Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Ralph Fiennes as Lord Voldemort

As such a crucial character in the story, I’m curious as to what people think of Ralph Fiennes portrayal of Lord Voldemort in Goblet of Fire.

Personally, I don’t think they could have cast him better. I love the subtle insanity that RF added to the character. He’s calm one moment, frenzied the next, then back to calm again. I love the tones that he chose to use in the graveyard scene. He’s so condescending to Harry, so mocking and at the same time, frustrated that Harry isn’t more of a fighter. When he tells Harry to pick up his wand, the order is immediately repeated with more passion because Harry didn’t immediately rush for it.

His facial expressions are wonderful. He can go from stone faced to wild and crazy and back to utter calm without it looking overacted or ridiculous.

Perhaps my favorite added line to the movie was “After tonight, if they speak your name, they'll speak only of how you begged for death, and I, being a merciful lord... obliged.” I LOVE this line. He looks almost compassionate when he says it; it’s just a faint glimpse of that cunning, manipulative nature that we hear so much about in book 6.

So what do you guys think?

6 comments:

Micky said...

He's awesome!
He's also great in Red Dragon.
:)

lostarts said...

I haven't seen him in much before, just "The Avengers" and I didn't like him in that. He just wasn't John Steed.

I have to say that he's a great Voldemort, though. And he managed to do it in makeup that obscures a lot of his face.

I forsee portrayals of amazing evil in his future.

Lindsay said...

i love ralph fiennes, but i can't believe how not-hot they made him by taking away his nose.

but i am excited for when the 6th movie comes out. i'm rereading book 6 right now and i love how much time is spent on voldemort. i just hope they don't cut it out of the movie.

Birdwell said...

I think I have seen nearly every movie Ralph Fiennes has been in (haven't seen his most recent stuff other than GOF)--when I heard he was going to play Voldemort--I screamed--I KNEW he would be perfect. He is wonderful at being very very vile and evil. (He's also good at the good guy too.)

They also did a good job at making him not attractive (mostly anyway) in GOF--but he's also handsome enough and charming enough to pull of Tom Riddle and pre-Vapormort as well.

Ann said...

I completely agree with everything you said about him!

Miss Scarlett said...

I love Ralph Fiennes - and his baby brother is not bad either.
;-)

I think he is the perfect casting choice for LV - can hardly wait for the next movie.