best film: For now it’s Schindler’s List. It’s still relatively new out there so I’m not ready to say Wes Anderson’s gorgeous Grand Budapest is superior to Spielberg’s (equally gorgeous) 1993 masterpiece. This was Fiennes’ coming out party—a haunting portrayal. His Amon Goeth belongs on the all-time list of movie villains along with Hannibal Lector and Robert Mitchum’s dueling work in Cape Fear and Night of the Hunter. He’s a monster and it’s intricately performed by Fiennes.
best performance: The Grand Budapest Hotel edges out his work in Schindler’s. They’re both excellent choices. It’s a dominant comedic performance in a visually spectacular auteur-driven masterpiece. That’s incredibly rare. He’s just in total command, exacting, funny, the dictation, the body language, the walk— it’s all so accomplished.
stylistic innovations/traits: That top five performance list is pretty ridiculous (and makes me think I’m a little ridiculous for having him outside of my top 50 actors list here). He’s unhinged in A Bigger Splash– so verbal that he never shuts up. Yet, he can turn around and do a haunting work like Spider with Cronenberg where he hardly talks at all—just mumbles and squints. That’s range. He can play villains (Schindler, In Bruges and Harry Potter), bastards (Coriolanus a bigger splash) and complex, (also bastardly), but ultimately sympathetic figures (Quiz Show, English Patient, Constant Gardener). He’s the consummate pro. He started off with a bang in the 90’s (two Oscar winning films for best picture, leading man status) who has had a bit of a comeback of late (two of his best 5 performances since 2014). I can’t wait to see what he does next.
directors worked with: Nobody multiple times in the archives but an all-star list of one-timers here including Wes Anderson, Coen Brothers, Spielberg, Greenaway, Minghella, Cronenberg and Sam Mendes
Top 5 Performances:
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Schindler’s List
- The English Patient
- Spider
- A Bigger Splash
Archiveable films
| 1993- Schindler’s List |
| 1993- The Baby of Macon |
| 1994- Quiz Show |
| 1996- The English Patient |
| 1999- The End of the Affair |
| 2002- Spider |
| 2005- The Constant Gardener |
| 2008- In Bruges |
| 2008- The Hurt Locker |
| 2008- The Reader |
| 2011- Coriolanus |
| 2011- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 |
| 2012- Skyfall |
| 2014- The Grand Budapest Hotel |
| 2015- A Bigger Splash |
| 2016- Hail, Caesar! |
Fiennes is unbelievable in Schindler’s List- brilliant acting, personally I rate him top 25 actors all time.
How him and Liam never won Oscars for Schindler’s List I’ll never know.
@Randy— agreed. Neeson and Fiennes would be my pick all day for 1993. I will say that Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive and Tom Hanks in Philadelphia are damn good. I’m disappointed but not outraged.
Fiennes should be above Tom Cruise.Cruise doesn’t have a second best performance like Schindlers List.Fiennes is very good in The Constant Gardner(2005) and Quiz Show(1994) outside his top 5 performances.
He should be way higher.Perhaps top 30.
Have you seen The Invisible Woman(2013) where he plays Charles Dickens?Has 3 100 scores on Metacritic.
@Janith- I thought it was good- not great. Just didn’t quite make it.
Fiennes should be above Tom Cruise.Cruise doesn’t have a second best performance like Schindlers List.Fiennes is very good in Constant Gardner(2005),Quiz Show(1994),In Bruges(2008) and Coriolanus(2011) outside his top 5 performances.
@Janith- thanks for the comment.
Strange Days(1995) should be in the archives.
You have left out a major film in his filmography Sunshine(1999).He plays three characters in that film.
@Chris- IMDB is going to have a better exhaustive filmography list. These are the archives- the best films.
So do you think he missed the mark in his portrayal of Ignatz and Ivan in Sunshine?
@Chris– I don’t include performances from films that aren’t in the archives
So did you see Sunshine?Is he good?Haven’t seen it.
@Chris- I have- it isn’t bad. Fiennes is always good
Fiennes making a comeback.I’m not sure.Basically he has 3 great performances in the 90s(Quiz Show,English Patient,Schindlers List),3 great performances in the 2000s(Spider,Constant Gardner,In Bruges) and only 2 great performances in the 2010s(Grand Budapest Hotel,A Bigger Splash).Basically he has done nothing major since the start of 2016.
I’m not excited to see what he does next(No archivable film for 4 years and 8 months)
Oh I forgot he is in Official Secrets(2019).Will it land in the archives?
Will official secrets(2019) land in the archives?
@Malith- I have not seen it.
Will Official Secrets(2019) land in the archives?