Daniel Day Lewis

[atticus jones]

figured i would create a space for greatness up in here since apparently no one has yet...

follow a fellow long enough and you might end up in his general vicinity

pdl to ddl to fan boy hell

[SHAFTR]

I've only seen him in Last of the Mohicans, Gangs of New York and Age of Innocence.  I couldn't believe that the same man played all those roles.  Which DDL film should I visit next? - My Left Foot?

[cine]

Which DDL film should I visit next? - My Left Foot?

yeah and for his performance, in the name of the father. everything that man does is gold though. the ballad of jack and rose is coming out soon so you fucks better see it. that should be on a lot of top 10 lists when the So Far threads start pouring out.

[SHAFTR]

Which DDL film should I visit next? - My Left Foot?

yeah

Ughh, it isn't on DVD...I'll go with his other sheridan films.

[Ghostboy]

The Ballad Of Jack And Rose isn't THAT great, but is performance sure is. He's one of the best actors alive, without a doubt. I think I've seen everything he's done except My Beautiful Laundrette. I think The Boxer is rather underrated.

[mogwai]

Ughh, it isn't on DVD...I'll go with his other sheridan films.

it is available on region 2



1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen

(free fake beard it's not included)

[atticus jones]

The Ballad Of Jack And Rose isn't THAT great, but is performance sure is. He's one of the best actors alive, without a doubt. I think I've seen everything he's done except My Beautiful Laundrette. I think The Boxer is rather underrated.

his performances have always out done the films that contained them...

do you realize your 3600 posts at an average of 4 minutes per post constitute ten straight days of posting?...exactly

[Just Withnail]

I think I've seen everything he's done except My Beautiful Laundrette.

The performance isn't anything earth shattering, but neither is it reputation shattering. From what I remember I tought it was a good film, so you should check it out.

[Stefen]

I'm probably the only one who prefers The Boxer to My Left Foot. I think the grittyness of it is great. Just seems real.

Day-Lewis does infact own your soul. Was it Mac who had that avatar of bill the butchers eye? that avatar was awesome.

[MacGuffin]

FEATURE - The BALLAD of Daniel and Rebecca
Since marrying Rebecca Miller in 1996, Daniel Day-Lewis has immersed himself three times into the intricacies of a film role. But The Ballad of Jack and Rose is the first time it was all for her. Source: FilmStew.com

One of the most highly-praised and well-respected actors living today, Daniel Day-Lewis dedicates himself to every role that he takes on, living in character throughout the duration of filming. Because of this, Day-Lewis is very selective of the roles that he chooses, often taking years off between projects.

Fully aware of this, the actor’s wife Rebecca Miller was getting ready to find another actor to take on the lead role of Jack in her latest offering The Ballad of Jack & Rose, since Day-Lewis had just come off a grueling shoot in Rome, Italy for Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. But as Miller was busy putting together a list of actors to pursue, her husband surprised her by telling her he was ready to take on the project.

“You never fully put your finger on the reason why you’re suddenly, inexplicably compelled to explore one life as opposed to another, or one story as opposed to another,” explains Day-Lewis, during a recent interview with FilmStew, of the project his wife had been working on since 1993. “But, I think, in all the occasions when I’ve gone back to work, it’s always with that sense of inevitability. That may be a complete delusion, but nevertheless, it’s the one that I need to get out of bed and go about my business.”

“When I first read the script nine years ago, before I’d met Rebecca, I was absolutely intrigued by the script in every detail,” he continues. “It’s a beautiful piece of writing, but I knew, beyond any doubt, that it wasn’t at a time when I was able to make the contribution that she needed from me.”

“I had a strong feeling about the demands that the story would make upon me or anybody else that took it on, and I just didn’t feel up to the task at that moment.”

Shortly after reading the script, Day-Lewis saw and loved Miller’s first film Angela, a drama about two young girls that was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. A year later, they were married, and eventually Day-Lewis got to see how his wife likes to work when she made her next film, 2002’s Personal Velocity: Three Portraits.

“I had the opportunity to understand a little bit of the way in which she works and to see how the people were around her when she was working,” he remembers. “That’s always a big clue as to how it’s going to be. How people are around a director really does affect everything - every detail of the life of that movie.”

Already a thin man, Day-Lewis lost over 50 pounds in order to more convincingly play the isolated and eerily gaunt East Coast islander who raises his 16-year-old daughter Rose (played by 17-year-old actress Camilla Belle) while suffering from a fatal disease. “It’s usually fairly clear, when you start to try and tell a story, what the demands are,” he explains. “If they contribute to the telling of that story, it has never appeared to me to be worthy of note.”

“The whole issue of [attention to] weight occurs because there is a wider fascination we all have with weight,” Day-Lewis insists. “But, in terms of performances, if it contributes to telling the story, it’s just part of that person’s job to do that, and it’s no more or less important than that.”

Overall, Day-Lewis’ approach to the craft of film has given his wife Miller a whole new appreciation for his talents. “He’s completely committed, and the commitment is absolute,” she marvels. “He is completely immersed in his own part, but he’s also interested in everything about the film, and that he’s not invading other people’s spaces.”

“In the choices that he makes as an actor, he’s always trying to push the story along, and that’s an amazing thing.”

With a reputation of being someone who isn’t at all interested in the Hollywood machine, Day-Lewis admittedly prefers to surround himself with peace and quiet. “I do not live as a hermit, though other people would prefer it if I did because that would mean that all that stuff they say is true,” he says with a smile. “I do prefer to live in a quiet place, but isolationism is not one of my symptoms.”

“My need for peace and quiet is not the same as Jack’s,” Day-Lewis maintains. “Quite apart from anything else, I find it easier to work when it’s quiet. The place where I live [County Wicklow, Ireland] is fairly remote, but it’s not as remote as Jack’s house.”

Although Day-Lewis currently has no plans for his next film project, he says that being surrounded by all that quiet at home allows him to deal with the noisiness of life on a film set. “I think it would be hard to work on film sets if I didn’t have that other place,” he explains, “And, if they’re working properly, film sets are not noisy places.”

“There’s a time for noise, when noise needs to be made in preparation for a shot, and there’s a time for silence. And, it’s good to have that silence a little while before you start shooting.”

For a director, working with an actor who prefers to maintain character throughout the duration of a film is always a delicate situation. When that actor is also your husband, it lends itself to even more interesting challenges.

“He’s in character when he’s on set,” says Miller, who met her husband at a screening of The Crucible, based on her late father, playwright Arthur Miller’s play of the same name. “I’m used to it. This is the third movie that we’ve been together on and, although it’s true that it’s the first movie I’ve directed him in, as his wife, I was pretty used to it.”

“It’s subtle,” she reveals. “You are still talking to him, but he maintains enough of the character to keep himself inside that belief system. It’s really an astonishing thing to work with somebody like that. Just because of what he’s capable of, he just brings it to another level and just makes it better.”

“He’s able to be generous and encourage the actors around him, and make them comfortable. That’s hard to do, from my perception.”

Living on the site of an abandoned island commune, Jack has sheltered Rose completely from the influences of an outside world that refuses to live up to his ideals. His fatal illness and Rose’s emerging womanhood pose troubling questions, with regard to his life choices. In order to convincingly portray Jack, Day-Lewis spent time determining the motivation behind such a man.

“Jack had certainly hoped to create this beautiful creature in his own image, and that’s a fatal display of conceit against the gods,” he explains. “He hadn’t chosen to raise her in isolation. That happened as a result of the slow but unstoppable disintegration or this little utopian experiment.”

“As I had imagined it, there wasn’t a leader of this commune, but Jack was certainly a driving force because he had the energy for it,” he continues. “People can only take so much democracy before they start needing a visible chieftain. And, I think, in spite of himself, Jack was somehow designated the role of chief of the tribe.”

“He denies Rose her birthright, which is the guidance of a parent,” Day-Lewis contends. “That’s what he utterly failed in, and he knows he’s failed her. But, he comes to understand that, and the clumsy introduction of a strange assortment of people, as dysfunctional as it may seem, kind of sets about a process by which he manages to free her.”

Because he so fully throws every part of his being into each character he portrays, it would be easy to understand if Day-Lewis wanted to retire from the business. Surprisingly, the 47-year-old father of two says he still has the same urgency when he’s working that he did when he started out.

“I can’t say for sure that I will or won’t make a film in a year,” he states. “It’s unlikely, but possible. But when I do work, I feel the same sense of urgency as I ever did. If I didn’t feel that, I don’t think I would wish to be doing it. I wouldn’t really see the point.”

[SoNowThen]

Faces. Lotsa people who want to become actors have boring faces. I don't really mean ugly vs pretty, but obviously some kinda acting is just pure energy from the face (and not always just the eyes). Kinda like
"presence" when they talk about it in terms of Star Appeal. Even in something wider than a close-up, you can get this thing from an actor's face. And watching Age Of Innocence a few days ago, a movie which contains two of the most beautiful and watch-able faces on the planet -- Winona and Michelle -- I found myself STARING at DDL every second he was on screen. Every two-shot of him and anyone else, he just DOMINATED. And again, not like his character was the most agressive one at all, probably the least in fact, yet his face.... crazy...

I noticed that in certain instances he would push his lower jaw out slightly. Kinda like that cool stork-walk he did in Gangs. He had such a cool walk in Gangs. But compare his face in those two movies. Totally different. In terms of chameleon leading men right now, probably the only one who can stand with him is Johnny Depp.

Anyway, I love DDL. Mostly in Scorsese movies. As to the above comment, I would have to agree: he overshadows every other movie he's in. But in a Marty movie it's all juuuuuuust right. Very happy he'll (most likely) be in the new PTA flick...

[Myxo]

I think he's really enigmatic, and I wouldn't say that about alot of Hollywood actors working today. He's got that "steely eye" look that owns most movies. I can only think of 5-10 actors working today that would make me want to go out and see a film with them in it. I'd put DDL in that category.

[SHAFTR]

Which DDL film should I visit next? - My Left Foot?

yeah

Ughh, it isn't on DVD...I'll go with his other sheridan films.

I just watched The Boxer.  It took me awhile to warm up to the characters, but once I did I was really taken in.  Very impressive, off to another DDL film.

[ddbright]

Try also "My Beautiful Laundrette" and "Room With A View" and "Unbearable Lightness of Being."  It's amazing the same actor did all three roles.  He was hilarious as Cecil in "Room."

[wilberfan]

In NYC, Dec 15-24.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/movies/film-series-in-nyc-this-week.html