The gulf between good actors and great actors

Kylie 2022-03-14 08:01:02

The facial expressions of white people are always much richer than those of yellow people, so when playing a role of facial paralysis, it is relatively difficult to control the range of expressions. Burton is a bit like an outlier among white people, and his usual expression is not very big.

During the filming of "Blood on the Snow Mountain Castle", a reporter went to interview him, and he was sitting on the sofa in the hotel lobby, bowing his head and playing Scrabble on the newspaper, "From the side, his pockmarked face is quite cold, making it difficult to near."

But Burton has his trump card, his eyes.

He has a pair of eyes that are very lively and never dull. Even when the plot calls for it, when he needs to act down, hopeless, lifeless and the like, his eyes are never empty and boring.

If you let him play such emotions as shock, disbelief, nervousness, and fear, but when the plot requires him and he can't show any relevant expressions, he can fully express all these emotions with his eyes. It should be said that he has a pair of eyes that are naturally suitable for being an actor.

The color of his iris is very light, like the shallow tropical sea, crystal clear and green, so that people can see the bottom at a glance.

It is not mysterious at all, just like a young girl who has just opened her heart to her lover without reservation, pure and innocent.

Even on stage, those eyes allowed the audience sitting in the back row to see the sharp light in his eyes shining. As for the front of the movie camera, this advantage has been magnified again, allowing the audience to see through his heart through these eyes and understand the story he wants to tell the audience.

This pair of eyes makes him very good at playing facial paralysis roles, especially "Berlin Spy", "Domination of the World", "Massacre" as the most.

Interestingly, his acting genius allows him to interpret tragedies in a myriad of different ways. In the same way, he can also interpret facial paralysis in a variety of ways that are never the same. If you have seen all three plays, you can know the specific difference between the three tragic characters he plays. He has an expression flaw, as observed by his mentor Emlyn in '48 when he made his first film, The Last Days of Dorvin, and he is prone to inappropriately fierce expressions, which Stubborn, so completely uncorrectable.

When the emotion of the character he played was about to explode, once the expression became big, it would immediately turn into this fierceness.

This is a normal performance on theatrical stage, and it is easier to arouse the audience's emotions, and with his roar, it has a more frightening effect. But on the movie screen, such an expression is too dramatic and exaggerated.

Therefore, when he began to carefully craft his film acting skills, he gradually found a way to avoid this defect, that is, calm and restraint. Acting with eyes and micro-expressions alone without major facial expressions.

"Domination of the World" was his first success after improving his acting skills, which made him unanimously praised by film critics, who believed that he controlled the overall situation with absolute calmness and restraint.

And in "Berlin Spy" a year later, he played the middle-aged spy Alec Limas, which made his new performance approach reach the pinnacle. Limas was taken to Holland after successfully deceiving the East Germans after accepting a mission from the Circus to pretend to defect.

Just as he followed the "boss"'s prior explanation, he was successfully cheating here, when the East German people suddenly found an announcement in the British newspaper that Circus was looking for him, and handed the newspaper to him for him to read.

This sudden change made him at a loss and puzzled after the momentary shock.

But the instinct of being a senior spy made him realize that the uncontrollable development of the situation contained great danger, and even thought that he might have been regarded as a pure cannon fodder by the "boss".

In just a few tens of seconds, he not only had to turn many thoughts in his mind, but also thought about how he would deal with the people in East Germany after such a huge change happened; he also had to consider how not to reveal The flaws, how to make the development of the situation gradually controllable, and how to find a way to survive in the desperate situation.

When he looked out the window at the beach and the sea in the distance, what he thought was that he longed to complete this task not long ago, get his pension, and live in seclusion by the sea with his beloved Nancy, watching her feed the seagulls every day The good life has now burst like a bubble.

Next, he went to East Germany, fearing death and not life. Most likely, he will never see her again.

But under the constant surveillance of the East Germans, he couldn't show any real emotions, and he had to keep his composure in order to deceive the enemy and proceed smoothly with his next plan.

Therefore, in these dozens of seconds of close-up shots of his face, he cannot use obvious expressions to interpret the ever-changing psychological activities. He can only use eyes and micro-expressions to convey this information to the audience.

This is the time to test his acting skills the most. In just a few dozen seconds, he was puzzled and guilty, but pretended to be calm, and then took the newspaper quietly.

As he read, shock and disbelief gradually appeared in his eyes.

Then he put down the newspaper, frowned, and walked to the window with a heavy heart.

These eyes were silently thrilling again, as if a sea storm had been set off. Whether it’s the turmoil when he lowered his eyes, the fear and anger when he looked up at the sea, or the intense despair after disillusionment.

When he began to bow his head and urgently consider countermeasures, he regained the calm that a spy should have.

When the people from East Germany came in and asked him what he planned to do next, he turned his back to the other side. Although his eyes did not change much, his eyes were still mixed with anger and anger, but it had been replaced by an invisible performance.

It has to be said that there is always a natural gap between good actors and great actors.

Burton has a God-given gift that allows him to be light-hearted while performing and take command of the situation with aplomb. No matter on stage or screen, he has considerable acting wisdom, which makes him and hard-working mortals have clear boundaries, thus distinguishing him from good actors.

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Extended Reading
  • Jaquelin 2022-04-22 07:01:55

    20210323le. Best spy movie I've seen. Cinematography, performance, screenwriting, and love in every way. There is no idle pen, it is worth reading again and again. It is estimated that it has also inspired other films, such as some early films of Galaxy Imaging.

  • Karson 2022-04-22 07:01:55

    It's amazing to think that it was produced when the Cold War was still going on.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold quotes

  • Alec Leamas: [to Nan] All right, I'll tell you. I'll tell you what you were never, never to know. Mundt is London's man. He's their agent. They bought him while he was in England. We're witnessing the lousy end to a filthy, lousy operation to save Mundt's skin... to save him from a clever little Jew in Mundt's own department who had begun to suspect the truth. London made us kill him, kill the Jew. Now you know. God help us both.

  • Nan Perry: What was my part in all this? I want to know.

    Alec Leamas: You were a pawn in the plot. London knew it was no good just killing Fiedler. If he'd been killed, people would've started asking by whom and why. Maybe he'd told friends he suspected Mundt. Maybe he'd left notes, incriminating notes. London had to eliminate suspicion. Public rehabilitation, that's what they organized for Mundt. I was sent to discredit him. He was sent to discredit me.

    Nan Perry: And love?

    Alec Leamas: We made it very easy for them. They used us. They cheated us both because it was necessary. Fiedler was nearly home already. If it hadn't been for us, Mundt would have been killed. They were bloody clever. All the way down the line they were bloody clever.

    Nan Perry: Clever? They were foul! How can you turn the world upside down? What rules are you playing?

    Alec Leamas: There's only one rule: expediency. Mundt gives London what it needs, so Fiedler dies and Mundt lives.