Roma, 18 febbraio 2016 - Fuori, il freddo che stringe in una morsa la capitale tedesca. Dentro, in una sala di Karl-Marx-Allee vicino Alexanderplatz, il calore dell'emozione per un attore che non c'è più e che tanto ha dato al cinema e a noi, che lo abbiamo amato. E' martedì 16 febbraio, la serata in onore di Alan Rickman (Londra, 21 febbraio 1946- Londra 14 gennaio 2016), gigante del teatro inglese e del grande schermo: ve lo ricordate, nel suo primo ruolo da cattivo? Hans Gruber in Die Hard - Trappola di cristallo, dove rubava la scena alla star Bruce Willis. Quando entrava nella stanza, c'era da aver paura sul serio. Una parte che avrebbe segnato la memoria collettiva nella percezione del villain al cinema, anche se Rickman odiava quella parola, la considerava artificiosa. Per lui, Hans, così come l'adorabile fellone dello sceriffo di Nottingham in Robin Hood, del 1991, erano 'personaggi molto interessanti e fuori controllo cui dare vita'. Noi ci siamo stasera. Lacrime, sussulti, cuore in mano. E una necessaria dose di kleenex, per ripararci dall'intemperie di sentimenti che ci prenderanno nelle prossime ore. Il biglietto per assistere alla proiezione speciale di 'Sense and Sensibility' (Ragione e sentimento), film del 1995 di Ang Lee, vincitore dell'Orso d'Oro alla Berlinale e dell'Oscar alla sceneggiatura per Emma Thompson, lo abbiamo preso con largo anticipo. E' la passione a dettare l'agenda. Alan Rickman interpreta l'intenso, unico possibile Colonnello Brandon, così com'era uscito dalla penna di Jane Austen. Distintivo, profondo e affascinante ufficiale e gentiluomo, che oggi apparirebbe retrò nei modi antiquati, Brandon si innamora non corrisposto di Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet), e la vede perdersi dietro il libertino Willoughbly, soffrendo, desideroso di aiutarla, rimanendo in disparte fino al suo momento. L'uomo ideale. Da sognare e che, quindi, non esiste. Ma che presenza e statura di Rickman rendono vero. Lo sa bene Emma Thompson, che è voluta essere al Kino International ieri, per ricordare il caro amico scomparso. Fra gli ultimi a dargli il bacio d'addio, nella stanza dov'era ricoverato per il tumore al pancreas. E a proposito di baci… Sotto il vischio, la Vigilia di Natale, che cosa desiderare di più di un bacio di Alan? "Voglio condividere questo momento con voi. Alcuni anni fa, a casa mia, era il cenone di Natale. Tanta gente ma a un tratto lo vidi arrivare. Mi misi sotto il vischio, sperando di essere baciata da lui. Era un uomo stupendo e attraente e pensai 'Ci sono! Ora mi bacia'. Mi salutò e proprio quando pensavo che lo avrebbe fatto mi scacciò un enorme capello che mi attraversava il viso. Non sapevo se amarlo o detestarlo per questo. - sospira ridendo l'attrice britannica - Vi ringrazio per essere intervenuti in tanti a onorare il mio amico, un attore superbo, ma soprattutto una persona e un essere umano straordinari di cui sentiamo la mancanza". Applausi calorosi per lei, semplice e brillante. In concorso con il film 'Alone in Berlin', l'attrice inglese - unica nella storia ad avere vinto l'Oscar come sceneggiatrice e attrice protagonista - ha messo da parte la professione, per far parlare il cuore. Accanto, sul palco, il direttore del festival Dieter Kosslich e il produttore di Ragione e sentimento, James Schamus: "Erano tutti intimiditi da Alan. Il regista, che non parlava bene inglese, Kate Winslet che aveva poco più di 20 anni, e perfino i cavalli! Ciò a causa della sua magnetica presenza, salvo poi accorgersi di che uomo candido fosse". Sommerso da una forte ondata di popolarità, grazie al ruolo del professor Severus Piton nella saga di Harry Potter, Rickman ha lavorato anche per Tim Burton in Sweeney Todd, ha diretto L'Ospite d'inverno e, solo l'anno scorso, Le regole del caos, con l'attore del momento Matthias Schoenaerts, ritagliandosi per sé la parte di Re Luigi XVI. Eppure e soprattutto lui era l'Attore, accurato, specifico, dotato di una voce di eccezionale timbro, dizione e profondità: "Oh, that Voice!" - esclamavano rapite le colleghe. Un dono di natura, per lui, nato nella working class, coltivato dal teatro. Spontaneamente regale. Turbamento e rossore delle guance ci colgono all'improvviso, sempre, quando il suo nome viene pronunciato o lo si sente arrivare in scena, prima di vederlo. E Ragione e sentimento ne ha almeno tre, irresistibili. E' il 'suo' Brandon che trae in salvo Marianne Dashwood dalla pioggia infernale e dal delirio. In sala, pelle d'oca, cervello in tilt, fogli degli appunti persi in borsetta e zeppi di lacrime. Il film scorre intonso, nella lingua madre. Neanche 'sporcato' dai sottotitoli in tedesco. Unforgettable Alan, per sempre.
In 1988, a svelte, supposed eastern European, in an impeccable suit and the silkiest accent ever, announced his intentions to teach those at the Nakatomi Tower a lesson in real power. With the character of Hans Gruber, Alan Rickman was introduced to Hollywood and the world of American pop culture. Rickman, who passed away from cancer on January 14, 2016, went on to a fantastic film career that included sexless angels, enigmatic magic professors, Shakespearean aliens, eccentric hairdressers, and treacherous sheriffs.
Hearing of Rickman’s death on social media hit me hard. Perhaps, it was how Rickman chose downright little quirky films like “Blow Dry”, the British dark comedy about a hairdressing competition where he did have one of the coolest movie tattoos I’ve ever seen. Perhaps, it was my adoration for “Dogma” and Rickman’s portrayal of Metatron, the voice of God, in the fun little film shot in my hometown. Perhaps, it was his take on the sheriff of Nottingham in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”. Or maybe it was his casting as Severus Snape, a character who has affected millions of people worldwide in the popular movie franchise “Harry Potter.”
This morning when I heard the news I went to tell my 10-year-old, who coincidentally has been voraciously reading “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” this week. After I told her, she paused for several seconds and told me that it had to happen. I was taken aback by her response at first, but then I realized for an entire generation of people Alan Rickman and Snape are synonymous. Claire continued as she explained that the Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwart’s was cursed, and since Snape was the new DADA professor something bad was bound to happen. I hugged her and quietly went to shower where she couldn’t see my tears fall.
I’m not sure exactly why this death, among other celebrity deaths, hit me so hard. The last film of his I saw was “Die Hard”. I’ve taken to watching weird “Christmas” movies on Christmas Eve and serendipitously chose “Die Hard” last month. Hans Gruber was the perfect nonscripted enemy and an awesome foil to Bruce Willis’ John McLane. Everything about that film was perfectly awesome, from Rickman’s sinister sneer to his accent. That accent. Damn.
While reading his obit in the The Telegraph this morning, I came across an anecdote about his portrayal of Valmont in “Dangerous Liaison” on stage (the role that led directly to him being cast as Gruber in his first film role). Rickman’s co-star, Lindsay Duncan, famously observed after his performance that “a lot of people left the theatre wanting to have sex and most them wanted to have it with Alan Rickman.”
While Rickman’s body of work is much more than his accent, that theatre performance and subsequent inaugural film role skyrocketed Rickman to international fame – a fame that never went to his head as he continued to take thoughtful roles that demonstrated his range. Rickman was a top-notch actor who treated his peers as equals, even if they were younger like Daniel Radcliffe. The two first met while filming “Harry Potter.”
“Working with him [Rickman] at such a formative age was incredibly important and I will carry the lessons he taught me for the rest of my life and career,” Radcliffe posted to Google Plus when hearing of his mentor’s death.
Kevin Smith, Rickman’s Dogma director, also remembered him. “Thank you for lending a hack like me your artistry and your credibility, Alan. You were never Snape to me as much as you were the adult Harry Potter himself: a bonafide wizard who could conjure absolute magic using merely words.”
Today, cancer took our villain, our professor, our friend, as Alan Rickman, the quirky sexless angel, beats his wings towards the heavens above. He will be dearly missed this spring when we hear his voice in “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (reprising his completed role as the Blue Caterpillar) but we have an awesome body of work that will live on through those performances and memories.
Love, actually: The artistic friendship of Alan Rickman and Emma Thompson
By Genevieve Valentine Jan 21, 2016
TUESDAY 16 MAY: “Sometimes Alan reminds me of the owl in Beatrix Potter’s Squirrel Nutkin. If you took too many liberties with him I’m sure he’d have your tail off in a trice.”
- Emma Thompson, The Sense And Sensibility Screenplay & Diaries
Following Alan Rickman’s recent death, many of his former colleagues came forward to speak about his generosity as a performer and his devotion as a friend. Perhaps the most poignant came from longtime collaborator Emma Thompson, who released a statement that hinted at the depths of their rapport: “That intransigence which made him the great artist that he was—his indelible and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him.”
Their peculiarly successful work marriage—a comfortably malleable relationship in which he starred in films she wrote, she starred in films he directed, or they simply appeared together onscreen—became something of a tradition for them, and was a calling card of their careers. Not all their collaborations were deeply felt meetings of the minds, of course. Over the sprawling opus of the Harry Potter movies, for example, Rickman and Thompson barely even share the frame, even though they’re both Hogwarts instructors. They’re together by accident, part of a Brit-actor zeitgeist that assembled for the movies to establish a mythology.
Overall, their partnership transcended two decades, starting in the 1990s, when Thompson was genre-hopping, Rickman was trying to sneak out from under the shadow of Hans Gruber, and both of them were leveraging their nascent stardom into signature work behind the scenes. In an interview about 2003’s Love Actually, Thompson wryly acknowledged the depth and breadth of their working bond when a journalist asked if there was anything they hadn’t done together: “We’ve had no children, but pretty much everything else.”
As a performer, Rickman left behind an impressive and eclectic legacy. But in a generation of those looking for a sense of the genuine beneath the performance, and those who respect the idea of actor as auteur, there’s something particularly touching about a friendship like the one he has with Thompson that plays out obligingly onscreen. Their camaraderie was impossible to miss, and their onscreen collaborations were always buoyed by the sense that they enjoyed being in one another’s company as much as we enjoyed watching the results. Below, their five most fascinating projects, from a friendship 20 years in the making.
