An Actor's Requiem

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version

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Is there a name for those films where you get an ageing performer essentially playing a version of themselves nearing the end or just struggling with their star fading? I've seen a couple recently: Lucky (2017) with Harry Dean Stanton, and Swan Song (2021) with Udo Kier. Others which come to mind are Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler (2008), Demi Moore in The Substance (2024) and Pamela Anderson in The Last Showgirl (2024). I suppose you could chuck in Brendan Fraser in The Whale (2022) as well.
 
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catalog

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There's a really good early peckinpah, ride the wild country, which has two "character" western actors in their final roles. One is Joel mcrea, can't remember the other one. One of the very best peckinpahs, cos great early role for Warren oates too, but he definitely played on the old-timer cowboys reputations. They were sort of like b-movie stars and he knew everyone would get the references, cos the whole film is about how the world is passing them by.



Other actor is Randolph Scott!
 
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catalog

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Tarantino obvs does a great job if resurrecting old timers. John travolta, David carradine, pam grier etc
 
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catalog

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Another good one is sterling hayden as hemingway in the long goodbye



Such a great film, the deconstruction of the gumshoe.

And there's also John Huston in Chinatown now I think about it. A lot to think about there. It's like an illuminati turn

 
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catalog

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Murphy said:
Ray Winstone stooping down low for Bet365 ads - how much does he needs the £ with such bollocks

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shitting on their own legend

most artists carry on long after they should have stopped, so the Q might equally be "who hasn't shat on their own legend?" but who are the ones who have most soiled their own discographies? it might not even be a question of bad records, just the sheer quantity of 'pretty good / decent'...
www.dissensus.com
 
jenks

jenks

thread death
Olivier in Lear springs to mind along with his final role in Jarman’s War Requiem. At the time there was a big fuss over the fact he’d said it’d be his last Shakespeare. And I’m pretty sure he knew he was dying in War Requiem (as did Jarman, I think)
 
version

version

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Edward G. Robinson was famously dying when he filmed Soylent Green.

In his book The Actor's Life: Journal 1956–1976, Heston wrote, "He knew while we were shooting, though we did not, that he was terminally ill. He never missed an hour of work, nor was late to a call. He never was less than the consummate professional he had been all his life. I'm still haunted, though, by the knowledge that the very last scene he played in the picture, which he knew was the last day's acting he would ever do, was his death scene. I know why I was so overwhelmingly moved playing it with him"​
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The scene's heavy enough with Heston struggling to comprehend that the world used to be full of life and having to say goodbye to his friend in the story then you've got Robinson actually facing down death on top of that.

"Can you see it?"

 
luka

luka

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loads of the cast were dying whrn they did twin peaks the return. i think lynch is evil actually a lot of his actors get cursed and get sick and die
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Balabanov's last film is a kind of pastiche of Stalker. It's really good but it sort of stops very suddenly after a cameo from the director. I always wondered if he cut filming short cos he was dying cos it feels that way.

  • Sanja the Bandit after a particularly vicious shootout, stumbles into the musician Oleg at the local banya. Following a retelling of a semi-mythological story, the pair decide to make a pilgrimage to a "bell-tower of happiness".
  • A huge black SUV is rolling down a desolate summer road. In it are the Bandit, his friend Matthew with his old father, the Musician, and a beautiful girl. They are looking for the Bell Tower of Happiness which, according to rumors, is located somewhere between St. Petersburg and Uglich, near an abandoned nuclear power plant. The Bell Tower takes people away; not everyone, however. But each person in the huge black vehicle believes that he will be one of the chosen.
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