La Femme Nikita

It’s good to be bad

Matthew S. Dillon3 Comments

Some actors are simply more convincing when depicting villains rather than heroes. Wrong, not right. Bad rather than good.

When Tchecky Karyo passed away last year, the world was suddenly absent a distinguished and accomplished thespian capable of conveying nuance and emotion. We also lost a villain par excellence. In a long career, some of the notable acting high notes for Mr Karyo were depicting bad guys, criminals and jerks – the mysterious spy boss in La Femme Nikita for one, who delights in keeping the eponymous character, a reformed criminal turned government assassin, on tenterhooks. She never knows when a covert assignment might be sprung on her. Then there was the cruel pimp in Kiss of the Dragon who cruelly noted, “All my Barbies are out on the street.”

Those actors who specialise in playing dubious, threatening or ominous characters may seem typecast, but this is the downside of having a specialty. And although playing villains may pay the bills, there is often considerably more to their actorly toolbox.

Ben Mendlesohn has found a niche as cruel and vicious sadists such as Rogue One’s Director Olson Krennic. Yet Mendo is a screen veteran, more than capable of subtly portraying a panoply of types, as evidenced by his evocation of Christian Dior in the recent series The New Look. Yet having made his name internationally in Animal Kingdom, Mendlesohn is no doubt on the short list when seething menace is called for.

A-listers such as, say, George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt or Anne Hathaway are usually depicted on the side of good, proper, worthy and right. It’s hard to imagine otherwise. Playing  a character with ill intentions could well damage their personal brand. Very occasionally casting a name from this list as a villain pays off for all concerned.

Consider the decision to cast classic nice guy and upright moral citizen Henry Fonda as the black-clad villain in Once Upon a Time in the West – a masterstroke from director Sergio Leone.

There is another group of actors who have the kudos and the versatility to play a range of characters and types and not be shunned by audiences or directors as a result. Mads Mikkelson comes to mind here, or Meryl Streep. Both take on unsympathetic characters with gusto and without fear. They simply inhabit parts, and have a way of convincing you of their character’s truth. Robert De Niro has earned nine Academy Award nominations playing an assortment of types. The prolific Oscar Isaac is in this category too. With Michael-Caine-like ubiquity, Isaac has made many movies better, but none more so than when playing difficult individuals in small but important roles in The Bourne Legacy and Drive.

Kudos too to Matt Damon for occasionally taking a risk, such as playing the craven and duplicitous Dr Mann in Interstellar, the creepy title character in The Talented Mr Ripley or a corrupt cop on the take, Colin Sullivan, in The Departed.

There also exists a list of actors who rise to the occasion – who become the best version of their actorly selves when a nefarious or black-hearted individual is required. Here is a selection.

Cate Blanchett
Prodigiously talented, Blanchett has earned more Academy Award nominations than any other Australian in film: blockbusters, sweeping historical epics, arthouse fare, you name it, and Blanchett has done it and usually been pretty amazing. Among those performances was as Tár’s title character, Lidia Tár (a renowned but manipulative and heartless orchestral conductor). She’s also played a snarling KGB agent, Irina Spalko, in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (about which the less said the better) and dentally obsessed CIA heavyweight Marissa Wiegler in Hanna. Villains all. She’s suitably despicable in these roles. Yet even as sympathetic characters such as Galadrial in The Lord of The Rings or Lou Miller in Ocean’s 8, she’s just that bit annoying.

Glenn Close
Screen veteran Glenn Close has played roles that are all sweetness and light, such as Roy Hobbs’ (Robert Redford) patient true love Iris in The Natural. Yet she’s considerably more memorable as out-and-out villains such as Cruella De Ville in 1001 Dalmatians, the original bunny boiler, Alex Forrest, in Fatal Attraction or as the scheming Marquise de Merteuil in Dangerous Liaisons.

Walton Goggins
Neo Nazi, arsonist, drug runner, pimp, thief, sometime-minister of the Lord and full-time ne’er-do-well – that’s Justified’s Boyd Crowder, the black hat to US Marshall Raylan Givens’ (Timothy Olyphant) white. Boyd was originally slated to be killed off early in the series, but proved so popular with test audiences that he was kept on for all six seasons of the show’s run. So adept at playing charismatic and verbose sociopaths is Goggins that decent, upright characters can never quite seem credible.

Hugh Grant
As a young man finding his way in the celluloid world, Hugh Grant made his name playing fresh-faced charmingly nervous floppy-haired lotharios. Age has gifted his face character such that eventually he became far more appealing playing individuals with an edge, such as About a Boy’s Will, The Gentlemen’s shameless mockney journalist/blackmailer Fletcher and even an obstreperous Oompa Loompa in Wonka.

Nicole Kidman
She can kind of do it all, can our Nicole, from BMX banditry to brain surgery (see Days of Thunder), and does not disappoint playing femme fatales and other assorted villains, either, whether that’s manipulating Matt Dillon (no relation) in To Die For, pursuing the eponymous bear for her taxidermy collection in Paddington or as the ruthless Mrs Coulter in The Golden Compass.

John Malkovich
As brainiac villain Cyrus “the Virus” Grissom in Con Air, as preening seducer Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons, as mannered Teddy KGB in Rounders or as the out-there Mitch Leary in In the Line of Fire, Mr Malkovich certainly has shown us the goods as bad guys – in turns calculating, psychotic, menacing, and perhaps what’s most important, eminently convincing.

Gary Oldman
Mr Oldman can do unhinged apoplexy with aplomb. He can go right off, he can, with some considerable verve. As bent cop Norman “Stan” Stansfield in Leon the Professional he was “terrifyingly erratic”, improvising many scenes. Who could forget his bellowing of the word, “EV-ERY-ONE!!” at a pivotal moment? When Luc Besson needed a monstrous soul capable of selling out Earth to something even more monstrous in The Fifth Element, he called upon Oldman to play Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, the “the galaxy’s cruelest financier”, who is as wacky as he is nasty. Dr Zachary Smith from Lost in Space and Dracula are other prominent mentions in Oldman’s classic villain CV.

Alan Rickman
Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series, the scene-stealing Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves, the heartbreakingly philandering husband in Love Actually – the great Alan Rickman certainly played his share of bad seeds, charismatic cads and argumentative sods – always with panache and charm. Perhaps my favourite of all of these was clever-clogs Teutonic heist mastermind Hans Gruber in Die Hard, delivering the memorable line, “I’m not an ordinary thief. I’m an exceptional thief.”

Kevin Spacey
There’s something about the contours of his face, his body language, the cruel turn of his mouth that one can easily imagine that Kevin Spacey’s talent for tapping into a wellspring of malevolence is effortless. Verbal Klint from The Usual Suspects, the unnamed imaginative serial killer in Seven, or House of Card’s manipulative Frank Underwood – you suspect it might not all be acting.

Christopher Walken
It’s said that when Christopher Walken receives a script, the first thing he does is to remove and recalibrate the punctuation, which gives his delivery a self-styled, discordant, somewhat off-putting rhythm. This adds an extra layer to the large assortment of ghouls, gangsters, creeps and psychos that have made up the vast majority of Walken’s output. It’s true that over a long career (which includes an Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actor), Walken has played quite an eclectic array of roles, including some that are warm and sympathetic, such as the proud dads in Blast from the Past or Catch Me if You Can. He really seems to relish depicting villains, however – The Prophecy’s Arch Angel Gabriel, Things to Do in Denver When Your Dead’s Man with a Plan, Homeboy’s nightclub singer/ne’er-do-well Wesley Pendergass, or The King of New York’s Public Enemy No.1, Frank White. Walken’s nonpareil quiff lends each role an added dimension. It almost deserves its own credit.

Christopher Waltz
Quentin Tarrantino had screen tested a bunch of Teutonic types for the lead villain role in Inglorious Basterds before Christopher Waltz, a native Austrian best known at that point for his work in children’s television, tossed his hat in the ring to play the excessively loquacious and sadistic Nazi colonel Hans Landa. Herr Waltz seemed to relish the opportunity to play a man of such obvious ill intent. You might say the same for his turn as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in Spectre and No Time to Die, as chief nemesis Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet, or as Matt Damon’s party-loving upstairs neighbour Dusan in Downsizing. This man was born to play bad guys, and is really good at it.

James Woods
With some actors, there is an almost phrenological relationship between their physical appearance and their capacity to convincingly play conventionally nice characters. Basil Rathdowne’s slender lupine features made him perfect not only for playing that renowned sleuth Sherlock Holmes but also a series of pantomime villains in enjoyable medieval-themed Hollywood fare such as The Court Jester.

An enormous noggin, prematurely grey hair and weirdly coruscating blue eyes lend serious cred to the convincing villains played by Neal McDonough. Exhibit A might be the sadistic, pill-popping mob operative in Justified.

Add James Woods to that list. Whether it’s in the series of cartoon villains opposite Sylvester Stallone in the 80s or his turn in Ray Donovan, it’s not so hard to believe Mr Woods is capable of dark acts. Based on some of his social media posts, Woods is something of a far-right wing nutjob. Also, he famously has no cheeks.

The 10 essential assassin movies

Matthew S. DillonLeave a comment

The American blog“Killing’s a helluva thing,” says the eponymous character (Clint Eastwood) in The Outlaw Josey Wales. “You take away everything a man has, and everything he’s gonna have.”

As they are depicted in movies, professional killers – hitmen, mechanics, assets, cleaners; there are many names – can roughly be divided into two types.

There are those who revel in their lethal skills and the bounty it can yield – think Anton Chigurgh (Javier Bardem) in No Country for Old Men, who sadistically asks his victims to flip a coin to determine their fate.

And then there are those who are greatly perturbed by the terrible impact of their deadly adroitness.

Jack (George Clooney) in The American is haunted by the innocent lives he’s taken, and a sense that his own days are surely numbered.

Although they usually work alone (accommodating others can have serious consequences for career and well-being), a common trope of the assassin genre is the notion of the guild – that, like printers or jewellers, cold-blooded killers belong to union-like collectives that boast rich histories, mores, and even apprenticeship systems.

Indeed, Assassins Creed and Ninja Assassin both suggest killers have been trained and mentored in hitman schools for centuries.1

Yet the apotheosis of this idea must be John Wick, in which assassins observe a clearly defined set of rules and even have their own currency, which is good for everything from after-deed clean-ups (aka “dinner reservations”), to chi chi hotel accommodation, and (of course) weaponry.

Though the weapon of choice for any pro killer worth his or her salt is a firearm – a rifle for long-distance targets, a pistol for closer work – the mark of a top-drawer assassin is the ability to improvise, to turn anything – a rolled-up magazine, a car door, a piece of luggage, an electrical cord, a curtain rope, even a pen or pencil – into an implement of lethal force and ultimate consequences.

 

John Wick
Little did we know that existing alongside our own quotidian world there is another milieu: that of the hired heavy hand, of whom there are legions from which to choose. Yet the crème de la crème is John Wick, a man, we are told, of singular focus, commitment and sheer will. A man who has mastered the tricky art of gun fu, who leaves his marks behind in piles, and whose grief for his recently deceased wife is matched only by his anger at the loss of his car (a ‘69 Mustang, sweet rides being another hitman movie calling card) and dog. Here is the assassin film recalibrated.

The Bourne Identity
Most decent films in this genre portray private contractors at work, exhibiting their elite particular set of skills for a specific price. In this film, we see the government version, in this case physically and cognitively enhanced, and boasting advanced linguistic, tactical, fighting and survival skills. A mystery even to himself, Jason Bourne is also damaged, a victim of the Treadstone program that created him, unleashed him, and now must suffer the consequences as it tries to rein him in.

Leon the Professional
He appears from nowhere, stepping stealthily from the shadows, and has but one rule: “no women, no kids”. On a diet of milk, intense abdominal training and the occasional Hollywood musical, New York’s peripatetic trigger man for the mafia doesn’t know he’s looking for his own family and for roots until he reluctantly opens his door to the last survivor of a bent cop’s (Gary Oldman in a memorable performance) mad, sanguinary free-for-all. A slow-building classic.

The American
In this moody, atmospheric film, there is no escaping “the life” for old-school assassin and gunsmith Jack (George Clooney). Like heist flicks, films centred on hitmen often have at their core a “last job”, one final pay-day before fading off into the dappled light. The trick for these assassin protagonists is in avoiding being the career-ending big score for a rival. Will Jack escape and find love with beautiful whore Clara? And how did the Swedes find him, tucked away there in the Umbrian mountains?

John Wick Chapter 2
Taking place only days after the original, we discover in this arty sequel that the world of the assassins is considerably more substantial than we might have imagined; it has its own (stridently analogue) accounts department; a Roman version of the Intercontinental Hotel; and is headed by the mysterious High Table. As for the titular character, well, he exudes what Esquire writer George Frasier coined “duende” – a combination of charisma, aptitude and panache.

The Mechanic
Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) believes in planning; for him, each hit represents an “assignment”, and the method of elimination is only revealed through rigorous study and meticulous preparation. As is inscribed on the pistol of his mentor: amat victoria curum (victory loves preparation.) In this tight remake of Charles Bronson’s signature film, Bishop is pretty good at winging it too, when necessary.

Matador
As an ageing contract killer who has lost his nerve, Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan) is a teary, faltering mess struggling after all this time with his profession’s occupational hazards. He’s also a bit of a jerk – equal parts vain, annoying and self-loathing. Yet just beneath the surface is a charming, urbane soul (and of course, a crack shot). Maybe – just maybe – he and everyman adman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) can help each other out. A neglected little gem, boasting an arresting against-the-tide performance from Brosnan in the early days after his time playing that other suave killer.

La Femme Nikita
Some might argue that the career of iconoclastic director Luc Besson has been more pothole than road. But he had a brilliant idea that formed the genesis of this now (admittedly somewhat aged) classic. What if a teenage criminal was given the choice between a lethal injection or joining an elite unit of French government killers? And what if that teenager was a girl (Besson’s future wife Anne Parillaud) who Besson forced to shoot some scenes 28 times, only to use the first in the final version? Well, add Jean Reno as Victor the Cleaner and Tcheky Karyo as the first of many morally compromised bastards and you’d have yourself a cool (and hugely influential) yarn.

The Day of the Jackal
All that I really recall about this film are the black Citroens, the gun cleverly concealed in crutches, and the brilliant disguises of the titular hero played by Edward Fox. That’s enough, non?

Originally this musing was going to chart the 10 essential assassin films, but I came up one short. Certainly there are plenty of decent flicks to consider: the Kill Bills come readily to mind, The Specialist (exploding tea cups and Rod Steiger chewing scenery anyone?), Assassins (another Stallone vehicle), The Assassin, American Assassin, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Hana, The Equalizer, Ghost Dog, Mr and Mrs Smith, Columbiana, Point Blank, Grosse Pointe Blank, two decent versions of Payback – but none that I felt like watching right now.

I suppose, yes, I could be persuaded otherwise. I mean, let’s not argue about it. There’s no need for violence. Wait, put that down …

 

  1. The notion that assassins belong to clans also hints to the word’s origin. “Assassin” with a capital A refers to a member of a secret order of Muslim fanatics who terrorised and killed Crusaders. The name derives from the Arabic word hashshash or “hasish eater” (originally referring to members of an Ismaili sect who took the drug before attacking their enemies).