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IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Back to American Psycho.... no face... but at the same time isn't he supposed to have modelesque good looks? I remember at the time thinking that Christian Bale simply wasn't handsome enough to play the character I imagined, although I can't remember precisely on what I base that. I mean he's obviously not supposed to be sexy but I imagined some kind of bland, flawless perfection... Bale aint that.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah I find CB quite annoying (plus I always have to think hard not to mix him up with the golf player from Madrid... same with Russell Brand and Russell Grant but that's another story) but I can't complain about his performance here. As has been said above I'm sure, it's unfllmable book that they made a pretty good stab (ha) at. No complaints from me.
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
IdleRich said:
no face... but at the same time isn't he supposed to have modelesque good looks?
Click to expand...
there's never any description, so far as I can remember, of his or anyone's facial features

besides as collections of brands (clothing, glasses, accessories, etc) everyone is described in terms of their bodies. and haircuts (as status symbol).

as far as Bateman, bland and flawlessly handsome sounds accurate. idk about perfection.

puts me in mind of Armitage from Neuromancer (another fave, contra luka + co) if you're familiar

if not he's described as having a sculpted face that is a deliberate amalgamation of conventionally handsome features in a bland/nondescript fashion
 
version

version

Well-known member
Yeah, he's described in incredibly vague terms. I read the bit where he attacks the gay guy and his dog earlier and the guy asks whether he's a model.
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
oh yeah that's true I'd forgotten that

I think it's more about his physique/overall look (style, obsessive skincare, etc) than only his face tho?
 
version

version

Well-known member
Yeah, you don't really get a sense of what he looks like at all. Just that he's in great shape, handsome and slicks his hair back.
 
version

version

Well-known member
The cover of my edition emphasises the faceless thing actually.

enhanced-9368-1425418817-28.jpg
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Bale is - along with Michael Shannon (and Daniel Day-Lewis, but he's like his own thing) - my favorite actor, so I'm biased

but I thought he was essentially perfect in the role. that does seem be the common opinion?

the idea that he's not handsome enough for it is very strange to me - these things are subjective I suppose.

someone like Shannon - who basically embodies "weathered" (or "rugged" more generously) - yes that would be distracting no matter how good the performance

I don't think DiCaprio could have conveyed that terrifying blankness, chews too much scenery

he basically made a real-life version with Wolf of Wall Street
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
the facelessness is both a literal and metaphorical thing - the endless cases of mistaken identity, everyone interchangeable

it's probably what truly elevates it to Literature - all the musings, questioning, raving about identity/self, in between all the lists of stuff
 
version

version

Well-known member
Casper Van Dien played him in a deleted scene from The Rules of Attraction. He's not particularly convincing.

 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Casper Van Dien is a direct-to-DVD cutrate version of Bale

not an easy role to play, to convey both the blankness and the deranged lunacy underneath it. stylizing it was probably the best anyone could do.

hilarious detail in that clip that Bateman's office seems to have one piece of decoration and it's a huge painting of Tank Man at Tianamen Square

have to think Roger Avary would've made a much different AP movie. not as good, but full of weird bullshit details like that.
 
version

version

Well-known member
There've been rumours of Tarantino wanting to direct a Less than Zero adaptation, but I can't see it happening. There was supposed to be a series too.
 
entertainment

entertainment

Well-known member
padraig (u.s.) said:
not an easy role to play, to convey both the blankness and the deranged lunacy underneath it. stylizing it was probably the best anyone could do.
Click to expand...

Apparently Bale's portrayal was inspired by a Letterman interview with Tom Cruise, watching that "intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes"
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
version said:
Yeah, he's described in incredibly vague terms. I read the bit where he attacks the gay guy and his dog earlier and the guy asks whether he's a model.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah that's what I'm thinking of.
Yeah I have read (and enjoyed) Neuromancer a few times but not for ages I have to say. Don't remember that bit.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I don’t really thing it does the book any good to think about whether he is a psychopath or not, or how much of a real person he actually is. It makes more sense to think of him in terms of an allegorical figure, like something from Bunyan or the Medieval Miracle Plays. I think the book operates on that level, as well as satire like Juvenal (as Padraig astutely says) or Swift, rather than a psychological novel.
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
I think you are all being incredibly generous to a very dull and smug book. It's like a hybrid Norman Mailer/Tom Wolfe novel - violence and surfaces.
 
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