Pami

Great article published on a website and great point of view! The Acting In Inception: Leonardo DiCaprio While his performance here could be transferred, almost without an edit, into the recent Shutter Island (it’s unfortunate timing, basically), his work continues to surprise and fascinate me. I’ve been a fan for a long time, but back in the day, post This Boy’s Life and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, I worried a little bit about him, as I am wont to do with precocious brilliant young actors. He was so good in both those movies. I saw This Boy’s Life, and his last moment, screaming and jumping up and down in his freedom, still has the potential to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. There is such rage in this little boy’s screaming, yet what he is expressing is joy and release. It is a complex difficult moment, and he strolls away with the picture. Then I saw What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and didn’t realize Artie was played by the same actor I had just seen in This Boy’s Life, and truly thought that the casting team for Gilbert Grape had found a wonderfully talented mentally-challenged young boy to play that part. It’s an astonishing bit of acting, and was even more amazing to me when I realized who it was. I’m one of those people who loves Titanic, and thought he was wonderful in it, even with the terrible dialogue (“You’re no picnic, Rose. In fact, you’re a spoiled little brat.” Yeesh.), but the mania surrounding that movie again worried me, although fame has certainly been good to DiCaprio. But the darkness he showed he was capable of in those early movies is what drew me to him, his capacity for complexity and non-ingratiating qualities, and I worried that the projects he would be offered post-Titanic would not allow him to show that. Oh me of little faith. I have to believe, however, that his choices post-Titanic were carefully crafted by DiCaprio. He didn’t suddenly start making worthless rom-coms, he didn’t trade on the Tween-Love that went ballistic about him in Titanic, and that was a courageous and interesting move on his part. Not every actor in his position chooses so thoughtfully after achieving world-wide success. His collaborations with Martin Scorsese have placed him firmly in the pantheon of leading men (I especially liked him in The Departed, although I’m a huge fan of his Howard Hughes as well), and basically he’s one of those actors I always want to see. I was not a fan of Revolutionary Road (the movie, the book is another story entirely), and felt that Sam Mendes, as per usual, chose the wrong focus for Richard Yates’s blistering critique. The demon in Yates’s book is not the suburbs themselves. It is those who feel they are better than the suburbs, who try to distance themselves from their own lives, convinced that they are more interesting, more special, more dynamic. The second I saw that Mendes was directing, I knew exactly what movie he would make, which was a disappointment (in the thought of it, and in the final product). The acting is uniformly excellent, but I felt that DiCaprio, in particular, shone, although Winslet and Michael Shannon got most of the accolades. Di Caprio gave the strongest performance, the most layered. In my estimation, DiCaprio was actually doing “Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road“, as opposed to “Sam Mendes’s Revolutionary Road“, and his portrayal of a weak-willed pent-up man, baffled by the transformation of his wife, and sucker-punched by the limitations his choices have put on him, was devastating to watch. He wanted to believe his wife, when she said to him, “You are the most interesting person I have ever met”, and yet he knows, deep down, that he is not. That he is a conventional person who has made conventional choices, and a bohemian freefall is not for him. It is his tragedy that he cannot communicate that, his own sense of shame and diminishing returns on his potential have balled him up in a world where the Truth cannot be spoken. The Truth is far too threatening to the status quo, and, in the end, his character loves the status quo. And his wife hates him for it. It’s not the suburbs that are the problem, it’s him. In Inception, as in Shutter Island, DiCaprio plays a man who is (sometimes without even realizing it) on the run not only from his own past, but from self-knowledge itself. He investigates things, it being his job, yet somewhere within him is a strong streak of resistance to finding the answers … because he has a creepy sense that the answers will somehow involve him, and the revelations may be awful. DiCaprio plays this conflict straight as can be, and it’s an effective persona for him. These films have a Gothic sensibility to some degree, and the “OH MY GOD NOT THE TRUTH” refrain can become a bit tiresome if it’s not utilized subtly and with some gradation of mood. My main problem with Inception was with its lack of gradation, everything. Was. Urgent., and the overall effect of it was a sort of flat-lining. If everything is Important then the story suffers. Shakespeare understood that, trotting out the fools and clowns and bears in the middle of King Lear or Macbeth, to take the edge off the urgency. It helps the story. But DiCaprio is in full charge of himself in Inception, not an easy job, seeing as so much of it was special-effects driven, and his “job” was to stand around looking concerned and heartbroken and intense. He is able, as an actor, to make his love for his dead wife (played by Marion Cotillard) palpable, the loss is present in his every look, his every gesture. This is a wounded man, damaged beyond repair. But it was his love for his two kids that DiCaprio (not a father in real life) really clicked into, and when the moment comes that a certain shot we keep seeing (the two little kids playing in the grass and then running off-screen, without looking back at him) is put into a context, and we realize what memory that is for him, and what it has meant to him, it’s painful. I heard someone gasp in the theatre at that scene. DiCaprio has a sort of visceral sense of himself (he always has had that; again, I flash back to his rage-joy dance at the end of This Boy’s Life), and he brings that to whatever part he plays. Inception is intellectual (although perhaps not as deep as it thinks it is), and without DiCaprio’s sense of meat-and-potatoes reality, of loss, of urgency (he must get back to his kids), the film wouldn’t be grounded at all. The shots of him looking at his kids, and they show up everywhere, in every dream he has, was repeated throughout the film, and each time, in each different circumstance, you could see DiCaprio jolted by the sight, disturbed, almost like a war veteran having a flashback. Trauma can work that way. DiCaprio plays a man ambushed by his own subconscious. Instead of upping the urgency factor, something that the film seems to want him to do, he underplays, showing flickers of unease, loss, a memory of regret, grief, but he cannot allow himself the luxury of staying in that place, he must move on, only by continuing to move will he have a chance to get back to those two little kids in the grass. DiCaprio’s talent naturally avoids the operatic. It is one of his greatest strengths. The pitfalls for schmaltzy over-acting are everywhere in Inception, and he deftly steps around all of them. So that when he does go “operatic”, in a crucial flashback when, across an alley many stories up, he watches his wife let go of the windowsill and leap, the response he generates from the audience is earned, earned fair and square. He has not tried to play on us, or work us, he has not tried to manipulate us, or get on our good side. He, the actor, has kept himself in the story, and his horrible scream, helpless, as he watches, but can do nothing, is so powerful that I can hear it in my ears right now. This is the power of the imagination, something DiCaprio has in spades, and one of the most important qualities for an actor to have (obviously). I do not know his process. I do not know how hard it is for him to “believe”, to invest in the imaginary given circumstances. I don’t know if he prefers 30 takes or if he’s a one-take kind of guy. I honestly don’t care, although it would be interesting to learn more. But what I saw in that moment, that horrible anguished scream, his writhing body, because he can do nothing, was an actor leaping into the space of his imagination, the magic “What if” that is the pitfall of many actors: What if this were real? What if I were in this situation? What if I really saw what this character saw? His response is not belabored or self-congratulatory. It is not portrayed, it is experienced. It is immediate; an explosion of raw, jagged emotional horror. His hands clutching at empty air. http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=24963

Oh yeah...for sure Oxford knows something about it...right Oxford?

Hey girls... I heard there's a scene in Django where Calvin Candie allows one of his slaves to be eaten by dogs. Is this really true? Let's see...it will be a frightening scene indeed! No more spoilers...I promise!

Leo foresaw his fate!hehe Tks Amandine,loved it! She lives on. As for me, how can I make a film if I don´t die?! And who would say that soon after Leo would become a phenomenon around the world. Your next film is Titanic. Is there going to be any romance in that? Oh yeah, absolutely. I play this young artist from Paris and I´ve been out there drawing, and she is an upper class girl. I´m travelling in third class and we meet up and mess around, even though she´s engaged to someone else. Then there´s all this chaos going on with the ship sinking...

Elly,loved your point of view. You know,when I was a teenager I thought they would make a great couple. It was a platonic love,the way they looked each other, there was so much respect! Leo always says he's looking for the lady in his life,ok why I'm saying this...sometimes we think the love of our lives is so far away from us and this same person can be so close but you cant see it. Sometimes I think that's what happens between them,they are so close but they cant see each other. Of course I know they are great friends,but it seems to be missing one click,just one click and they will realize they are born to each other. As I always say here,if Leo's happy I'm happy too,no matter who,what i'm saying here is just a silly thing from a dreamer girl like me.

Welcome erinheathertonangelwings! Tks for the tweets girls!

I agree Pami but I think will have to be content with them as friends as they seem to be the only people not in favour of the idea. Yes Dr Brown,I am happy to see them as friends,I'm just a dreamer girl hehe.

Leo and Kate are really good friends! They would make such a beautiful couple...but well,that's only my opinion.

He looks so handsome here!!!

That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever read in my whole life...gee! Btw,there are many haters on this site...many people saying Ryan Gosling would be the best choice for Jay Gatsby...I say...NO,tks! “Leo, on the other hand, is famously baby-faced. He couldn’t let the shadow of war and bootlegging shudder through his visage, even if he wanted to. He doesn’t have the cheekbones. Also, though he’s perfectly fine in some movies, he mostly does have three ways of acting, all of which are in evidence in this trailer: Leo smug. Leo sad. LEO SMASH.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/great-gatsby-trailer-review_n_1541043.html?ref=entertainment

If it was me...only once would be enough!

Me too Oxford...me too Me too Oxford,me too....

I dont know if someone has posted this before here...but anyway. We can see his house in Malibu inside. http://photos.toofab.com/galleries/leonardo_dicaprios_malibu_beach_house#tab=celebrity_real_estate&id=833213

Where can I get one like this??

Me Too Kat...his eyes looking passionately for her...(leave my man alone!) Pami in a moment of jealousy.... :)

Wow,the Dicaprio year!! Tks for the article Wijn!! The reasons are: 1.He gets better with every movie he’s in. 2.He was passed over in 2006. 3.He’s starring into two Oscar bait movies to be released later this year. 4.Filmmakers love to work with him. 5.There isn’t a more convincing crying, yelling emotional wreck in Hollywood. ( I totally agree!) I'm sooo waiting for June to come...come to Rio as soon as possible Leo! Tks for the tweets and everything girls!

"and has left film fans drooling in anticipation." Who was drooling over Leo? Me?Noway.....

Haha,me too Oxford...me too...only a single pic of Jay Gatsby Leo!! I miss him...luckily my boyfriend understands me! I didnt know that either Oxford...this is news to me!

And June never comes... I miss some new pics of Leo and Erin...

Wow Oxford,you checked on google maps? You are fantastic!

Well...sorry,but what's wrong with the frowning? He doesnt frown all the time. I loved the intensity of his performance in the trailer. Jay Gatsby is a romantic hero,a bitter man. I respect your opinion of course and you have every right to like or dislike the trailer but what bothers me are the comments by the fact that he frowns a lot.

Some positive tweets about the movie... Trevor Sinclair ‏@TrevorSinclair Baz Luhrmann has certainly put his mark on The Great Gatsby - lovin' the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rARN6agiW7o#! #Baz Luhrmann #The Great Gatsby Kelly Bentley ‏@K__Bentley can not wait for the new #The Great Gatsby movie to come out! nafie nevan ‏@nafie861011 can't wait to see Leonardo's #The Great Gatsby Terri Selig ‏@TerriSelig #The Great Gatsby with DiCaprio - wow - heartstopping! One of my favorite books. Redford was Gatsby & was a vision. But Leo? :gulp: Pratip Sinha ‏@PopoManUtd #The Great Gatsby Dream to watch the living legend @SrBachchan and Hollywood No.1 star @LeoDiCaprio share the screen.

I'm glad you liked my gif girls! Of course it was just a joke. I think Leo looks perfect as Gatsby,it exceeded my expectations! A true romantic hero! Now I miss some new pics of Leo and Erin....

LOL