What I chiefly remember about "The Black Swan" was the Morgan bits (if
I'm thinking about the right film!) I love an ambiguous protagonist
who comes out on the right side...
Which Flynn film is the best is an almost impossible question ;-)
Also, I have a soft spot for some of his work in films that were not,
objectively, his best -- "Lilacs in the Spring", for example, which is
basically a highlights compilation from Anna Neagle's earlier and more
successful films. Flynn's role in the framing story is neither young,
handsome nor dashing -- but he is both charismatic and possessed of
a moving degree of emotional depth. (It's almost surreal to witness
the charm detached from the physical good looks, but it's undoubtedly
there; he compels the audience attention in a way that the two young
men who are supposed to be the rival romantic leads don't manage.)
"The man can act. One forgets it, beneath the charm and the heroics
and the famous sidelong grin."
I think that's the key to all his best performances: a delicacy of
touch beneath the flamboyance. His great talent was that he could make
the flamboyance look convincing (and by all accounts it wasn't that
far off his own youthful bounce and swagger) -- he's a little
self-conscious still in "Captain Blood", but by the time he got to
"The Charge of the Light Brigade" he comes across as entirely
confident. But in addition to being able to laugh and banter and swing
a sword, in his best performances he can do the sort of still,
infinitesimally shaded stuff that you'd associate with a very
different type of actor. (Custer is a pretty good example, as I
recall.)
no subject
What I chiefly remember about "The Black Swan" was the Morgan bits (if I'm thinking about the right film!) I love an ambiguous protagonist who comes out on the right side...
Which Flynn film is the best is an almost impossible question ;-) Also, I have a soft spot for some of his work in films that were not, objectively, his best -- "Lilacs in the Spring", for example, which is basically a highlights compilation from Anna Neagle's earlier and more successful films. Flynn's role in the framing story is neither young, handsome nor dashing -- but he is both charismatic and possessed of a moving degree of emotional depth. (It's almost surreal to witness the charm detached from the physical good looks, but it's undoubtedly there; he compels the audience attention in a way that the two young men who are supposed to be the rival romantic leads don't manage.)
"The man can act. One forgets it, beneath the charm and the heroics and the famous sidelong grin."
I think that's the key to all his best performances: a delicacy of touch beneath the flamboyance. His great talent was that he could make the flamboyance look convincing (and by all accounts it wasn't that far off his own youthful bounce and swagger) -- he's a little self-conscious still in "Captain Blood", but by the time he got to "The Charge of the Light Brigade" he comes across as entirely confident. But in addition to being able to laugh and banter and swing a sword, in his best performances he can do the sort of still, infinitesimally shaded stuff that you'd associate with a very different type of actor. (Custer is a pretty good example, as I recall.)