Beautiful boys

Beautiful actors have been a reason we've gone to movies since they began. And there's a reason why, when thinking of stars from the silents, the kind of people that spring to mind are Louise Brooks, Greta Garbo, and Valentino, partly because we like beautiful things and partly because in a medium of images theirs are faces that stick in the brain. (Groucho's is a face that sticks in the brain, too, but I'm mostly interested in erotics.) But since movies as an artform today rarely achieve the heights of the great silents more and more I find myself seeking out the beautiful actors in smaller films and in television.



It's occasionally the case that beautiful movie stars happen across a major director or an interesting film, but by and large they're stuck in mediocre entertainments. Johnny Depp has had some surprising successes with serious directors, and my admiration for a number of Tim Burton's films notwithstanding, even he has been limited to only a handful of truly marginal filmmakers: Jim Jarmusch, Emir Kusturica, John Waters. (Anyone who knows me knows that "marginalized" directors, for me, hold much greater interest than the prestigious-indie ones such as Wes Anderson.)

Most movie stars in general have a hard enough time attracting the attention of serious auteurs, so it may seem asking a lot for someone to be beautiful, talented, and manage to find themselves in the presence of greatness. Off the top of my head Juliette Binoche seems like the most successful in this regard, having worked with the likes of Louis Malle, Leos Carax, Michael Haneke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Oliver Assayas, Chantal Akerman, Andre Techine, and Krzysztof Kieslowski. It may be easier for foreign actors to garner the attention of this calibre of directors, I'm not sure. (Catherine Deneuve would be another with an equally impressive roster: Techine, Francois Ozon, Luis Bunuel, Jacques Demy, and Lars von Trier to name a handful.)


While I may find myself entranced by the charm, sophistication, and grace of someone like Cary Grant, I may also find myself desiring to look at the lesser-appreciated stars of the time for their films, whether it's Tab Hunter or Dean Stockwell. While some of these types of stars may not possess the same acting chops or obvious signs of quality of a Cary Grant or a Brando, the nature of their marginalization may allow them to speak more truthfully (or simply more interestingly) about life, by being able to embrace roles unacceptable to stars on the level of Grant, Brando, et al. If you take Joe Dallesandro, for example, you're privy to the work of Serge Gainsbourg, Paul Morrissey, John Waters, Mika Kaurismaki, Louis Malle, and Jacques Rivette in scenes of sexual honesty that makes "Last Tango" seem tame.

A major star today would be hard-pressed to enjoy such company. Jude Law may epitomize male beauty, but he's been limited to mediocrities like Sam Mendes, Martin Scorsese's later work, Mike Nichols, Anthony Minghella, and other eminently "tasteful" directors. Wong Kar-Wai and David Cronenberg are the only ones coming anywhere near true cinematic gift-giving. Law is a European, and so too was Alain Delon forty years ago, and yet he managed to work with talent as disparate as Jean-Pierre Melville, Luchino Visconti, and Michelangelo Antonioni.


With modern actors we have no shortage in the beauty department, but finding them in films you're not embarrassed about watching becomes more difficult. I've tried to like Paul Walker, and God knows watching him take off his shirt isn't a chore, but with the exception of "Running Scared" and "Joyride" he hasn't done anything even half-way interesting. I genuinely enjoyed "Into the Blue" but Walker certainly isn't seeking out work that could be considered illuminating by anyone. The equally hunky Chris Evans gives me a better time with his acting, but the only thing he's done that rises above being merely entertaining is "Sunshine." His co-star Cillian Murphy has fared better, being one of the very few established actors to land in a Ken Loach film.


Murphy, a European, is joined by a handful of other beauties who've managed, or are managing, to carve out interesting careers for themselves. The most major I suppose would be Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Gregoire Colin. Rhys-Meyers has done surprisingly daring work in films by Todd Haynes, Mike Figgis, Michael Radford, and Mike Hodges, while Colin has crafted for himself one of the finest careers of the last decade. Not only is he a regular of Claire Denis, but he's worked alongside Jacques Rivette and Catherine Breillat. (Breillat is certainly no stranger to male beauty, and I'm very curious to see what Fu'ad Ait Aattou does after having starred in Breillat's "The Last Mistress.")


Next on the totem pole you'd have Gaspard Ulliel and Louis Garrel. Garrel may be the benefit of nepotism in Philippe Garrel, but he's also found himself in films by Christophe Honore, Bernardo Bertolucci, and a short by Ozon, while Ulliel has graced films by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Gus Van Sant, and Andre Techine. I would mention the boys in Van Sant's recent films if any of them seemed to continue acting beyond his films, but I hope that Johan Libereau, of Techine's "Witnesses," continues his career. Jamie Bell has worked with both David Gordon Green and Thomas Vinterberg, and there are a handful of other Brits making miniature waves that I've been noticing -- Eddie Redmayne (Tom Kalin's "Savage Grace"), Ben Whishaw (Tom Tykwer's "Perfume," Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There," an upcoming Jane Campion film), and Andrew Garfield (the acclaimed "Boy A," and the new Terry Gilliam film, and while it may be lousy, he's also in "The Other Boleyn Girl" with Redmayne).

The American side of things may not look quite as stellar, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Michael Pitt in particular are little beacons of hope. Levitt made a huge impression with Gregg Araki's "Mysterious Skin" and went on to make a few noble attempts in "Brick" and "The Lookout" before settling on Kimberly Peirce's newest "Stop-Loss." Pitt is a real daredevil, having worked with Gus Van Sant, Bernardo Bertolucci, Asia Argento, Tom DiCillo, Michael Haneke, and Abel Ferrara. I only wish that Johnathon Schaech kept getting parts outside of the horror movies he's writing now.


While these are the ones I've been most interested in, there are still the others who bring me occasional pleasure: Zac Efron (in the new Richard Linklater movie), Channing Tatum, Adam Brody, and James Franco (who does too many historical bores but who makes it up with Altman, Nic Cage's "Sonny," and new movies by Gus Van Sant and David Gordon Green).