Sometimes a certain facet, a fillip, of an otherwise flawed film or series makes it stand out in retrospect. For me, having watched The Tudors with a kind of horrid fascination, I find myself meditating on the mouths, the smiles of Jonathan Rhys Meyers, playing Henry VIII, and Natalie Dormer, playing the ill-fated Anne Boleyn. Both these actors have mouths capable of conveying humor, slyness, conspiracy, furtiveness, guile and seductiveness. I’m sure the casting director thought of this. Historically, Henry and Anne both were guileful, intelligent, and motivated by powerful ideas for good or ill. Often, watching these actors, I was more conscious of their mouths than of the words coming out of them. Their mouths were what poker players call the tell. And each actor, knowing this, contrived to signal the wrong tell, the tell that would most mislead others. It was a wonderful subtext to an otherwise not quite successful project.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 21:58:17 +0000
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