This is fucking wondrous. I pause every few sentences to absorb a phrase, like I’m studying the luminous skin tones in a work by Titian or Bellini. Love the rare occasions when your subject is equal to your style.
You manage to completely go over the line here, do a little dance and a pirouette, take a bow, cry out Brobdignagian, and race back across the line again, all before the police catch you.
I dunno if you heard the audio version but I nearly ran aground on Brobdignagian. I say it reeeal slow. I think I used it because it was an H.L. Mencken word but I'll be damned if I remember what it means,
I want - need - you to know that I have used the word exactly once, never pronounced it, and now will share the sentence that it graced. Graced is the wrong world. The Brobdignagians were extremely large motherfuckers who scared Gulliver half-to-death. Here is my sentence. This might be the only moment we ever share together:
"Now, it is like I’ve turned into a different person. I’m entering the alternate aspect of my preferred self, tapping into my inner Brobdingnagian. If the room is still creaking, I am no longer aware of it."
I thought Brobdignagian also had an era-specific political connotation, but I guess I am conflating it with "Comstockery." Beware the polecats and their wowserism!
The dichotomy you establish between Hurt's wirey sexual ambiguity and his lived sex life really brings this whole thing to life. And then there's the comprehensive labor of curiosity and passion you do with all of the dives into his various roles. This absolutely cooks. Wow.
under spell of manic hilarity here spewing forth sorta like the quarter mile gambit of river directly upstream of niagara falls (accentuated by a cold?... Joe Biden should have been so inclined to narrate in such a way just a piece of his equallly solid lifetime body of work)
under that spell cintra wilson i feel fortified, and especially reminded of the idea that whatever happens in the frought dramatic days weeks to come that only crazy can neutralise crazy.....i say i loved this? 😚
Oh, I can't wait for part two! What a sumptuous feast, your essay, and no one better for a rich appreciation an actor's quirk and dazzle than John Hurt. After so many years, I fell in love with him all over again after reading your piece. I also cut my teeth with him on his amazing turn in that brilliant series, I Claudius, and had my heart broken, similarly, in The Elephant Man. Thank you for this beautifully written and loving portrait. So looking forward to more (can't wait to hear what you have to say about 1984, which I had great hopes for, and found quite perplexing).
Oh, 1984 is one of my favorite movies ever (though grimmer than death). Hurt is supreme. Not for nothing, but I wrote a book called "Caligula for President: Better American Living Through Tyranny" in first person Caligula, or John Hurt as Caligula, because it is my favorite thing ever.
Interesting, I had a different response to 1984. I was a big fan of dystopian novels, read it age 11 in, like, 1965, and was terrified by it. By contrast, I experienced Radford's 1984 as visually incredibly striking, with the compelling retro-futurist motifs, but strangely lacking in the terror I so enjoyed. It was a visual feast, but I couldn't connect with it, nor with Hurt's performance. But Hurt's Caligula? Oh yes! What a brilliant breakthrough part, and what an absolutely terrifying evocation of that twisted individual's psychopathy and misrule. I feel the weird synchronicity of you writing a book about an individual like that for president at this present moment in history, even in humor, because it feels like it must have been eerily prescient. Thanks for weighing in! <3
I've not seen as much of his work as I should. I loved seeing him more recently in one of my favorite movies, "Only Lovers Left Alive" as a vampiric Christopher Marlowe. Did you see it?
As a committed paid subscriber, I must say, all that anxiety and self-hatred, plus the feeling that everything is forever wrong, all that BAD I had been feeling was, apparently, just the self-guilt I was feeling for getting all of this great content for free! Since joining, I've lost 15 pounds, joined the Community Chest, and written a romance novel about drones. Also: "Even in his early films, he has eye bags and looks like he put on a face that was at the very bottom of his laundry basket." Somehow that is maybe the most sentimental thing you've ever written.
I was completely thrilled by I Claudius. Everything he did was unbearably brilliant. When he said, "Aren't people despicable?" it was one of those moments when the world stopped. So many greats were in that show but he did indeed steal every scene he was in.
This is hysterically funny and has made my Friday🤣🤣🤣: His countenance is fishy and bizarre. He has dark, verminous little eyes, a smirky little mouth full of nicotine-varnished teeth, and that British complexion that evokes a poached worm.
Love "a beacon, lighting the way to the Perfected Inner Man. It is said of the mystic actress Eleanora Duse that toward the end of her career she looked like a small sun onstage; such was the brightness of her spirit.” And “for twisted personal reasons.” Chuckling! I bet you’re exactly right about his approach to the Disney role.
This is fucking wondrous. I pause every few sentences to absorb a phrase, like I’m studying the luminous skin tones in a work by Titian or Bellini. Love the rare occasions when your subject is equal to your style.
gasp! You made my night.
You manage to completely go over the line here, do a little dance and a pirouette, take a bow, cry out Brobdignagian, and race back across the line again, all before the police catch you.
Bravo! Delicious
I dunno if you heard the audio version but I nearly ran aground on Brobdignagian. I say it reeeal slow. I think I used it because it was an H.L. Mencken word but I'll be damned if I remember what it means,
I want - need - you to know that I have used the word exactly once, never pronounced it, and now will share the sentence that it graced. Graced is the wrong world. The Brobdignagians were extremely large motherfuckers who scared Gulliver half-to-death. Here is my sentence. This might be the only moment we ever share together:
"Now, it is like I’ve turned into a different person. I’m entering the alternate aspect of my preferred self, tapping into my inner Brobdingnagian. If the room is still creaking, I am no longer aware of it."
OK, I love this. Good shared moment.
I thought Brobdignagian also had an era-specific political connotation, but I guess I am conflating it with "Comstockery." Beware the polecats and their wowserism!
I so enjoyed this fantastic tribute. He was brilliant, and I was obsessed with him when I was in my early teens. Looking forward to part two. 😃
Thank you Lady Jules! I always get a little thrill whenever my emails tell me that you read and liked something, It gives me job satisfaction.
It's a privilege to read your wonderful work. I hope you're getting better x
I love this SO MUCH! Love you SOOOO MUCH! John Hurt remains our Bowie , Mapplethorpe and so much more!
For you, Mademoiselle!!! XXX
The dichotomy you establish between Hurt's wirey sexual ambiguity and his lived sex life really brings this whole thing to life. And then there's the comprehensive labor of curiosity and passion you do with all of the dives into his various roles. This absolutely cooks. Wow.
It is so thoughtful of you to tell me these things. I live on it.
I love when you write about actors, always ... but this is — as ShirtlessCaptainKirk says — wondrous!
It's fun to write gushy fan girl pieces, as a gushy fan girl.
under spell of manic hilarity here spewing forth sorta like the quarter mile gambit of river directly upstream of niagara falls (accentuated by a cold?... Joe Biden should have been so inclined to narrate in such a way just a piece of his equallly solid lifetime body of work)
under that spell cintra wilson i feel fortified, and especially reminded of the idea that whatever happens in the frought dramatic days weeks to come that only crazy can neutralise crazy.....i say i loved this? 😚
Oh, I can't wait for part two! What a sumptuous feast, your essay, and no one better for a rich appreciation an actor's quirk and dazzle than John Hurt. After so many years, I fell in love with him all over again after reading your piece. I also cut my teeth with him on his amazing turn in that brilliant series, I Claudius, and had my heart broken, similarly, in The Elephant Man. Thank you for this beautifully written and loving portrait. So looking forward to more (can't wait to hear what you have to say about 1984, which I had great hopes for, and found quite perplexing).
Oh, 1984 is one of my favorite movies ever (though grimmer than death). Hurt is supreme. Not for nothing, but I wrote a book called "Caligula for President: Better American Living Through Tyranny" in first person Caligula, or John Hurt as Caligula, because it is my favorite thing ever.
Interesting, I had a different response to 1984. I was a big fan of dystopian novels, read it age 11 in, like, 1965, and was terrified by it. By contrast, I experienced Radford's 1984 as visually incredibly striking, with the compelling retro-futurist motifs, but strangely lacking in the terror I so enjoyed. It was a visual feast, but I couldn't connect with it, nor with Hurt's performance. But Hurt's Caligula? Oh yes! What a brilliant breakthrough part, and what an absolutely terrifying evocation of that twisted individual's psychopathy and misrule. I feel the weird synchronicity of you writing a book about an individual like that for president at this present moment in history, even in humor, because it feels like it must have been eerily prescient. Thanks for weighing in! <3
Oh god, now I want to see if Night Crossing is on Disney+, just to see what Cintra saw in it.
Not worth it!
I've not seen as much of his work as I should. I loved seeing him more recently in one of my favorite movies, "Only Lovers Left Alive" as a vampiric Christopher Marlowe. Did you see it?
As a committed paid subscriber, I must say, all that anxiety and self-hatred, plus the feeling that everything is forever wrong, all that BAD I had been feeling was, apparently, just the self-guilt I was feeling for getting all of this great content for free! Since joining, I've lost 15 pounds, joined the Community Chest, and written a romance novel about drones. Also: "Even in his early films, he has eye bags and looks like he put on a face that was at the very bottom of his laundry basket." Somehow that is maybe the most sentimental thing you've ever written.
I love John Hurt in The Hit (1984)
I was completely thrilled by I Claudius. Everything he did was unbearably brilliant. When he said, "Aren't people despicable?" it was one of those moments when the world stopped. So many greats were in that show but he did indeed steal every scene he was in.
This is hysterically funny and has made my Friday🤣🤣🤣: His countenance is fishy and bizarre. He has dark, verminous little eyes, a smirky little mouth full of nicotine-varnished teeth, and that British complexion that evokes a poached worm.
Love "a beacon, lighting the way to the Perfected Inner Man. It is said of the mystic actress Eleanora Duse that toward the end of her career she looked like a small sun onstage; such was the brightness of her spirit.” And “for twisted personal reasons.” Chuckling! I bet you’re exactly right about his approach to the Disney role.
Thanks. I love him so much, especially as Quentin.