On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, Tavia Chalcraft wrote:
In response to Harriet B's interesting points regarding the acting of the cellar scene:
The scene re-enacted at Redemption was just the death scene, starting only just before Avon shoots Anna, ie after her cover has gone when there's nothing to be gained by pretending.
Yep. To be precise, the segment begining with Avon shooting Anna, and ending with Avon's line 'You never let me go, you never did'.
As I recall, Iain made the points that (1) Anna did not sound as if she were dying, she sounds as if she's all the time in the world; (2) both of them speak declaratively to the camera, not to each other, despite the presence of multiple others; (3) the movements as Anna falls and Avon catches her felt unnaturally choreographed, and the position they land up in was again very unnatural.
Sorry if I'm misrepresenting or misremembering you, Iain; perhaps you'd care to add?
That's an excellent summary, Tavia: it seems I actually managed to make some coherent sense after all. The only point I'd add is that, as a consequence of your point (3), the vocal delivery is far too comfortable and precise.
None of these points are to do with playing a particular characterisation. It's true that, earlier in the scene, the somewhat awkward dialogue is perfectly in character. In this death scene, however, we see technically flawed acting. I picked it out for this very purpose: one can list the major principles of good performance and then watch the two actors and the director studiously ignore them one by one.
Iain