A Face for Every Emotion

Brando has one of the most intense stares ever in cinema. He's lucky to be born with amazing eye bone structure, apt for delivering piercing gazes at whoever earns his scrutiny. Eyes like those can allow him to see through anything behind those masks. Lies would never slip past him.

You will never see a performance like Maria Falconetti in this age of fast cutting and dialogue-driven movies. I wish directors today could linger long enough on a pretty woman's face so every detail and nuance of emotion can be captured. Speech can obscure and detract from the impact behind the feelings and emotion that the actors are trying to convey. Its deficit in The Passion of Joan Arc allowed Maria free rein and time to focus her efforts on her facial expressions rather than dialogue.

There are areas in acting which Leung Kar Yan falls well below the mark. In his hands, a decidedly dramatic scene can end up instead as comedy gold. But ask him to exhibit physical pain and he'll do it better than any Hall of Famer across the world. He's hands down the greatest portrayer of pain I know of. It's not so much the agonising expression but the desperation behind it that makes him stand out. Anyone who makes the viewer feel as if they experienced what he went through deserves commendation. And this guy's performance in Warriors Two can't be praised enough, without even getting to his "selling" ability in martial arts.

Joan Fontaine was great in A Letter From an Unknown Woman (one of my favourite movies ever) but I believe her Oscar-winning role in Suspicion is her finest hour. What I admired about it is that she allowed her character to retain a sense of control in her faculties despite her unfounded delusions. There's a tendency to overact in roles like this and I'm glad she didn't take that route. She handled her character using finesse and grace instead of letting herself be perceived as someone who's just been let out of a mental asylum. People don't go off the deep end that easily like a lot of films of this nature would have you believe.

Tony Leung Chiu Wai plays a triad mole in Infernal Affairs. In this scene when he is overwhelmed by the death of his police comrade, he seemed to have lost all sense of his surroundings. I mean, who would be stupid enough to just stand there and have his cover blown so easily? Tony's reaction makes it believable though. I guess in that moment of paralysis, the reality of the situation just never quite reached his brain in time.

The emotional equivalent of a facepalm. When you're that deeply appalled by something, you just can't help yourself reacting the way Robert Vaughn did in Baseketball.

With Bruce Lee, I thought he was about to fulminate in that "Sick Man of Asia" scene in Fist of Fury. His anger is such that it's like a kettle brought to a boil. I think his life experiences has a lot to do with with sea of rage welling up inside of him. Films were a vehicle for him to direct his frustration and fury at all those who defied him and his people. Injustice is the perfect ingredient for a fiery disposition.

I think everyone felt the power of those words Brando so painstakingly improvised in the famous taxi scene in On the Waterfront. But without some astute mannerisms thrown in to really prop it up it would never have garnered the legendary reputation it enjoys nowadays. There's always a shift in tone in the way he laments his current situation which makes it such a layered and fascinating performance. Towards the end of the scene, when Terry can find no more words, he closes it with a downcast look and the shake of his hand to drive home his point. A perfect coda to wrap up a wonderful speech.

"You will not keep me down" is the expression written all over Denzel's face when he's being flogged in the 1989 American Civil War movie Glory. Tears are often interpreted to be a sign of weakness in our society. But here it's effectively pain-induced and is in no way any indication of wavering in the man's mental resolve.

In spite of the loudness and brashness of some the characters in the Deer Hunter film. It was the quiet but jittery performance by Christopher Walken which made the most noise. The film practically starred him, he annihilated Robert De Niro. We're with him every step of the way as his acting leads us to this path of the unknown. The unknown and the worry if his brain is going to splatter each time he points a pistol to his head.

See what happens when our dear women are denied access to the embrace of men? Madness ensues. The sexually repressed era of the Victorian age were abound with cases of hysteria among women. Over time as more and more of them get their daily fill of men we see these numbers peter out, even coming to an abrupt end. Kathleen Byron's character is a stark reminder of a time when people were deprived of free love and the natural consequences that arise from it.

For all the commentary the latest Beauty and the Beast film has of beauty being only skin deep, could you imagine an even harsher scenario where the Beast is dirt poor, would Belle even give him a second glance? Even if the ending didn't turn out the way it did, the house she was imprisoned into had everything that she wanted. Books, lavish clothing, fine food, all in service to her great...personality. A cushy life awaits her. And Emma Watson's pretty little face is quietly savouring every moment of it.

Just like people with resting bitch face syndrome my facial expression can be misunderstood. People think I look confused when I'm actually deep in thought. There goes my dream of being a thespian I guess but I'm glad I'm not alone in this. Vivien Leigh has such a fascinating rbf it makes you really want to pry into her feelings. She has a fantastic smile but this was the look that broke men's hearts. We love our women to look good when happy, angry and in between.

I don't think I've ever seen Charles Dance smile. No matter what film or tv show he is in he always wears that signature sneer as if everyone or everything is of no importance to him. The preponderance of such a trait can't have sprung out of nowhere, there must be something within the actor that brings forth this most wretched of countenances. People are often derisive of Dragon's Den's Deborah Meaden, but believe me, she is Mary Poppins compared to this guy. Lighten up will you.

We all wish we could smile the way Orson Welles smirked in The Third Man every second of our lives. There's too many twists and turns for that to happen though. To fulfil your dreams and win at life is a high that many crave for.

"How could you do this?" "How could you slap a poor defenceless woman?" "How dare you leave a mark on this pristine countenance?" is the vibe I'm getting from the watery-eyed look of Monica Bellucci's beautiful face. She does it so well. There are no clear signs of indignation. She needed no words to tell her man that the slap he gave makes him a very bad person. There was no context provided as to what caused Renato to behave the way he did. The scene was just played out to earn our sympathy of the woman. My first reaction was how I was going to go about wringing his neck.

Take an example at my former workplace, where two male workers got into a fight over a young girl. One of the worker's girlfriend was apparently punched by her colleague which he dismissed as nothing more than playful digs. But this boyfriend of hers saw it differently and in his moment of madness never for once questioned and thought of the consequences of his actions and believed a violent solution would deal with the problem. A solution that could've cost him his job, since he went as far as attempting to break the fellow's arm in retaliation. There was clearly blood in the guy's eyes. Luckily I was there to prevent this from happening and if I had been there any later it could've gotten nasty. As it turns out the one who supposedly did the light taps got the greater punishment and the guy who defended his woman's honour got off scot-free. No suspensions whatsoever for his gross misconduct and actual bodily harm as if what he did was right or understandable. In another situation prior to that in which women were left out of the equation and two men were just simply embroiled in a fight, both were instantly fired. There was no need to look into anything that might mitigate their circumstances. This incident taught me that if I could get away with anything, I would use a beautiful pitiful-looking woman to achieve my aims.

Brigitte Lin is clearly not aiming for realism here, but a more stylish and feminine alternative than what we usually expect. She played the ice queen in the movie Zu Warriors Magic Mountain and I think this pose is in keeping with her cold and stoic demeanour.

After I finished watching I Spit On Your Grave, all I thought about was giving Sarah Butler a warm hug. The things she had to go through for that role was callous. I've seen a lot of girls in distress on film but not quite in the same way as her. It pains me deeply to see an incredibly beautiful girl being harassed like that. Even if the scene was not real she had to imagine that it was and no doubt it was played over and over in her head. A trauma like that is most definitely worthy of the most luxurious cuddles a man like me could offer to a woman.

You know that feeling you get when you put in all that hard work into something but only to see it undone in one single stroke? I only wish something like that to happen on my worst enemy. Dog Day Afternoon is where we witness Al Pacino's robbery attempt fall to pieces in the same way as one man's spirit becomes a house of cards in dramatic fashion.