| Just to discuss a selection of movies from the list that
Ralph Fiennes has been in, some of which passed with little
notice by the general public.
The list is incomplete, only due to gaps in my own viewing.
- Strange Days - A science fiction film by Kathryn Bigelow,
ex-wife of the more famous James Cameron. She apparently got
the rights to this film as part of their divorce settlement.
It's a smart little movie, and end-of-the-millenium film set
in L.A. Fiennes plays a kind of dealer, selling illegal
recordings of people's experiences that you can play back
through a skullcap device, thus reliving the experience as
if you were there. When he receives a recording that could
cause L.A. to explode in rioting, he starts having to track
down the origin of the disk. This film is required for any
Ralph Fiennes fan, it's unlike any of his other roles.
- Schindler's List - very famous, so not much needs to be
said here. A moving film on the Holocaust, very realistic
style. Fiennes plays Amon Goeth, camp commander, with
a casual brutality.
- Sunshine - Fiennes plays three generations of Hungarian
Jewish men from the Sonnenschein/Sors family. The three
men are fundamentally different characters, and experience
antisemitic discrimination before, during and after
Nazi occupation. The film has images that will stay
with you for the rest of your life (not comforting, but
clearly impactful). Three amazing performances by Fiennes.
- Oscar and Lucinda - Fiennes plays Oscar, a young
priest who suppresses his love for Lucinda (Cate
Blanchett) into a mad
shared dream between the two to transport an iron-and-glass
church to the middle of nowhere in the Australian Outback,
by riverboat. Fiennes
and Blanchett work well together--Fiennes plays obsession
well (cf. Strange Days, English Patient)
- Red Dragon - Fiennes plays the "Tooth Fairy"/Red Dragon/Dolarhyde
in the Hannibal Lecter prequel. The movie is jam-packed
with great actors, who do an amazing job with the material.
Direction and editing could have been better, however,
so the movie fails to attain the heights that it could.
Fiennes' portrayal of Dolarhyde and the Red Dragon
is appropriately
restrained and frightening, respectively.
| 
