London Film Festival: Screentalk - Ralph Fiennes

In occasion of the London Film Festival the BFI hosted a very special guest: Ralph Fiennes presenting his film The Invisible Lady which he directed and in which he starrs as Charles Dickens. 
Last Friday I went to attend his Screentalk about his acting and directing career and future aspirations.
His first aspiration was that of becoming a painter. This changed for him after watching Laurence Olivier's Henry V which made him understand his love for Shakespeare and the language leading him to the theatre.
His first key role on screen was that of Heathcliff in Wutherings Heights adaptation (Peter Kosminsky, 1992), and this role is what brought him to Steven Spielberg's attention. 
His video audition for Spielberg's Schindler's List was actually the first time he got to direct and direct himself.

We then watched a clip from Schindler's List: when his character, Amon Goeth is looking at himself in the mirror. Raplh Fiennes explained his understanding of the character and the film, the Nazis portrait in that case is that of a real man, the film is trying to depict the day by day reality, it is not a judgemental review. He did a lot of study on the character, in this sequence we are shown someone examining themselves: "Do you ever think of forgetting people?" 
Being asked about S. Spielberg's attitude in directing his actors, he explained Spielberg has a really powerful vocal energy, and he is very specific about physicality, moreover, he stated, "Steven always has great ideas".

The English Patient (Anthony Minghella, 1996) is the film during which he got more curious about the directing, the actual making of the film.
In 2011 he had his first directing experience with Coriolanus, one of the most difficult Shakespeare's works. The play turned into a film made it even harder. He had to figure out a way to make it cinematic, this is also why he said that one of the hardest works is that of the screenwriter's: the responsibility of conveying the film to the reader and viewer.
The clip we watched was that of the "gladiatorial fight" between Coriolanus and Gerard Butler's character.

Talking about his latest film, we had the chance to see a couple of extracts. The film is about Charles Dickens's relationship with a younger actress when he was still married. The film is filled with the idea of a woman seeking a kind of closure with a past love.
But the film also presents the tragic figure of the other invisible woman: Catherine Dickens, the wife, who was she really? She wanted to keep and donate Dickens's letters so that one day the world would know he loved her once.
I really liked the extracts, so I can't wait to see the film! Here you can see the video of Fiennes on the red carpet: http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/video/video-ralph-fiennes-red-carpet
I'll leave you this phrase Ralph Fiennes said during the Q&A:

"The theatre is the purest arena for an actor."