So today is my one-year blogiversary! That’s right, one year ago today I made my first post here on Sappho’s Torque, and I’ve tried really hard to keep posting about once a week ever since. Thank you so much to everyone who has been following me since the beginning, and to all of you who have joined in the last year or who keep up with my posts via Facebook. I appreciate you all!
So to celebrate this milestone, I have a little gift for you. Well, it’s really a gift only if you’re a fan of Alan Rickman. If you are — and I suspect most people who’ve enjoyed his movies have to work pretty hard not to be — you probably already grasp his immense talent. But check out this video of him doing something which in real time takes 11 seconds — and I encourage you to check out the video of that, afterward — and marvel at his ability to convey this wild range of emotions with such expressiveness. This video takes some time to watch, around 8-9 minutes, so I recommend you do it when you can watch it from beginning to end without a break.
So out of curiosity, what’s your favorite Alan Rickman role?
Sappho's Torque 
I liked him in The Song of Lunch and his role in Love Actually. There’s a certain kind of sadness to the character in Love Actually because of the delusion he’s putting himself under.
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I haven’t seen The Song of Lunch, but I totally agree about Love Actually. What a great film anyway! He’s also heartbreakingly good in Truly, Madly, Deeply.
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I first noticed him in 1989 in ‘Spirit of Man – From Sleep and Shadow’ with Nigel Hawthorne. Alan played Israel Yates a fiery ‘Ranter’. 17c revolution and revolutionary theology was my field of study, so this playlet was fun to me.
… at least I thought that was the first time I noticed him. But the BBC adaptation of Trollope’s ‘Barchester Chronicles’ was seven years earlier. My friends still refer to AR as ‘Obediah’ after his brilliant portrayal of Obediah Slope. Here’s a compilation:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=035BSEU_hQ4
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… and I have just found this clip from him in a 1978 production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The guy is just so cool! 🙂
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Thanks for posting these! 🙂
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It was a sheer pleasure hunting them down. 🙂
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I have to say: he’s just the perfect Severus Snape. Even though the Harry Potter movies really aren’t great, I picture Alan Rickman when I read Snape in the Harry Potter books.
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I could not agree more.
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