Alan Rickman Flashback! From Harry Potter to Sweeney Todd, the Seminar Star Sizzles on the Big Screen (videos)

Videos By Broadway.com Staff November 17, 2011 - 12:30PM

Alan Rickman in 'Harry Potter,' 'Galaxy Quest,' & 'Die Hard'

 

Alan Rickman shows off his range in six fabulous film performances.

 

It starts with the voice—a combination of purr and growl that can be sinister or suggestive, depending on the context. We’re talking about Alan Rickman, who is currently starring in the Broadway premiere of Seminar as a novelist who terrorizes four aspiring writers. Rickman is a masterful theater actor, with a pair of Tony nominations (for Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Private Lives) to show for it, as well as a critically acclaimed recent performance in John Gabriel Borkman at BAM. But he’s also a scene-stealing movie favorite whose films run the gamut of comedy, action, fantasy and romance. In honor of the star's November 20 opening night at Broadway’s Golden Theatre, we’ve gathered clips from six of our favorite Rickman film performances.

Hans Gruber in Die Hard
Rickman first attracted the attention of American moviegoers as a German terrorist who matches wits with Bruce Willis in this 1988 action hit. It takes Willis, an entire SWAT team and more to foil Hans’ plan to blow up a skyscraper and make off with $600 million. In the movie's official trailer, Rickman shows off his ability to put a unique spin on even the most prosaic lines due to his awesome powers of enunciation.


Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply
This 1990 British rom-com features a swoon-worthy performance by Rickman as a “ghost” who returns to his grief-stricken lover, Nina (Juliet Stevenson). Their star-crossed second-time-around romance includes this scene, in which Jamie counts the ways he loves Nina and then serenades her with “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” (by the Jersey Boys team of Bob Gaudio and Bob Crewe!).


Colonel Christopher Brandon in Sense and Sensibility
The performance that spawned a dozen YouTube fan tributes: Rickman redefines the strong, silent type as the stalwart suitor of a young Kate Winslet in the beloved 1995 Jane Austen film adaptation. This brief clip shows everything you need to know about a man who is desperately in love but can’t bring himself to say so.


Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest
In this irresistible 1999 comedy, Rickman joins Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell and Tony Shalhoub as actors who can’t escape being identified with the roles they played in a Star Trek-type series. Vain Mr. Dane is especially peeved by his plight, until the crew is transported to a spaceship filled with real aliens. Broadway bonus: This clip compilation features Patrick Breen of Next Fall as Rickman’s biggest fan.


Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
“Our. New. Celebrity.” That’s how Rickman sarcastically welcomes (adorable) Daniel Radcliffe to Hogwarts during the 2001 launch of the blockbuster Harry Potter film series. As Professor Snape, Rickman brings an iconic authority figure to life, establishing from the beginning a relationship that matures and grows with each film.


Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd
Alan Rickman singing “Pretty Women” with Johnny Depp? Oh, yeah! As the nemesis of Sweeney Todd in Tim Burton’s 2007 film of Sondheim's masterpiece, Rickman adds a steely spine to the predatory judge, settling into Sweeney’s barber chair for the closest shave of his life. Though we know how this tale will turn out, Rickman, as always, keeps things interesting.



Broadway.com

Top 5 Musical Movies for Halloween

The Celebrity Cafe

10/27/2011

Kristen Maldonado

"Let's do the Time Warp again!"

With Halloween just around the corner, there are some great horror movies out. But everyone seems to forget about movie-musical adaptations and their haunting melodies. These spooky musicals are great for Halloween, and year round!

1. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: Featuring the all-star cast of Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd, Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, and Alan Rickman as Judge Turpin, Sweeney Todd follows the story of a barber who sets up shop in London. He partners up with the owner of a pie shop and they work together to make meat pies – made out of the barbershop patrons they kill! Things turn sour when Todd’s real identity and reason for coming to London are revealed. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t be surprised if Todd’s middle name was spelled…R-E-V-E-N-G-E.



2. Little Shop of Horrors: Rick Moranis stars as nerdy, florist Seymour Krelborn who is only after two things: success and love. When he discovers a new species of plant, he is thrust into fame and his chance of getting the girl of his dreams seems within grasp. That’s until he discovers what the plant needs to survive. Not water, or sunlight – just blood.



3. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: When Brad and Janet’s car breaks down on the side of the road, they head for the nearest shelter. They end up at the home of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania,” played by Tim Curry. The couple encounters some pretty interesting characters and learns how to “give yourself over to absolute pleasure.” This cult classic is great to watch with a group because of its encouragement of audience parici-SAY IT!-pation.



4. Phantom of the Opera: Gerard Butler is the Phantom, a mysterious and disfigured musical intellect who haunts the French Opera House. Christine, played by Emmy Rossum, is his protégé. He intimidates the members of the opera house, forcing them to give Christine, the less experienced but more talented singer, the lead roles in the opera. The Phantom falls in love with her, but when he discovers she’s fallen for someone else, he kidnaps her, hoping to make her fall in love with him instead.

5. Repo! The Genetic Opera: When an organ failure epidemic spreads worldwide, a biotech company called GeneCo offers organ transplants – with a catch. People must continually pay for the organs and if they miss a payment, Repo Men repossess the organs. As you can image, it isn’t easy to just take an organ back – the Repo Men hunt people down and kill them. Alexa Vega and Paris Hilton star in this comic book style film.



These musicals all feature various genres, from pop to rock, and classical to opera. If you’re ready for a scary, musical adventure, these are great movies to check out.
Do you know of other musicals-turned-movies that set a spooky tone for Halloween? Share them in the comments below!

Sherpa's Top 10: Best Helena Bonham Carter movies

Yakkin' with the Sherpa

 

Sherpa's Top 10: Best Helena Bonham Carter movies

BY JOE HOLLEMAN • jholleman@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8254STLtoday.com | Posted: Friday, October 21, 2011 6:00 am 

 

The career of Helena Bonham Carter -- who stars in "Toast," a movie opening today in St. Louis -- can almost be divided into two distinct halves.
First, she excelled in what I call the "Merchant-Ivory" roles (director James Ivory/producer Ismail Merchant), young women in romantic but dramatically sophisticated period pieces of high quality. Second, possibly due to her long and continuing relationship with director Tim Burton, she has worked as an eccentric, alluring supporting character.
(Interesting family-tree note: Bonham's great-grandfather was H.H. Asquith, Great Britain's prime minister from 1908 to 1916.)
Either way, her combination of sultry good looks and substantial acting talents makes the 45-year-old Bonham Carter hard not to notice. So let's notice her 10 best movies:
10. Sweeney Todd (2007) Mrs. Lovett: In Tim Burton's delicious telling of the tale of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Bonham Carter plays the owner of the meat-pie shop who is good friends with the barber (Johnny Depp) who takes the job of "cutting heads" to a new level.
9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)Mrs. Bucket: Burton also directed this adaptation of Roald Dahl's story about a young boy touring a candy plant. Johnny Depp excelled as candy king Willy Wonka, while Bonham Carter played the mother of adorable Freddie Highsmith.
8. Mighty Aphrodite (1995) Amanda: Bonham Carter and Woody Allen are the adoptive parents of a young genius and Allen sets out to find the birth parents, who he assumes are brilliant as well. To his dismay, Allen discovers the boy's mother (Mira Sorvino) is a prostitute/porn star.
7. King's Speech (2010) Queen Elizabeth: She was good, but I'm not sure it was worth of her Oscar nomination. Still, it was one of the two best films of 2010 (along with "Winter's Bone") and it was nice to see Bonham Carter in a role requiring a normal amount of eye makeup.
6. Harry Potter movies (2007-2011)Bellatrix Lestrange: We rolled all the roles into one entry, for her sometimes small role -- as the wonderfully evil, hintingly kinky maidservant to Voldemort -- was a delight. Bonham Carter appeared in the last four of the eight movies.
5. The Wings of the Dove (1997) Kate Croy: Bonham Carter earned a best-actress Oscar nomination playing an aristocratic British woman whose father lost the family fortune. But when she meets an American actress, she devises a plot to have both love and money.
4. Howard's End (1992) Helen Schlegel: A Merchant-Ivory work about class war in England, Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson (who won the best-actress Oscar) play middle-class English sisters who become involved with families from both the aristocracy and the lower classes.
3. A Room with a View (1985) Lucy Honeychurch: Bonham Carter's first movie role was in this superior film from the Merchant-Ivory gang. She plays a young woman who along with her chaperone (Maggie Smith), meet an intriguing man in Florence. Julian Sands was the rising star, not the unknown player who played nerdy Cecil, Daniel Day-Lewis.
2. Big Fish (2003) Jenny/The Witch: An off-beat movie, skillfully directed by Tim Burton, that tells the tale of a larger-than-life patriarch whose life is recounted in myths as he nears death. Albert Finney is superb in the lead and there's strong support from Bonham Carter, Ewan McGregor, Billy Crudup and Jessica Lange.
1. Fight Club (1999) Marla Singer: So I've mentioned -- every chance I get -- that this is one of my favorite movies of the last 20 years. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton get lofty marks for their alter-egoness, but let's not forget that Bonham Carter's turn as the seriously, comically disturbed girlfriend is another key to the movie's success

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/columns/joe-holleman/article_06ceea12-fa97-11e0-be14-0019bb30f31a.html#ixzz1bW04V5OF