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Special Events
Past Special Events
Atonement
Tim Burton
For Your Consideration
Ralph Fiennes
Brokeback Mountain
A Closer Walk
David Cronenberg
Woody Allen
A History of Violence
Tim Burton
Gala Tribute
YFF Special Events
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Since he burst onto the movie
scene in the early 90s, Ralph (that’s pronounced
“Rafe”) Fiennes has raised the bar in
movie acting. Few actors are better at conveying
the physical impact of emotional upset. Waves of
feeling seem to pass through Fiennes’s characters
in Schindler’s List, Quiz Show,
The English Patient, The End of the
Affair and in the upcoming The White Countess
(directed by James Ivory from a script by Kazuo
Ishiguro). His performances are animated in the
most surprising and moving ways: with Fiennes, a
smile or a turn of the head can embody a world of
heartbreak. An adventurous artist who thrives on
challenges, Fiennes is also blessed with one of
the most musical vocal instruments in movies, and
he employs it to devastating effect.
Fiennes will join us to discuss his career and his approach to acting. Before
and after the discussion, we’ll be showing two of
the very finest examples of his work. In Fernando
Mereilles’s brilliant adaptation of John Le Carré’s
The Constant Gardener, Fiennes is Justin
Quayle, a quietly recessive career diplomat who is
immediately taken with Rachel Weisz’s outspoken activist
Tessa. When Justin is stationed in Africa, Tessa
becomes a vocal opponent of the big drug companies,
who are performing drug trials on an unsuspecting
and impoverished population. When Tessa is murdered,
Justin devotes his life to uncovering the truth about
his wife, and the savagery behind the corporate/diplomatic
circles in which he travels. Fiennes’s Justin is
a performance of uncommon delicacy and one of the
richest creations of the year.
Following the discussion,
we’ll also be showing Neil Jordan’s stunning
adaptation of Graham Greene’s The
End of the Affair (1999), featuring a remarkably
poignant and concentrated performance from Fiennes
and wonderful work from Julianne Moore and Stephen
Rea. Fiennes is Maurice Bendrix, who miraculously
survives a bombing attack in WWII London. An incandescent
Moore is Sarah, who renounces her love for Maurice
as an offering to God for saving his life, and Rea
is her gentle, devoted husband. Fiennes’s performance
is a piercing portrait of a soul in flux, slowly
shifting from selfishness to compassion.
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