5 Must-See Screen Performances | The Great Acting Blog
*Per Oscarsson in Sult [Hunger].
I chose this five because I believe that watching them invites us to question our self-imposed limitations of what acting can be, and inspire us to re-draw those limitations. Each performance shows that, through acting, we can express something profound. Whatever doubts some may have about whether or not acting is an art form, then these performances will dispel them.
I’ve added links to where I’ve written more fully about each one.
Per Oscarsson In Henning Carlsen’s Sult
Oscarsson’s performance is one of the greatest in all cinema and a brilliant example of an actor expressing the unfathomable complexity of one man’s state of being by performing simple actions, scene by scene. Little known, but essential viewing.
Gerard Depardieu In Maurice Pialat’s Under The Sun Of Satan
Acting in it’s very highest form. Depardieu here allows us to observe body and soul working in combination – he shows that acting is a visceral, emotional, sometimes enlightening experience.
Peter Mullan in Ken Loach’s My Name Is Joe
Mullan’s truthful and precise performance, gives form to mankind’s rage brought forth by the knowledge that we are helpless in the face of circumstance and that even our best intentions may lead to tragedy, and in so doing, Mullan shows us that acting is poetry.
Chishu Ryu in Yasujiro Ozu’s Late Spring
In Ryu’s quietly powerful performance, his essential goodness shines through. Simon Callow wrote about Sir John Gielgud : “…perhaps the word is grace, in the theological as well as social sense, a kind of effortless radiance stemming from some profound ground of being”. Perhaps the same could be said of Ryu.
