To promote its annual Hollywood Issue, the New York Times has gathered some of the year’s most lauded performers — 14 in total — to act out classic character roles, soundlessly and with candor. Javier Bardem (
Biutiful
) rages, Jennifer Lawrence (
Winter’s Bone
) cowers in fear, Natalie Portman (
Black Swan
) decorously deflates, and James Franco (
127 hours
) seduces…himself.Â
Directed by Solve Sundsbo, the videos are filmed in stark black and white, which really works for several of the vignettes, including Lawrence’s and Noomi Rapace‘s silent lounge singing. The majority of the clips are abstract to say the least, and in their contextless presentation, a little difficult to decipher. Despite knowing little about what Matt Damon is shouting about, or what Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) is running from, some of the portraits are simply spellbinding, aided by the expert string-fingering of Canada’s own Owen Pallett, best known for his work under the name Final Fantasy.Â
You can view all 14 of the clips on the NY Times website, which also features Robert Duvall, Vincent Cassal (Black Swan), Chloe Moretz (
Let Me In
), Leslie Manville (…
To promote its annual Hollywood Issue, the New York Times has gathered some of the year's most lauded performers — 14 in total — to act out classic character roles, soundlessly and with candor. Javier Bardem (Biutiful) rages, Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) cowers in fear, Natalie Portman (Black Swan) decorously deflates, and James Franco (127 hours) seduces…himself.
Directed by Solve Sundsbo, the videos are filmed in stark black and white, which really works for several of the vignettes, including Lawrence's and Noomi Rapace's silent lounge singing. The majority of the clips are abstract to say the least, and in their contextless presentation, a little difficult to decipher. Despite knowing little about what Matt Damon is shouting about, or what Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) is running from, some of the portraits are simply spellbinding, aided by the expert string-fingering of Canada's own Owen Pallett, best known for his work under the name Final Fantasy.
You can view all 14 of the clips on the NY Times website, which also features Robert Duvall, Vincent Cassal (Black Swan), Chloe Moretz (Let Me In), Leslie Manville (Another Year), Jesse Eisenberg, Tilda Swinton (I Am Love), and Michael Douglas. Just for fun, here's a link to my favourite Final Fantasy song.
[via NY Times]
