callmebliss:

she was also the granddaughter of a baron, the daughter of a nazi sympathizer, spent her teens doing ballet to secretly raise money for the dutch resistance against the nazis, and spent her post-film career as a goodwill ambassador of UNICEF, winning the presidential medal of freedom for her efforts.

and history remembers her as pretty.

\o/

Reminder of: reason for eggplant’s name

12 Cumbermoments of sheer acting brilliance in no partucular order

Benedict Cumberbatch Acting Appreciation Post

He’s on his way to international blockbuster stardom, but first and foremost, he’s a great thespian, one of the best in the world. As an actor, Benedict Cumberbatch is intelligent, fearless, versatile, chameleon-like, peerless, sensual, sexy, mesmerising, eye candy… you simply can’t look away when he’s on screen, he sucks you in…

1) In Hawking (2004), Cumberbatch manages the masterstroke of acting out the physicist’s MND disease in pinpoint precision, but entirely without making him an object of pity. He shows the struggle with the disability getting worse each day without portaying Hawking as a tragic figure. The disease is never at the center of his acting, the viewer’s attention is always drawn to Hawking’s way to science stardom and his emotional life. All that makes the heartbreaking moments of the movie (the final diagnosis, for example) even more special. The lesson is clear: What we witness here is a genius playing a genius.

2) There are obviously countless magical acting moments in all episodes of Sherlock (2010/2012) - from Cumberbatch AND Freeman - but A scandal in Belgravia surely has excessively many. The absolute highlight (besides every single scene in which Sherlock interacts with Irene Adler): The last ten - not showy but nearly pious - minutes, in which Cumberbatch acts out - with sparing gestures and mimic art - that Sherlock is capable of all kinds of emotion, from trustfulness to admiration and probably even love. The last moment at the rainy window with it’s only four words of monologue leaves you breathless with empathy and sentiment.

3) The sadly undervalued drama Third Star (2010) is without any doubt one of the most throat constricting movies ever made, and Cumberbatch as deathly ill James is responsible. I don’t believe that there’s a more powerful performance of agony anywhere in any movie ever made. No, I’m not exaggerating. And then, on the other side of the scale, there’s so much tenderness, joy and lust for life in his performance… you have to see it to believe it.

4) In the Golding entwicklungsroman adaption To the ends of the earth (2005), Cumberbatch plays young British aristocrat Edmund Talbot, who travels by ship to Australia. Everything in this TV drama is very dream-like and weird, and Cumberbatch’s performance fits in perfectly. There are loads of impressing acting moments… the love at first sight moment at the dance on the high sea for example; but all the tense encounters with Captain Anderson (Jared Harris) are the highlights of this series…

5) In Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Cumberbatch delivers the probably most hearttbreaking gay movie scene sinceBrokeback Mountain. It’s really really short but it’s one of the highlights of the entire movie. Besides that, he also owns the best and most suspenseful scene in TTSS. You might even say that he’s the heart and soul of the movie - without diminishing Gary Oldman’s great performance.

6) One of the supreme disciplines of acting: playing twins. Cumberbatch does it in the short film Inseperable (2007) - and mind-blowingly so. The film is only 11 minutes long, but Cumberbatch is so intense in his gestures and facial expressions, he manages to tell two full life storys with only a dozen words of dialogue. A moment of desperate crying alone in a car is the only crescendo in this calm psychological mini thriller.

7) If a lesser actor had taken on the part of Alexander inStuart: A life backwards (2007), he wouldn’t have had a chance to stand his ground against the impressive, showy ”Stuart” part of Tom Hardy. Stumbling mumbling Hardy is the center of the movie, without any doubt. But Cumberbatch isn’t intimidated in the least by his counterpart. He has a great chemistry with Hardy and they interact brilliantly. Cumberbatch is moving and genuine and often funny, and when he’s on screen, the eyes of the viewer tend to wander off Hardy, towards him.

8) Another troubled genius: Cumberbatch as Vincent van Gogh in the magnificent BBC documentation Painted with words (2010)… true greatness. A perfect study in mental alienation. Cumberbatch recites words from original letters Van Gogh wrote to his brother, and he interacts with the camera - a magical experience. The scenes in the asylum are gut-wrenching.

9) “Bite it. You have to bite it!” This one sentence is the key to Cumberbatch’s unforgettable Paul Marshall in Atonement (2007). Small role, large effect. He’s pitch perfect (and, Jesus, a bit sexy) as the slick, creepy chocolate factory owner - irritatingly good, as director Joe Wright points out in the DVD’s audio commentary: “We never expected him to be that unsettling.” Cumberbatch’s scene with Juno Temple is the most memorable and best played in the whole movie.

10) The last enemy (2008)… pretty good mini series, BRILLIANT lead. Cumberbatch plays Stephen Ezard, a scientist in a future UK who feels sold down the river in a world he doesn’t understand anymore. His acting of sheer desperation is breathtaking, and there are painfully beautiful love scenes… so sensual you want to look away.

11) Wreckers (2010)… Rural love triangle with loads of sexual tension between all characters. The film has it’s weaknesses and is much too low key to really wow you, but Cumberbatch does the job. He’s shady and likeable in equal shares, and there’s a strange jumpiness to his character that’s totally fascinating. He has a fantastic chemistry with Chris Evans who plays his violated brother, and the tension between them is never far from sexual and leaves a bad taste in the viewer’s mouth.

12) Star Trek into Darkness (2013)… An absolute artistical triumph for Cumberbatch and some kind of a first climax of his career (besides Sherlock). It’s a first rate fun popcorn film, colourful, loud, exciting, full of plot faults and innuendos and flip dialogue and explosions and bromance - and then there’s Cumberbatch: majestic, stoic, Shakespearian, barbaric, grave. And painfully, alarmingly sexy. His face does things that I’ve never seen a face doing in my entire life, and his physicality is out of this world. And then there’s his character’s big moment, and I will eat my pants if he doesn’t get an Oscar nom for it…