Daniel Day-Lewis

[Gerald Cooperberg]

I'm about to embark tonight on a trip to the video store to pick up some Daniel Day-Lewis movies. I recently read an interesting cover story on him in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and decided that I would try to watch most of his major films leading up to the release of There Will Be Blood. Surprisingly, the only ones of his I've seen have been Last of the Mohicans and Gangs of New York (both of which I plan to rewatch). With any luck, this will be the weekend of Day-Lewis.

Anyone else have any opinions on his body of work? Which are yr favorites?

-Coop

[PeruvianSkies]

I'm about to embark tonight on a trip to the video store to pick up some Daniel Day-Lewis movies. I recently read an interesting cover story on him in the New York Times Sunday Magazine and decided that I would try to watch most of his major films leading up to the release of There Will Be Blood. Surprisingly, the only ones of his I've seen have been Last of the Mohicans and Gangs of New York (both of which I plan to rewatch). With any luck, this will be the weekend of Day-Lewis.

Anyone else have any opinions on his body of work? Which are yr favorites?

-Coop

Wow, I really like almost all of his films, A ROOM WITH A VIEW is an astonishing film, which is now available on Blu-ray and HD-DVD, THE BOXER is another underrated film as is MY LEFT FOOT and Philip Kaufmann's THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING, which is a great near-epic film that also stars Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin in great performances. His American films are decent, I really thought that AGE OF INNOCENCE was more enjoyable than most and is a great period piece from Scorsese.

[jim goulding]

I like The Boxer but Unbearable Lightness of Being do have those babes in it, both of whom flip my switch. Anybody see Lena Olin in Romeo Is Bleeding? And she was quite the seductress in The Ninth Gate. DDL seems to have pretty good taste in the roles he selects. Now that I think about it, he might have made a good Bond, if he didn't have to do all that jumpin around in Casino Royale.

[PeruvianSkies]

I like The Boxer but Unbearable Lightness of Being do have those babes in it, both of whom flip my switch. Anybody see Lena Olin in Romeo Is Bleeding? And she was quite the seductress in The Ninth Gate. DDL seems to have pretty good taste in the roles he selects. Now that I think about it, he might have made a good Bond, if he didn't have to do all that jumpin around in Casino Royale.

Are you kidding me Daniel Day Lewis could pull off anything, heck he would probably make a good Scarlet O Hara....I would like to see him do a role where he plays President Lincoln.

[Gerald Cooperberg]

Okay, so I watched some of these last weekend.

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
This was good. It was a BBC TV movie and had a similarly melodramatic but agreeable tone to Traffik, which I think was from the same era. I'm not the expert in that area, so maybe someone can set me straight, but both come off as simple but still nuanced message movies. Day-Lewis plays a street punk who is the lover of the protagonist, and although he doesn't have much more to do than brood, still turns in a capable (and athletic!) performance.

A Room With a View (1985)
Oh, I had seen this one before too! Still very good, though, easily my favorite film of the bunch. Don't know if it gets my vote for this particular list, as Day-Lewis only has a supporting role, although he is memorable as the sniveling, stuck-up British Baxter of the story.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
How about The Unbearable 3+ Hour Movie About Sex and Politics in 1960s Czechoslovakia? Just kidding. This one is pretty good for the most part. Juliette Binoche in particular is a pleasure. Day-Lewis is also good, although this film supposedly provoked a breakdown for him that nearly caused him to retire from acting.

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Ok, I'll admit that I had a hard time with this one. Too much of an action blockbuster for me and honestly, this is the only one that I didn't think Day-Lewis did a capable job in. His performance seems pretty flat.

In the Name of the Father (1993)
This one was also very enjoyable. The dynamic between Pete Posthelwaite and Day-Lewis is fascinating, and the period touches are entertaining although it sometimes veers a little too much into standard-issue courtroom melodrama (although it's based on a true story, it can't have been nearly this neat and episodic in real life).

The Boxer (1997)
Day-Lewis is also fine in this follow-up that teams he & director Jim Sheridan for the third time, although it suffers a little in the shadow of In the Name of the Father (I haven't seen My Left Foot yet)... the setting is 15 years in the future but it touches on some of the same themes of senseless violence during the Troubles and a man transformed by a long prison stint.

Gangs of New York (2002)
Really, Day-Lewis' tour de force performance as Bill the Butcher is the only reason to watch this beyond the opening scene. DiCaprio is a capable actor but seems to be continually woefully miscast in Scorsese movies (both this and The Departed in my opinion, although he won me over in The Aviator) and Cameron Diaz is like nails on a chalkboard. And it just goes on, and on, and on. He really turns in one for the ages, though, and is consistently mesmerizing even as the story repeatedly flounders around him.

-Coop

[PeruvianSkies]

Okay, so I watched some of these last weekend.

My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)
This was good. It was a BBC TV movie and had a similarly melodramatic but agreeable tone to Traffik, which I think was from the same era. I'm not the expert in that area, so maybe someone can set me straight, but both come off as simple but still nuanced message movies. Day-Lewis plays a street punk who is the lover of the protagonist, and although he doesn't have much more to do than brood, still turns in a capable (and athletic!) performance.

A Room With a View (1985)
Oh, I had seen this one before too! Still very good, though, easily my favorite film of the bunch. Don't know if it gets my vote for this particular list, as Day-Lewis only has a supporting role, although he is memorable as the sniveling, stuck-up British Baxter of the story.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988)
How about The Unbearable 3+ Hour Movie About Sex and Politics in 1960s Czechoslovakia? Just kidding. This one is pretty good for the most part. Juliette Binoche in particular is a pleasure. Day-Lewis is also good, although this film supposedly provoked a breakdown for him that nearly caused him to retire from acting.

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
Ok, I'll admit that I had a hard time with this one. Too much of an action blockbuster for me and honestly, this is the only one that I didn't think Day-Lewis did a capable job in. His performance seems pretty flat.

In the Name of the Father (1993)
This one was also very enjoyable. The dynamic between Pete Posthelwaite and Day-Lewis is fascinating, and the period touches are entertaining although it sometimes veers a little too much into standard-issue courtroom melodrama (although it's based on a true story, it can't have been nearly this neat and episodic in real life).

The Boxer (1997)
Day-Lewis is also fine in this follow-up that teams he & director Jim Sheridan for the third time, although it suffers a little in the shadow of In the Name of the Father (I haven't seen My Left Foot yet)... the setting is 15 years in the future but it touches on some of the same themes of senseless violence during the Troubles and a man transformed by a long prison stint.

Gangs of New York (2002)
Really, Day-Lewis' tour de force performance as Bill the Butcher is the only reason to watch this beyond the opening scene. DiCaprio is a capable actor but seems to be continually woefully miscast in Scorsese movies (both this and The Departed in my opinion, although he won me over in The Aviator) and Cameron Diaz is like nails on a chalkboard. And it just goes on, and on, and on. He really turns in one for the ages, though, and is consistently mesmerizing even as the story repeatedly flounders around him.

-Coop


Have you already seen AGE OF INNOCENCE? I typically like to watch that when I see A ROOM WITH A VIEW, even though they are very different, I enjoy the period pieces in pairs and I like Day-Lewis in both roles, regardless of how major or minor.

[Gerald Cooperberg]

Have you already seen AGE OF INNOCENCE? I typically like to watch that when I see A ROOM WITH A VIEW, even though they are very different, I enjoy the period pieces in pairs and I like Day-Lewis in both roles, regardless of how major or minor.

Not yet. Did catch My Left Foot, which for the most part I really liked. It kind of fell into that "inspirational/artist bio" trap of showing all the adversity he overcame but only glimpses of what made him brilliant, but Day-Lewis is exceptional... the dinner scene where he throws a drunken tantrum and pulls the tablecloth off the table with his teeth is riveting.

-Coop