Bio-Fiction (movies)

[LadyShea]

I was reading about Finding Neverland and it sounds very, very sanitized which is odd considering Johnny Depp is playing Barrie...of anyone, Depp can bring out the quirks in a character whether fictional or historical. That got me to thinking about all of the bio-fiction movies I have enjoyed, whether realistic or not.

I like movies that show the accurate negative side of historical figures and still make you care about them without too much whitewashing. The flaws make the figure interesting and spark, in me, an interest to learn more...example Amadeus. The guy was a lech, a drunk, and rude, but I still loved him as portrayed in the film.

I also thought Depp's portrayal of Ed Wood was amazing without, as far as I know, cleaning up Ed to make him more appealing. Here's a demonstrably weird, quirky kid who kept his vision and enthusiasm as well as his self esteem in the face of repeated failure and ridicule. His circle of odd friends were so loyal to him. This was a great movie.

Then, I have also liked some biofictions that completely made shit up. In reality, Lady Jane Grey was a self righteous and unpleasant prig (by all reports I have read), who never once asked about or for her husband while they were imprisoned before their executions, and by all accounts never gave a shit about at all. The movie, Lady Jane only used the names and some basic historical data to tell a love story...this was not reality. I loved it anyway. Maybe it was the gorgeous locations, sets, costumes and music. Maybe it was the chemistry between very very young Cary Elwes and Helena Bonham Carter. I don't know.

I am also guilty of thoroughly enjoying Braveheart, If nothing else, I was interested enough to read up on William Wallace and some amount of Scottish history.

I would like to see a GOOD movie made about Lewis Carroll. I find him fascinating.

That should be enough to start discussion, any thoughts?

[Dingfod]

I loved Robert Downey Jr.'s protrayal of Charlie Chaplin. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103939/)

[Dingfod]

Here (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/biopic.html) is a site with a list of biopics, just for reminders and maybe for a wish list of movies to seek out.

[LadyShea]

I loved Robert Downey Jr.'s protrayal of Charlie Chaplin. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103939/)

Oh me too! Good call Warren. I love Downey in anything, but thought he did an amazing job here.

[Dingfod]

I think Robert Downey Jr. is such a natural talent for becoming whatever role he is playing, even better than Depp (blasphemy, I know), too bad he's blown it all up his nose. I wish for him a long long career in acting, he'll even be great when he's old.

[HarryLime]

Y'know, I've really never cared much for biopics. Don't get me wrong, there are a few that are really, really entertaining flicks (Amadeus, Bonnie and Clyde, and especially Ed Wood and The Elephant Man), but for the most part they seem to be rambling and unfocused due to the fact that we don't live our lives in a satisfying three act structure. Generally, I've found them to be boring messes with a fantastic acting job at their center. I love Andy Kauffman, and Jim Carrey was amazing in Man on the Moon, but the film itself was unforgivable in that it took a man who flossed internally and made him boring. And A Beautiful Mind was a pile.

Will

[livius drusus]

Another big Downey and Chaplin fan here. :yup:

Most of the biopics I seem to like are fancy period dramas. Bertulucci's The Last Emperor (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093389/) is a big favorite of mine, for instance. It's plenty fictionalized, I'm sure, but it's a gorgeous movie. I like the queens too: Elizabeth (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127536/), Margot (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110963/), Cleopatra (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056937/). Charleton Heston as Michelangelo (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058886/) is a blast too.

They're all passionate and spectacular and appeal deeply to the glamourous time machine fantasies of my youth. Sometimes inaccuracies bug me, but like Shea said about William Wallace, I really enjoy getting into it, doing the research, finding out new things about the non-fictionalized versions. Of course, often the sources are just as creative as the movies.

Oh! Malcolm X (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104797/) is another good one. The zoot suits alone are worth the price of admission and Denzel's performance is both an uncanny likeness and highly hot.

[Dingfod]

A Beautiful Mind was sort of like Fight Club in the way it delved into the mind of someone suffering from mental illness. I thought it was good movie, but Russell Crowe is better fitted to a role like Gladiator or Bud White, soft-spoken tough guy.

What about Gandhi?

Or The Madness of King George?

I enjoyed Frida, and not just because I got to see Salma Hayek naked and with another woman, but because I became entranced with a personality that I was not familiar with. I'd heard of her husband Diego Rivera and his works, but never her. What a fun loving revolutionary she was.

Although it doesn't stand the test of time that well, A Coal Miner's Daughter is worth watching if for no other reason than Sissy Spacek's performance as coal country hillbilly turned The Queen of Country Music, Loretta Lynn.

I have a vague recollection of Miracle Worker starring Patty Duke Astin being a fair telling of deaf blind mute Hellen Keller's story.

I fell in love with Ingrid Bergman's Joan of Arc, but I'd bet The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc with Milla Jovovich is superior, but I have not seen it.

But, I think Auto Focus fell into the category of "too much information". I prefer to remember Bob Crane as Col. Hogan of Hogan's Heroes. Some things are just better off not known.

[Petra]

My kid is about to bump me off this computer, but the short list that springs immediately to mind are Frida and Basquiat.

And there was one about a woman who went to live in Africa - shoot, can't remember the name of the film, but Kim Bassinger played the lead. I saw it on telly a few weekends ago - it's the kind of epic film that gets a Sunday at noon time slot - and I was thoroughly captivated.


Gotta go. bbl....

[livius drusus]

I Dreamed of Africa (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167203/), I think, luna.

[Petra]

Yes, that's it. :)

I hadn't realised that Kuki was a real person until the end of the film, and I too quickly forgot her name at the time, though I'd like to read more about her. Visually, the film was luscious like National Geographic or Lonely Planet. So easy to get lost in landscapes. :)


As for Basquiat, Mr. Cranky really hated it (http://www.mrcranky.com/movies/basquiat.html), and if you scroll down a bit to people comments (I'm 5th down the list), you can see that I did like it. :whup: