Bast was too creepy, annoying, and undesirable to even be in this movie. Here's the weird part: if you watch Noah Taylor's performance of Adolph Hitler in the movie Max, it will remind you of the character of Leonard Bast.
There is no "off" position on the genius switch.
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I just watched this again and when Bast can't catch up with Helen after she has taken his umbrella from the music hall I just keep thinking "ineffectual twit".
Then later when he goes home to Jackie he remarks that she is always expecting that he has been "crushed and killed in a gruesome accident". I take a perverse pleasure in that foreshadowing.
Piperson wrote: I just watched this again and when Bast can't catch up with Helen after she has taken his umbrella from the music hall I just keep thinking "ineffectual twit".
When watching the film recently that also did not make sense to me, but then I came up with an explanation. I think that he intentionally keeps his distance from her because for a stranger to intentionally approach a woman on the street without her leave would have been seen as presumptuous and a major lapse in manners. It might also have something to do with the fact that he was of the working class so that he knew she was his "superior". He kept trying to get her attention by calling, "Miss!" so that she would stop, turn around, and acknowledge him, thus allowing him to approach her. You should note also that when he got to her home, he did not even go and knock or ring the bell, he simply waiting outside hoping she would spot him.
I consider this seemingly minor detail more significant because the film focuses a great deal on the theme of the class system and the unbridgeable gaps it causes between people. Later in the film, after Leonard comes to know Helen, he dreams about the first meeting at the "Music and Meaning" lecture and how he is chasing after her in the rain. The dream changed what actually happened because, in it, the gait was closed TO HIM and he was unable to go any further towards her.
LOL That's what I thought the first couple of times I saw this movie. I've seen it so many times now I'm used to him. But at first I could not even feel too sorry for him.
shareI didn't notice it until the last time he left his flat, but he walks oddly. Stiff, no fluidity.
shareThat stiff gait, with slumped shoulders and bowed head, is the body language of a man who had been beaten down by his life. It's the same thing I noticed in Charlie Chaplin's character in CITY LIGHTS. When the Tramp leaves jail, he shuffles along, staying close to walls and not looking at people. There's no spring in his step.
shareBast was playful--he balanced his pen on his nose when he sat down at his desk and glanced around with a smile to see if anyone had seen it. He was a dreamer. And he had a good heart, as we saw in his tender interactions with Jacky. If he was imperfect and not altogether appealing, that just makes his character all the more realistic.
You're all jackasses who deserve as little sympathy as you offer, next time you're down on your luck.
shareI don't understand this "pile on Leonard Bast" bit. He didn't strike me as creepy. While no heartthrob, at the beginning of the film, he was rather handsome and charming. The point was that he was gradually declining into oblivion and death due to overwork, stress, poverty, malnourishment, etc. It's called acting. He was meant to look like something of a spook at the end. As for his mannerisms and strange walking, even at the beginning, IMHO he was meant to be a person who was being beaten down by society, so that it affected his behavior.
shareMark speaks he truth ...because he has a mind.
shareI suppose he could appear that way. BUT, I just find the actor Samuel West so damn handsome that his screen time is my film's highlight! Sorry, but that guy is just so adorable with his tall, skinny appearance, blond hair and an almost see-through complexion. Beautiful, more than handsome! :)
shareYes! I also found myself with a little crush on Leonard Bast! I haven't seen Sam West in much else, but now I find myself wanting to check out more of his stuff.
I guess I felt sorry for Leonard. He's a hard worker who's flattened by bad luck, ill health, and faith in his 'superiors'. He's a dreamer who longs to escape his life (his small dingy flat near the train tracks, his Jacky who is like an anchor dragging him down). I mean, the guy keeps a sky atlas at his desk, and actually ends up walking all night out of London, like the character in a book he's read, not even realizing that he should have taken some food with him.
I think he looks on the Schlegels, especially Helen, as an unattainable dream. I can imagine how he felt when he actually was able to have a (albeit short) relationship with Helen.
I guess he's a good example of a tragic figure in literature.
Yes, Mark, whersoe'er he may now be, looked deeper.
shareI agree.
Personally I thought the Basts were the biggest weakness in the screenplay. The Schlegels were well written and interesting characters; the Wilcoxes at least provoked an interest - for better or for worse.
However there wasn't a single scene involving the Basts that created any interest for me. I wanted them to have a bigger role, given that they represented a key message in the story - the injustices of the working classes. But as you say, the roles were annoyingly reticent.
It reminded me a little of the ending of 'No Country For Old Men': Why should I care about the angst, trials and tribulations of this character who has so little screen time, and is treated as a secondary character throughout.
Of course I feel for Bast. But I don't necessarily agree that his oddness is the result of being beat by "society."
Life isn't fair. For some it's much worse though, than others. Compare the fates of Tibby and Bast. One is a cute neer-do-well dolt. The other an ernest hardworking oddball. Unfair.
I agree with Mark also! Plus. . . . .I really like Samuel West!
shareAbsolutely agree and I'm annoyed they get so much screen time because of it.
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