Sunday 6 April 2008

RIP Charlton Heston

Charlton Heston is dead. He represented a great era of cinema, but I don't know what to think of the actor. It's not because I didn't like his NRA time (I didn't like it, but that's not the point), but I never knew how to take him as an actor. I love acting, as an art I practiced as an amateur, as a window to human's psyche. I have a tremendous admiration for actors. I felt really sad when the great Marlon Brando died, I could kill for Cate Blanchett, I have an undying admiration for Al Pacino, Robbie Coltrane, Christopher Eccleston, Robert Powell, Michel Côté (gotta go for my country at least once), Ciaran Hinds, Pierre Fresnay (the whole casting of Le Corbeau, actually, all unknown now who did a magnificent job), so many of them I will not start to list them all. Old, new, famous, unknown, forgotten, I just love acting that much. As long as they are good (and even then, they don't have to be that good, just committed to their art) I will love them unconditionally. I enjoyed the work of Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes, I enjoyed Ben Hur as an action movie, I enjoyed his small role in Brannagh's Hamlet, but I was never touched by his Moses (I much prefer Moses the Lawgiver with Burt Lancaster, but then again the script was of Anthony Burgess, although I swear I prefered it before I even knew Burgess even existed) and thought that in The Greatest Story Ever Told his John the Baptist was just too much... himself playing himself with a fake beard. I always felt he had more charisma (and surely he had plenty of that) than acting skills (which were adequate, but never outstanding). It is true I haven't seen many of his movies, I will try to correct that and hopefully will have a better idea of the actor behind the public man.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Il fut Moïse dans les 10 commandements.
C'est un personnage biblique finalement, peut-être un bon scénario pour lui

Anonymous said...

And many women thought he was quite sexy which certainly added to his appeal for studios, to put him in leading biblical roles as explained by Anonymous.