The Great Acting Blog: "My 5 Favourite Performances Of 2012"

Irene Jacob in The Dust Of Time (Theo Angelopoulos)

An epic performance by Jacob, in a film which spans decades. She not only manages the shift in age without fuss, but she also delivers a performance of astonishing sensitivity but which is neither self-pitying nor self-promoting - it's honest and true. An example of the high artistry which acting can be.

I blogged more fully on Irene Jacob in "The Shy Poetry Of Irene Jacob"

Andre Wilms in Le Havre (Aki Kaurismaki)

A wonderful example of laid-back-cut-the-crap simplicity, which sits perfectly in the cinematic universe of Aki Kaurismaki. Wilms plays an aging ex-bohemian-turned-shoe-shiner, who hides an immigrant on the run from the police. Every moment of Wilm's performance rings utterly true, and, along with his charm, creates something warming and moving.

Thomas Doret in The Kid With A Bike (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)

An immensely powerful performance from Doret, playing an abandoned and unloved 12 year old. His scenes of rejection are heartbreaking, as is his scene involving a show of self-loathing. Doret resists the temptation to embellish his scenes with exposition and manipulate the audience, instead he is direct, and this directness is the true source of his power in this performance. Doret went a long way in changing my generally negative view of child actors. 

I blogged more fully on Doret's performance here

Denis Lavant in Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

Lavant plays a whole range of characters from an assasin to a beggar to a monster to a family man, and all during one night. It's a great role for any actor, but to which Lavant brings his intense physicality and innate strangeness. It's a unique, bravura performance, which must be seen to be believed.

Teresa Madruga in Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

Madruga's performance is marked by a sadness, and a lonliness, and which is rarely displayed openly, it is more a question of Madruga's prescence, as when she finds out a student who was meant to be staying with her now isn't, we feel her disappointment rather than see it. It is also a performance which is inflected by the film's visuals; director Gomes employs a magnificent black and white, and often the camera is static, which creates an emptiness and emotional flatness.

The Great Acting Blog: "Thomas Doret In The Kid With The Bike"

Doret plays Cyril, a 12 year old who has been dumped into foster care by his father, who, unbeknownst to the boy, doesn't give a damn about him, and just wants rid of him. Doret runs away from the foster home to his dad's apartment. When the caretakers find him, Doret flees to a nearby doctor's surgery where he grabs hold of a woman, Samantha, so that they won't take him away. To calm Doret down, they take him back to his dad's apartment, and show him that it is empty and deserted, confirming that his father has left. With Samantha, Doret finally finds his father, who is however, none too pleased when the boy shows up, and tells him he never wants to see him again. Samantha in turn, takes the heartbroken Doret under her wing. However, falling under the spell of a local drug dealer, Doret robs a shopkeeper, beating the owner and his son with a baseball bat. Fearing Doret has been indentified in the robbery, the drug dealer abandons Doret and forces him to keep the stolen money. Doret gets caught by the police, but the matter is dealt with through a mediation with the shop owner, who accepts Doret's apology. Some time later, the son of the shop owner sees Doret by chance on the street, and beats him up, forcing Doret to hide up in a tree for safety, until the son throws a stone, which causes Doret to fall out of the tree. Doret lies on the ground, seemingly unconscious, until he comes to, and calmly walks away from the trouble.  

Doret's performance is remarkable in it's simplicity and directness. There is a scene where Doret visits his father again, only this time to offer the money he got from the robbery, thinking this will win his father's acceptance. His father is a little stunned, before refusing the money and sending Doret on his way. Doret hardly inflects the scene at all, he offers the money to his father with an almost animalistic simplicity, and it is this simplicity which renders the moment heartbreaking. Compare this to James Dean's performance in East Of Eden, where there is a similar scene of rejection involving money; Dean explains the character's pain to us with the preposterous emotional excretion; "YOU'RE TEARING ME APAAARRTT!", rendering the moment false and meaningless. Doret is courageous in resisting the temptation to explain what is happening, enabling us to engage with the scene for ourselves, which in turn, makes it meaningful. 

Doret had never acted before, so much of his performance will have been instinctive, and perhaps he has yet to become inhibited by the protective guff of adulthood, and so we get this wonderful unfettered performance from him. There is perhaps only one scene where Doret appears to be comprehendingly expressing the inner pain of his character, and what an extraordinary scene it is. While driving in the car with Samantha, Doret suddenly begins to scratch at his own flesh, and punch himself, it is gut wrenching to watch - it represents a bout of self-loathing, induced by Doret's belief that he is the cause of his own rejection, that he is the source of his own pain, and so wants to destroy the thing which is causing him pain (as he perceives it). Again, Doret performs the scene completely free of James Dean-style sentimentality, but with his customary simplicity and directness. I have to say that, generally, I am not a fan of child actors, and have held off seeing this film largely because the protagonist is a child, but the strength of Doret's performance here, may just have given me cause to change this view.

Doret had never acted before this film, or, at least, I have not been able to find any record of him doing so, and I am not aware of him receiving any training, and yet he is able to deliver this quite brilliant performance. No-one can know what the future holds for him, the vast majority non-actors fail to kick on after terrific debuts. Having said that, Doret does re-inforce my general view that acting is a talent which cannot be instilled.