Yakkin' with the Sherpa
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
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
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