42. The Hudsucker Proxy (Coen brothers, 1994.)

Three more performances that changed my life.

Anyway, thes entries were part of the run-up to an exciting affair taking place tomorrow. It's still not too late to sign up, and I can't wait to read what you'll all be writing!

A few pieces of housekeeping for the blogathon tomorrow:
01. Anyone can write! You don’t need to have contacted me in advance to participate or anything, just as long as you have something to show on the 07/07/07, I shall link you.
02. I will accept late entries. I’m very understanding, and realise that people will have things to do that may prevent them from getting the article done exactly tomorrow. However, what I will say is that the earlier the entry, the more people are likely to read it because it will have had longer coverage on my blog.
03. Multiple entries are fine. Post me the links and I'll credit all of them.
04. YouTube tributes, poems, essays, are all fine. I encourage diversity!
05. If you’re doing the same performance as someone else, no matter! Even if the performances are the same, I doubt they changed your life for same reasons. So don’t stress.
06. In your post, you should link to me as the blogathon HQ. I’ll have the master post up tomorrow.
07. Enjoy! This is supposed to be fun. And I reckon it shall be. And spread the love. Life is like the movies.

Three more performances that changed my life. In a good way, of course. As good as the avatars:
04. Tom Hulce as Mozart in Amadeus
I saw this movie for the first time in the Easter of 2004. One of my very musical friends who I admired a lot introduced me to the film Amadeus, where the slight “deviation” from fact showed that excellence does not have to equate to truth. In Hulce’s portrayal of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, I learned that it is sometimes the naughtiest, the most different who are blessed with the greatest talents, and they must use those to lift people’s spirits through art. You have no idea how much this inspired me; I felt that I, always somewhat of a round peg for the square hole, could do something, anything, to entertain and cheer up the entire world. Amadeus is in my personal top 10 of all time, it was wildly entertaining and gave a great interest into a genius, but I loved it also because I saw something of myself in Hulce and his great eccentricity. His child-like mannerisms (the riotous giggle, the silly childish games) are testament not only to his acting skills, but to Forman's exceptional direction and vision, and on watching him, I truly became interested in music. I looked into every type of music I could find, from the great classical composers to Edith Piaf, Spice Girls, The Beatles, anyone and everyone. But the greatest impact Hulce’s performance had on me was making me believe that one day, hopefully, I’ll be able to use my “artistic genius” to change the world. Maybe??


03. Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
As ridiculous as this may sound, this was the movie performance that made me appreciate my mates more. It was a sleepover, and we had already seen Cold Mountain, which polarized us (half of us loved it, the other half had been playing cards throughout and found it a snoreathon), and the second film we’d watched, Citizen Kane, had sent all but one into a bored stupor. So, naturally, I was a little cautious in showing one of my favourite movies, containing my favourite actresses to them, at the risk that they’d diss Hepburn, and, in essence, diss me.

I really needn’t have worried. They loved it. In Breakfast at Tiffany’s Audrey is the very epitome of 1960s chic and her Holly captures the essence of an era when the naughty goings on (see my review of The Seven Year Itch) were very implicit. After we saw the movie, we discussed Audrey, the character of Holly Golightly, and how the movie would have turned out had Truman Capote got what he wanted, and Marilyn Monroe played Holly. Anyway, I was just so deliriously happy that there was one movie, and one performance that my friends could all find common ground on, I remember this day clearly still. Afterwards, I came to appreciate my friends a lot more, feel less intellectually detached, and I’m glad I did, because our friendships have developed and bloomed as a result. And we all decided that we would all like a happy ending as sweet as the one Holly Golightly got.

02. Tim Robbins as Andy in The Shawshank Redemption
This was always going to be on here! Interestingly, it took me a second viewing of Shawshank to truly appreciate all the qualities of Darabont’s masterpiece and make it my number 1 film of all time. And I’ve basically lived my life on the qualities I saw in Robbins’ performance as Andy – a sense of hope, mixed with pragmatism, quiet self-belief and inner strength, and perhaps most importantly, remembering to never give up. I actually aspire to be like Andy (for his qualities, not getting convicted for a crime I didn’t commit – duh!), and even in the most testing times in life, and sorriest school days, I will always TRY to think “What would Andy do?” and all is not so bad. “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies" is an important lesson I have learnt from films, and it was Tim Robbins who taught me it.

Tim Robbins as Dave Boyle in Mystic River.

(also known as "the performance which had thr 5th greatest impact on my life.)

This is part of the prelude to my Performance that Changed My Life blogathon that I shall start on Saturday and be keeping open through the weekend. To all those who expressed an interest in participating – brilliant – you’re up. All ya gotta do is write your article (however long/short as you like, about any performance and for any reason that you so choose.) When your article is posted on your blog, just poke me with an e-mal or by replying on the master post, which (with any luck) I shall release at 8.00 am, GMT. I will the update the master post. A huge thanks to everyone participating!

So, Robbins in Mystic River. One of the finest supporting turns of recent years, he brilliantly conveys how someone so tall can feel so small, with his body and facial expressions conveying far more than words ever could, and adds to the urgency of the film. And what about the impact this performance had on my life? Pure and simple, when I saw it in 2003, it got me interested in the Oscars. It was my love and respect for Robbins after viewing Mystic River, that, coupled with recent viewings of Dead Man Walking (which he directed) and The Shawshank Redemption, that got me supporting Timmy. I stayed up all night to watch my Timmy collect his award, and 2004 was indeed the year in which I lost my Oscar virginity. That said, as delirious as I was for Tim that night (by the way, at 6’5”, he’s only 2 inches shorter than another talented cutie), I also left the Academy Awards that Monday morning feeling terribly cold. This can, of course, be attributed to the awards that I didn’t agree with, and, frick, there were a lot of them. Surprisingly, I completely agreed with all 4 acting awards, and in one of my old issues of Empire resides an image of Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Charlize Theron and Renee Zellweger all standing together prettily with their statues, and it’s an image I’m extremely fond of, because I feel all 4 fully deserved their awards. But that’s really where my agreement ended. I had been rooting for Mystic River deeply through the Oscar season (I’d been equally wary of LOTR and Coppola fanboys) so much so that in the end, it hadn’t even been about Mystico wining, but neither of the other two winning. But, alas, they did, and the opportunity cost for their wins was one of my favourite films, Finding Nemo, being robbed of the two categories that I thought it truly excelled in – Best Original Score and Best Original Screenplay. Still, it was an incredible night, I was proud as Hell of Tim, and I still chuckle when I think of a grumpy (and undeserving) Bill Murray, refusing to stand up for Penn.

The following year, my favourite mainstream film of the year, Million Dollar Baby (sorry, but I do love it) won, and instead of Timmy, it was his Shawshank co-star Morgan Freeman I was rooting for, in the same category, and still under the direction of Clint Eastwood. I loved Freeman’s portrayal of Eddie Dupris, thought his voice-over a delight, and deeply enjoyed the rambling rapport between him and Eastwood, but there is not a single doubt in my mind that a lot of my support for him was also based on the tradition that I had set up the previous year, for supporting Tim.

The following year came Brokeback, and my obsessions for the Oscars heightened. Still, it didn’t win, and, that ranks up there as one of the gravest disappointments I’ve ever suffered in my life. It was ‘orrible! I still cry thinking about it, and I swore that I would never watch the Oscars again. Yet not only did I watch them in 2007, but I watched them avidly, predicting, analysing and blogging about the Oscars like I was some kind of a madman. I do this because, I remember that, at times, the Oscars can get it right, and performances that I like – like Morgan and Tim, do actually get rewarded.