
Skarsgard plays the ruthless overseer of a boys ‘reform school’ where horrible and relentless humiliation and torture are ongoing. When a new ‘inmate’ enters the reform school, he incites a revolt which eventually overthrows the corrupt and horrible regime implemented. Skarsgard plays Bestyreren, a terrifying and monstrous man overlooking the boys’ school.
The audience feels genuine fear in the boy’s eyes when he confronts Bestyreren over the rape of another boy and the man dismisses and punishes the kid for coming forth.
It is impossible to like his character. All that is felt for him is terror and hate. One of the greatest modern monsters in cinema of the past five years, Bestyreren’s true terror is felt through Stellan’s intimidating and overpowering take on the brutal real life figure.
A must-see performance in a strong film.
6. Girl with The Dragon Tattoo
Ironically, Skarsgard has starred on both sides of the Hollywood remake system. Skarsgard plays the lead in the original European Insomnia (later remade by Christopher Nolan with Al Pacino in the role), but stars in the American remake of the European Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. The film follows a convoluted yet cohesive murder mystery driven by a great cast, including Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig.
As one of numerous Nazi and Nazi-descendant family members on an island, Skarsgard plays Martin, the current business head of an old family corporation. He acts as both an assistant to the investigation and a suspect. He is devilishly charming—rare in his performances, but also at times chillingly genuine.
Without going into details he delivers a fantastic monologue which sends shivers down one’s spine and even if the film does not match up to the original in your eyes, Skarsgard far exceeds his counterpart in all minds.
5. Dogville
Another turn with von Trier, Skarsgard blends effectively into the ensemble of abusive and misunderstanding townspeople pressing their own troubles and anxieties upon Nicole Kidman’s hunted Grace Mulligan.
A woman on the run takes shelter within a stark minimalist setting known as Dogville, where she is slowly alienated by the people as her troubles with the law are brought to light. Nicole Kidman performs spectacularly in an ensemble of lesser-known but equally potent performers with almost all displaying vilification towards Grace. We pity Grace.
She is a helpless figure in desperate need for survival—why else would she endure what she does throughout this film? Skarsgard plays Chuck, a husband and father who finds himself seduced by Grace—for which his wife pushes full responsibility onto her.
A human character and, although not the focus, an essential feature film of his filmography simply to prove how effectively he blends into an ensemble, pushing the lead actress higher and higher in another von Trier masterpiece.
4. Melancholia
Perhaps von Trier’s most commercialised film, Melancholia opens with a woman on her wedding day as the planet, Melancholia, is destined to crash into Earth. Not his most surreal but certainly a strange film, Melancholia is star-studded and brimming with talent, including both Skarsgard and his son.
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kirsten Dunst play the leading sisters—one newly married (Dunst) and the other her older and mature sister, sour in her own life. Skarsgard plays Kirsten’s boss: a ruthless and cold man who cares only for her work despite its personal cost on her. Fast, vicious, and sleazy, we see another of his many faces as he drags her deeper and deeper into her spiralling depression.
We dislike him, but we also comprehend the human ideas behind his performance. He is less of an unimaginable villain here but more-so an everyday boss we all know and hate. A film all must study to understand the unique blurring of genres von Trier has stuffed into Melancholia as the first of his three brilliant works in the depression trilogy.
3. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
A masterclass in acting: the film’s three leads are Daniel Day Lewis, Juliette Binoche, and Lena Olin, and the film tells the story of a surgeon whose belief that love and sex are not interrelated rules his life.
Roger Ebert called the film ‘the best erotic drama since Last Tango in Paris’ and is perhaps one of the best to date. It tells a deeply moving story and, through its strong and limited number of characters, tells of the deep intrinsic nature of humanity.
Skarsgard has but one scene as ‘the engineer,’ a man Lena Olin turns to for sex when she learns her husband has resumed his sexual practices outside their marriage. His part is small but nonetheless incredibly important for the film—it tells us of her journey. During their intercourse she feels ecstatic, it is moving, and it is pleasurable to her.
This is a dilemma, a dilemma not of weight but of lightness. Her pain is that she felt good in something she does not believe in, her body says yes when her mind says no. Skarsgard plays the crucial symbol which unlocks these feelings within her—and she loathes herself for it.
A moving and powerful film which tells us what a baby-face Stellan was like and that Daniel day Lewis has more than just four brilliant movies.
2. Insomnia
On the other side of films remade by Hollywood, Skarsgard stars as the haunted police officer who accidentally guns down his own partner, suffering sleepless nights because of it.
With Erik Skjoldbjærg behind the camera, an elaborate and beautifully established setting taints Stellan’s every thought and feeling. With a devious killer mocking his own fears, Stellan’s part in this film more than summarises the true brilliance of the actor and teaches us the truly haunting capability of a man’s conscience.
There is a saying: “A good cop can’t sleep because he’s missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can’t sleep because his conscience won’t let him.” This phrase comes from the American remake, but Skarsgard blurs the two as one destructive fear playing upon him from open till close.
1. Breaking the Waves
This was the film which made audiences globally covet Skarsgard and von Trier’s abilities as performer and director, respectively. As Jan the labourer-turned-handicapped lover to Emily Watson’s Bess, Skarsgard is mesmerising.
Incredibly upsetting to watch and extremely confrontational, it tackles the ideas of love, marriage, god, faith, and sanity as Bess is convinced by her husband to sleep with other men following his paralysis.
The film’s beautiful cinematography and score give us insight into the raw power of Bess and Jan’s love. Despite his relatively smaller part, Jan’s story is just as tragically told as Skarsgard portrays his helpless decay and deteriorating mental ability simultaneously as Bess seems to ‘find God’ through intercourse with other men.
The conclusions she draws are nonsensical, yet somehow are delivered with a clarity we only question upon analysis and that is the beauty of her part. Is she fooling herself to cope with her husband’s suffering and her self-labelled ‘shameful’ non-marital acts, or has God truly given her the role of Babylon?
Two breathtaking performances that are still to be matched in a von Trier film and by far the greatest performances by these two A-list acting talents.
www.tasteofcinema.com/2016/the-10-best-stellan-skarsgard-movie-performances/
The 10 Best Stellan Skarsgard Movie Performances
28 March 2016 by Nicholas Brady
An accomplished Swedish actor who mastered the transition between European arthouse to the Americanised mainstream with the help of long-time collaborator Lars von Trier, Skarsgard is a versatile performer capable of everything from the gentlest soul to the most brutal.
Although everyday watchers may recognise him from Thor and the English rendition of Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, his greatest achievements in performance come from his European work and, of course, with filmmaker von Trier. In the following films, his performances either brought about the revelation of his brilliance to the mainstream or further cemented his true acting abilities.
*note this list is ordered based on both the quality of film and the quality of Skarsgard’s performance, with one discussed more so than the other depending on what qualified its position*
10. Good Will Hunting
Although not the best performance in the film, Good Will Hunting orientated western society to the future stardom of Skarsgard. He plays the extremely skilled mathematical professor Gerald Lambeau, who uncovers the potential talents within janitor Will Hunting (one of Matt Damon’s best performances).
After Lambeau takes the boy under his wing, Hunting is arrested for petty crime, and Lambeau offers to get him out on the condition that he goes to seek professional help from an old friend of his, Sean Maguire (Robin Williams in an Academy-Award winning performance).
The film isn’t focused on Skarsgard, but instead is heavily aimed at Will Hunting’s relationships with all those around him. Skarsgard is presented as first a beacon of hope and later an antagonistic presence. He plays one side of the father figure that Will desperately needs but is far harsher than Sean Maguire’s nurturing and compassionate idealism.
As Lambeau, Skarsgard propelled his castmates higher and higher, allowing them to feed off the confident and condescending characters’ energy to better themselves.
9. Nymphomaniac
The most recent collaboration between best friends von Trier, Gainsbourg, and Skarsgard—and the conclusion to Trier’s traumatic depression trilogy—follows a mature woman, found beaten on the street by an old man (Skarsgard), who recounts her terrifying and sex addled life experiences.
A beautifully shot and cast film which re-established Gainsbourg as one of the best working actresses today and reignited Shia LaBeouf’s surprising acting ability, it is extreme in its depiction. Although some of the best scenes are about the experiences of Gainsbourg’s past, her subtle chemistry with the seemingly humble old man makes the film’s small interludes between traumatic experiences far more bearable.
Despite an underwhelming conclusion to the tale, Skarsgard and Gainsbourg never fail in their parts as actors and we see Skarsgard adopt a far more disturbing part in later parts of the second volume, once again highlighting the actor’s chameleonic prowess.
8. A Somewhat Gentle Man
This film is aptly summed up by the word ‘somewhat’. Not entirely a funny film, but not entirely a serious one either, it is quirky, clever, and distressing at times but it gives us something far too rarely seen: a leading part for Stellan Skarsgard. He plays semi-reformed criminal Ulrik who won’t really complain about anything so long as he gets something out of it, and throughout the film this occurs in the way of sex, violence, employment, and more tragically an altercation with his son.
The film is propelled entirely by Ulrik’s initially passive, indistinguishable, and un-emotive face but, as his happiness begins to creep back in we see joy in such an adorable display that it is easy to forget the character used to butcher people for the mob.
Tragically, as we empathise with his plight, we also become amused by it and eventually form a rare bond with Ulrik, a feat few underacting performances are able to accomplish, making every blow to his own personal happiness all the more tragic.
Not the greatest film to come out of European cinema, but certainly a film worth seeing- if not purely to admire Skarsgard’s work.
7. King on Devil’s Island
Skarsgard plays the ruthless overseer of a boys ‘reform school’ where horrible and relentless humiliation and torture are ongoing. When a new ‘inmate’ enters the reform school, he incites a revolt which eventually overthrows the corrupt and horrible regime implemented. Skarsgard plays Bestyreren, a terrifying and monstrous man overlooking the boys’ school.
The audience feels genuine fear in the boy’s eyes when he confronts Bestyreren over the rape of another boy and the man dismisses and punishes the kid for coming forth.
It is impossible to like his character. All that is felt for him is terror and hate. One of the greatest modern monsters in cinema of the past five years, Bestyreren’s true terror is felt through Stellan’s intimidating and overpowering take on the brutal real life figure.
A must-see performance in a strong film.
6. Girl with The Dragon Tattoo
Ironically, Skarsgard has starred on both sides of the Hollywood remake system. Skarsgard plays the lead in the original European Insomnia (later remade by Christopher Nolan with Al Pacino in the role), but stars in the American remake of the European Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. The film follows a convoluted yet cohesive murder mystery driven by a great cast, including Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig.
As one of numerous Nazi and Nazi-descendant family members on an island, Skarsgard plays Martin, the current business head of an old family corporation. He acts as both an assistant to the investigation and a suspect. He is devilishly charming—rare in his performances, but also at times chillingly genuine.
Without going into details he delivers a fantastic monologue which sends shivers down one’s spine and even if the film does not match up to the original in your eyes, Skarsgard far exceeds his counterpart in all minds.
5. Dogville
Another turn with von Trier, Skarsgard blends effectively into the ensemble of abusive and misunderstanding townspeople pressing their own troubles and anxieties upon Nicole Kidman’s hunted Grace Mulligan.
A woman on the run takes shelter within a stark minimalist setting known as Dogville, where she is slowly alienated by the people as her troubles with the law are brought to light. Nicole Kidman performs spectacularly in an ensemble of lesser-known but equally potent performers with almost all displaying vilification towards Grace. We pity Grace.
She is a helpless figure in desperate need for survival—why else would she endure what she does throughout this film? Skarsgard plays Chuck, a husband and father who finds himself seduced by Grace—for which his wife pushes full responsibility onto her.
A human character and, although not the focus, an essential feature film of his filmography simply to prove how effectively he blends into an ensemble, pushing the lead actress higher and higher in another von Trier masterpiece.
4. Melancholia
Perhaps von Trier’s most commercialised film, Melancholia opens with a woman on her wedding day as the planet, Melancholia, is destined to crash into Earth. Not his most surreal but certainly a strange film, Melancholia is star-studded and brimming with talent, including both Skarsgard and his son.
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kirsten Dunst play the leading sisters—one newly married (Dunst) and the other her older and mature sister, sour in her own life. Skarsgard plays Kirsten’s boss: a ruthless and cold man who cares only for her work despite its personal cost on her. Fast, vicious, and sleazy, we see another of his many faces as he drags her deeper and deeper into her spiralling depression.
We dislike him, but we also comprehend the human ideas behind his performance. He is less of an unimaginable villain here but more-so an everyday boss we all know and hate. A film all must study to understand the unique blurring of genres von Trier has stuffed into Melancholia as the first of his three brilliant works in the depression trilogy.
3. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
A masterclass in acting: the film’s three leads are Daniel Day Lewis, Juliette Binoche, and Lena Olin, and the film tells the story of a surgeon whose belief that love and sex are not interrelated rules his life.
Roger Ebert called the film ‘the best erotic drama since Last Tango in Paris’ and is perhaps one of the best to date. It tells a deeply moving story and, through its strong and limited number of characters, tells of the deep intrinsic nature of humanity.
Skarsgard has but one scene as ‘the engineer,’ a man Lena Olin turns to for sex when she learns her husband has resumed his sexual practices outside their marriage. His part is small but nonetheless incredibly important for the film—it tells us of her journey. During their intercourse she feels ecstatic, it is moving, and it is pleasurable to her.
This is a dilemma, a dilemma not of weight but of lightness. Her pain is that she felt good in something she does not believe in, her body says yes when her mind says no. Skarsgard plays the crucial symbol which unlocks these feelings within her—and she loathes herself for it.
A moving and powerful film which tells us what a baby-face Stellan was like and that Daniel day Lewis has more than just four brilliant movies.
2. Insomnia
On the other side of films remade by Hollywood, Skarsgard stars as the haunted police officer who accidentally guns down his own partner, suffering sleepless nights because of it.
With Erik Skjoldbjærg behind the camera, an elaborate and beautifully established setting taints Stellan’s every thought and feeling. With a devious killer mocking his own fears, Stellan’s part in this film more than summarises the true brilliance of the actor and teaches us the truly haunting capability of a man’s conscience.
There is a saying: “A good cop can’t sleep because he’s missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can’t sleep because his conscience won’t let him.” This phrase comes from the American remake, but Skarsgard blurs the two as one destructive fear playing upon him from open till close.
1. Breaking the Waves
This was the film which made audiences globally covet Skarsgard and von Trier’s abilities as performer and director, respectively. As Jan the labourer-turned-handicapped lover to Emily Watson’s Bess, Skarsgard is mesmerising.
Incredibly upsetting to watch and extremely confrontational, it tackles the ideas of love, marriage, god, faith, and sanity as Bess is convinced by her husband to sleep with other men following his paralysis.
The film’s beautiful cinematography and score give us insight into the raw power of Bess and Jan’s love. Despite his relatively smaller part, Jan’s story is just as tragically told as Skarsgard portrays his helpless decay and deteriorating mental ability simultaneously as Bess seems to ‘find God’ through intercourse with other men.
The conclusions she draws are nonsensical, yet somehow are delivered with a clarity we only question upon analysis and that is the beauty of her part. Is she fooling herself to cope with her husband’s suffering and her self-labelled ‘shameful’ non-marital acts, or has God truly given her the role of Babylon?
Two breathtaking performances that are still to be matched in a von Trier film and by far the greatest performances by these two A-list acting talents.