Amazing faces

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Some faces are so authoritatively creepy they do more than stay in your memory; they seep into your psyche, your bones ...little pan flashes of something long buried. This guy -- I won't insult his iconic status by identifying him or mentioning the film he starred in -- got so far under my emotional skin when I was a kid that he'll probably stay with me into my next life.

Every time I see this chilling face I think of how he was described: "The sum of all intelligence"...and then I see those reptile tweezer fingers. It's not that he's "scary" -- it's knowing for sure that face will never be erased.

The question is, who else in films has had a truly startling puss -- something out- there in either a scary or beautiful or mesmerizing way -- that you can't forget him/ her no matter what, no matter how many hears have passed?

One of my all-time favorite faces belongs to the young Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter , followed closely by Holly Hunter's in Broadcast Newsm and Bob Mitchum's in Out of the Past. There was something close to haunting about Leonardo DiCaprio's in The Basketball Diaries and Romeo + Juliet. As spell- blnding as Max Shreck's face was in Murnau's Nosferatu, I think Klaus Kinski outdid him in the '79 Herzog version. John Wayne 's weather-beaten, squinty- eyed face in Red River....Anna Magnani 's in Open City or Guilietta Masina's in La Strada....Adam Sandler 's in Reign Over Me (seriously). I could go on for pages.

comment #1

MichaelC says ...

I'll limit myself to ten, otherwise I'll go on and on:

- John Turturro in Barton Fink
- Orson Welles in The Third Man
- Samantha Morton in Minority Report
- Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory
- Tim Roth in Rob Roy
- Bruno Ganz in Wings of Desire
- William H. Macy in Fargo
- Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Olivia DeHaviland in The Adventures of Robin Hood
- Buster Keaton in Sherlock Jr. (or anything really)

comment #2

jeffmcm says ...

I'll second Macy in Fargo.

Also:
Boris Karloff in Frankenstein
Jeff Goldblum in The Fly
William Holden in The Wild Bunch
Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday
"Mother" in the shower scene of Psycho - on a film print, you can just barely see the eyes in the midst of the all-black face.
Likewise, Leatherface's first appearance in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

comment #3

jeffmcm says ...

Oh, and I disagree about the Nosferatus - Schreck is an unholy creature from hell in Murnau's original, while Kinski, though good, is still Kinski.

comment #4

frankbooth says ...

Kinski WAS an unholy creature from hell. In fact, I'd add his Don Lope Aguirre to the list.

Also Jack Nance in Eraserhead. That poor, chubby, hurt-baby mug, just waiting to be crushed by the world and his own shortcomings.

comment #5

Karsten says ...

I'll third that comment on Macy in Fargo.

Some other suggestions:

Michael Wincott in "1492: A Conquest of Paradise"
Sissy Spacek in "Badlands"
David Bennent (the kid) in "The Tin Drum"

comment #6

Joshua Mooney says ...

Peter O'Toole/The Ruling Class
Kinski/Aguirre
Oh HELLS Yeah: Macy/Fargo
Marty Sheen/Badlands
Linda Manz/Days of Heaven
Clint Eastwood/Outlaw Josey Wales
Oliver Reed/Oliver!
Charlie Watts/Gimme Shelter
Peter Lorre/M
Elisha Cook Jr./Maltese Falcon
Alec Guiness/The Ladykillers
Peter Weller/Buckaroo Banzai
Bruce Dern/King of Marvin Gardens
Bette David/Whatever Happened to Baby Jane

comment #7

Joshua Mooney says ...

Bette David? Who dat? I meant DAVIS, of course.
I also meant to add: Adrienne Shelley/Trust

comment #8

PaulKolas says ...

Who can forget that face from the 1953 version of "Invaders From Mars? I'd include Kevin McCarthy screamng "you're next! you're next!" in the 1956 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", Viven Leigh in "Gone With The Wind", Marlon Brando in "On The Waterfront", the look on Al Pacino's face in "Godfather 2", when he finds out Fredo has betrayed him, Peter O'Toole in "Lawrence of Arabia", Julie Christie in the library scene in "Doctor Zhivago", Julie Chrstie ANYWHERE in "Doctor Zhivago", Malcom McDowell in the opening pullback shot in "A Clockwork Orange", Billl McKinney in "Deliverance", Robert DeNiro pulling an imaginary trigger in the bloodbath finale of "Taxi Driver", Christopher Walken, just before he blows his brains out in "The Deer Hunter", Jean-Pierre Leaud's face at the freeze frame fadeout of the immortal "The 400 Blows", Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca" Linda Blair in "The Exorcist"...this list has no ending.

comment #9

Rich S. says ...

The face that got to me in the same way the Invaders from Mars face got to Jeff wasn't even in a movie. It was on television on Star Trek. When I was very young, my cousins used to watch Star Trek reruns in the afternoon. At the very end of the end credits, they used to run a shot (under the Desilu logo, no less!) of the puppet Balok (Clint Howard) used to try to frighten the Enterprise crew in The Corbomite Maneuver. It is kind of a prototypical alien, long and angular with cat's eyes. The scene in used in the credits is a shifting, soft-focus thing, with strange colors. It scared the crap out of me and kept me from watching Star Trek for years. I've never forgotten the way that one image got to me.

comment #10

The Movie Man says ...

I agree with virtually everything mentioned so far, all amazing, unforgettable images/faces, and I think this is a great thread. Let me try to add a few myself:

Steve Buscemi-Trees Lounge

Philip Seymour Hoffman-Love Liza-a really good, rarely discussed little picture, and Hoffman is heartbreaking.

Donald Sutherland-Don't Look Now

Dean Stockwell-Blue Velvet

Syndey Greenstreet-The Maltese Falcon and while we're at it, Humphrey Bogart-The Treasure of the Sierre Madre

Harrison Ford-Raiders of the Lost Ark-I'm thinking that scene when he's drunk right after he thinks Marion has died.

Guy Pearce-Memento

I'll definitely fifth, sixth or seventh the shout outs to Kinski, Macy, Nance and Welles.

comment #11

The Movie Man says ...

Oh, and David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth and Labrynth.

comment #12

Michael says ...

Harrison Ford looking at Thora Birch lying in her hospital bed, Patriot Games.

comment #13

Griff says ...

Woody Allen, toward the end of Manhattan, when his girlfriend is reassuring him, "No everyone gets corrupted."

comment #14

bipedalist says ...

To Griff, "you have to have a little faith in people."

Jimmy Stewart in Vertigo (not the dream sequence but the end, as he realizes what he's done. Again.)

Charlotte Rampling at the end of Stardust Memories where she's smiling at the camera

Ingrid Bergman in Notorious when she almost grabs the wrong coffee cup (would add everyone else in that movie to the list)

Dustin Hoffman as Tootsie

Debra Winger as a stoned bride, Shirley MacLaine pale with grief, Jack Nicholson smiling at the airport - Terms of Endearment (I'd add in the puckish face of her oldest son, the soggy face of her younger son when he has to say goodbye to her)

Donna Reed when she's sharing a phone with a her future husband, Jimmy Stewart; and Jimmy Stewart desperate and praying to god ("Show me the way") -- It's a Wonderful Life

Katharine Hepburn showing a crack in the shell in Philadelphia Story.

Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers dancing cheek to cheek.

Samantha Morton in Minority Report

Kate Winslet, Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant, Sense and Sensibility

In crazy love with all of their faces. Way too many to mention.

comment #15

Karsten says ...

I remembered one more, though it might be a bit off the map:

In Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostamis 1989 masterpiece "Close-up" (Nema-ye Nazdik), the lines between fiction and reality is blurred, and the star of the show is a guy named Sabzian - who for real has said to a family that he is indeed the (other) famous Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, but then he's captured by police, and Kiarostami finds him in prison, starts documenting him, but slowly also makes him play himself in a fictional account of what happened before he was captured. The film is immensely engaging, and the face of Sabzian is maybe the most memorable of the whole film. The film comes highly recommended!

Anyone else seen it? Sabzian... SABZIAN!

comment #16

Mark says ...

yes to Debra Winger in TOE.
Robert Blake/Lost Highway
Vince Vaughn/Swingers.
The guy Trovalta raced/Grease

comment #17

Josh Massey says ...

I know it's TV, but pretty much every face from the first season of "Twin Peaks" will never leave me.

And maybe it's because "Superman" is being talked about this week, but those projected faces on the wall behind Brando always freaked me out when I was a kid (so much so they still do a little).

comment #18

typop says ...

2nd on Ford with the tear in Patriot Games. That was a stunner.

Jimmy Stewart picking up and reading the angry letters at the end of "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

comment #19

bipedalist says ...

I see your Robert Blake and I raise you a Patricia Arquette in Lost Highway (the "This Magic Moment" sequence in particular). While we're on Lynch - does anyone remember the collective gasp when Blue Velvet first aired and everyone got a gander at Isabella Rossellini for the first time because she looked so much like Bergman? And then to watch her in the "daddy wants to fuck" sequence was akin to someone taking a hammer to the Michelangelo's David. And it just went on from there. That face. But then of course, there's also Laura Dern in that movie and old Kyle. Great faces, great filmmaking.

Okay, and yet more Lynch - Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet - can't erase him no matter how hard I try. I don't think there is a face in Blue Velvet that isn't memorable though. Dean Stockwell is mentioned above already and who can forget it???

John Hurt in The Elephant Man.

Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive.

Tony Perkins in Psycho.

Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon (add Peter Lorre and Sidney Greenstreet to the mix)

Oh good lord, I could go on all day.

comment #20

christian says ...

great choices from all.

- harrison ford's pained smile as he's trying to pull himself up from the pit in the opening of ROTLA has always intrigued me.

- dean stockwell natch.

- john travolta blowing a kiss to uma thurman.

- beatty and dunaway in their last final look.

- sigourney weaver's face through the last 20 minutes of ALIEN.

- bud cort slowly nodding and smiling to the audience after immolating a fake harold.

- jimmy stewart's face staring at the unseen body for the first time in ROPE. second only to his gaze at grace kelly in REAR WINDOW when he realizes this chick's got moxie.

- woody allen at the end of MANHATTAN does it to me everytime.

- when ingrid bergman gazes at paul henried lead the musicians in CASABLANCA and you see exactly why she fell in love with him.

- martin landau as bela in what i think is one of the most towering performances in the history of american film.

- king kong looking down at fay wray one last time.

- and my favorite: takashi shimura's defiant "try to stop me" stare as he's trying to get the playground built in IKIRU.

comment #21

christian says ...

oh yeah, and tim curry's multi-expressive visage in ROCKY HORROR.

comment #22

The Movie Man says ...

The film is meandering but Tim Curry is absolutely mesmerizing as Darkness in "Legend."

comment #23

The Movie Man says ...

John Huston-Chinatown, the man is as much a legend in front of the camera as he was behind, when he chose to be.

comment #24

christian says ...

i'm a big fan of LEGEND. even tho it's light on plot but it is one of the most beautiful realized fantasyscapes in any film. and tim curry is the greatest devil in movie history.

comment #25

The Movie Man says ...

Legend takes a little getting used to in the beginning, but I'm quite a fan myself and I don't think I'm indulging in hyperbole to say that Tim Curry is just plain fucking brilliant in that role, as is Bottin's makeup. Greatest devil in movie history? I haven't seen anything near it. Too bad casting people don't think of Curry more. Good call on Ikiru and Rear Window by the way. That look you're referring to is the icing on an already pretty damn great cake.

comment #26

The Movie Man says ...

Legend takes a little getting used to in the beginning, but I'm quite a fan myself and I don't think I'm indulging in hyperbole to say that Tim Curry is just plain fucking brilliant in that role, as is Bottin's makeup. Greatest devil in movie history? I haven't seen anything near it. Too bad casting people don't think of Curry more. Good call on Ikiru and Rear Window by the way. That look you're referring to is the icing on an already pretty damn great cake.

comment #27

The Movie Man says ...

Sorry about that my computer hiccupped, also the look I was referring to was in Rear Window but the comment could apply to either film.

comment #28

MoroccoMole says ...

Anna Maria Falconetti in The Passion of Joan of Arc, Julianne Moore in Vanya on 42nd Street and Safe, Claire Danes in Little Women.

comment #29

MattyC says ...

This is kind of random, but for all the Fargo mentions, the Bill Macy moment that sticks in my head more than any other is from Boogie Nights. The little half smile he gives right before blowing his brains out is priceless, and sad, and a little creepy.

Also, Mark Ruffalo in You Can Count On Me, probably because that's the first time I took notice of the guy, and thought he was amazing in that film. There are few who can play bitter, sarcastic, irresponsible, why-is-the-world-always-shitting-on-me shiftless layabouts, and still manage to win the audience's sympathies.

The scene where he's packing to leave, and telling Rory Culkin's character how shitty the town is, and how there's nothing to do, and little Rudy asks if maybe he could come with, gets me everytime.

comment #30

bipedalist says ...

Argh, sucked back in. Okay, speaking of Chinatown:
"She's my daughter!" slap "She's my sister!" slap "She's my sister AND my daughter!" Fay Dunaway had such a face. Those cheekbones were made for celluloid (literally!) and her mug is unforgettable in that movie, in Bonnie and Clyde (hell, add Gene Wilder's face while we're at it - and Bonnie's mother, whatever he name was - haunting...) and I guess pretty boy Beatty too. Dunaway again is memorable in Network, of course.

Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven
Gene Hackman is Woody Allen's Another Woman (add Gena Rowlands too)
Matt Damon in Talented Mr. Ripley
Adrien Brody in The Pianist
Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski (when the ashes get thrown in his face, when he looks in the TIME magazine mirror)
John Turturro in The Big Lebowski and in Quiz Show (he is amazing in that)
Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List (the sexiest Nazi ever)

comment #31

DarthCorleone says ...

Christian - good call on that Harrison Ford Raiders moment!

comment #32

Mark says ...

anyone mention the leads in Buffalo 66 or Narc?
that weight-lifting kid in Gummo?
James Caveizel/Thin Red Line

comment #33

jose___ says ...

Dylan Baker in Happiness. I have never been able to look at his face again without thinking of his disturbing character in that movie. Creepy.

comment #34

The Movie Man says ...

Liotta is fierce, scary, poignant and very memorable in Narc. Great choice, may I also nominate Liotta's equally brilliant scary/funny psycho in "Something Wild"?

comment #35

christian says ...

and a minor face-off:

richard dreyfuss' incredulous grin as robert shaw checks his hands in JAWS.

i'm thinkin' spielberg is behind some of these nifty smiles...

comment #36

zoey says ...

John Cazale in anything.

comment #37

christian says ...

speaking of cazale, the great moment in GODFATHER 2 when al pacino realizes his brother was involved in the hit. his face falls silently in the sex club. wow.

comment #38

anti-sardine says ...

Some mentioned previously and some new:
Tim Curry in Legend, definitely
Woody Allen in Crimes & Misdemeanors, when he realizes that he's been passed over for Alan Alda
The Alien from Alien, the first time those inner teeth protrude - fascinating & revolting at the same time
Peter O'toole in Lawrence of Arabia, "No Prisoners!"
Haing S. Ngor & Sam Waterston in The Killing Fields
Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera & Boris Karloff in The Mummy
Willem Dafoe in Streets of Fire, the first time I saw that face I was filled with dread
Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, of course
Macy in Fargo, Yes
Gloria Swanson in Sunset Blvd., Mr DeMille could never be ready for that look
Grace Kelly coming into focus in Rear Window
Jouquin Phoenix in To Die For, that glazed-over, dead eyed stare of utter stupidity. Totally convincing
Henry Fonda in The Grapes of Wrath. Weary and beaten
Nic Cage & Tex Cobb in Raising Arizona
So many more that you could go on forever.

comment #39

Bandersnatch says ...

Both Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun. I'll never forget the first time I watched that movie and just gasped when I saw the two of them together.

comment #40

bipedalist says ...

For that matter, the gorgeous, final flickering flames of Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Monty Clift in The Misfits. Who can forget those faces.

And to Christian - yeah, Godfather himself, Marlon Brando's memorable mug in that opening scene. Can't forget Al Pacino with his swollen cheek as the camera zooms in on him: now he's going to be the head of the family. Just like that. In fact, Al Pacino's face in both GFI and GFII is memorable. He plays it completely calm and cool but for a few times when he's struck. One, when he meets his young wife and they are both instantly in love and two, when Kay tells him she's had "an abortion, Michael. And abortion! It was a son, Michael! A SON! And I had it killed because all of this must end! An abortion, Michael!"

And then, Diane Keaton's face in GF1 at the end, when Michael has sworn he's innocent (lied) and closes the door on her. GREAT stuff.

Two faces I'll forget are Jodie Foster's and Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs. Partly because Demme shoots them in close-up constantly (and has them look directly into the camera) but partly because I've seen the damned movie so many times I've memorized every twitch.

comment #41

christian says ...

yeah, i love the way demme shots the faces in SOTL. kinda sidney lumet style.

comment #42

Clark Perry says ...

Peter O'Toole's crazy grinning leer throughout THE STUNT MAN and, shortly therafter, MY FAVORITE YEAR. Makes me smile like a fool every time.

The hands-down scariest: that freeze-frame flash of Capt. Howdy in Jonathan Miller's dream scene from THE EXORCIST. Little Linda Blair looks plenty freaky later on, but if you wanna really unnerve yourself, pause the DVD at this exact frame. I can't leave the image on my TV for more than a few seconds, that's that goddamned freaky.

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