Let's be honest people : that guy is a facking beast, his face, his voice, you can't take your eyes off him whenever he's on screen, he's the Robert de Niro, the Mickey Rourke, the Kurt Russel of this era, way beyond the bland faces (Matt Damon, George Clooney) or pretty boys (Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio) that we see everywhere.
He's a lion. He's the best currently working actor, the greatest gift France could've given us.
This message has been deleted by an administrator
shareyeah yeah stop fawning. this is such a typical reaction that people have to sweaty rugged french actors with creepy eyes who play in "art house" films. oh so avant-garde yadda yadda
those "bland faces and pretty boys" you named are all excellent actors by the way. sure, it's unfortunate how much fame they all got for their faces, and it tends to mess up what roles they take up (especially for Cruise).
i'm not advocating hollywood mainstream filmmaking, but the pretentiousness i see from all the anti-hollywood type people who masturbate in their own 'uniqueness'. though i might be wrong, and perhaps you're just the type who seems to cling to certain personality types in films: the aforementioned rugged types. but it's not like narrow mindedness is going to make you any more credible.
so anyway:
1. he's not the best working actor. he's not the best currently working actor. he's one of the more well established french male actors at best, but you can't say best without really knowing pretty much all of them.
2. in the list of greatest things France has given us, you should be referring to things like the pencil, the metric system, the bicycle, the battery, Descartes, Pascal, Voltaire, the sewing machine, the parachute and of course, CINEMA. Vincent Cassel and his rapist image rank somewhere in the abysmal thousands. even the Statue of Liberty makes top 50 easily, and i'm not even from the united states
Although I don't agree with some of what you write I enjoy your turn of phrase. He is a very good actor, though not sure he would be the best - I don't think I have a best.
The one thing I do want to dispute is that he is anti-Hollywood and 'masturbates in his own uniqueness'. There was an interview with Cassel posted on one of these threads and he discussed his decision not to go to Hollywood. I can't recall exactly what he said but it didn't come across as snobbery against Hollywood at all. Clash of offers and he went the non-Hollywood way was all.
rouge silk,
fierce concentrated joy,
fires the blood
ah i must have misphrased a bit :P i was referring to the people who revere frenchiness and artsiness as being the real snobs. i'm allergic to hipsters. i never blame the actors themselves
share