Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Tilda Swinton Apprectiation

By s. Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Katherine Matilda Swinton 
(November 5, 1960 in London, England, UK)

There is something insane about a lack of doubt. Doubt, to me anyway, is what makes you human, and without doubt even the righteous lose their grip not only on reality but also on their humanity.

There is no other actress equally eccentric and talented as Tilda Swinton nowadays. Hailing from one of the oldest families in Scotland, the actress who posses interesting and unique beauty and rare intensity won her Academy Award for her magnificent work in Michael Clayton. But even prior to that Swinton was always memorable - even in short appearances, like in the one from Vanilla Sky, where she played the pivotal role of a woman who was privy to the secrets of main hero and explained to him exactly what was happening or in Moonrise Kingdom where she gave amusing performance of a social worker. In her long career she played a man, a witch, the mother of a killer and an alcoholic among others. In each of those performances she completely disappeared into her characters, always delivering the work of the highest quality.

5 favorite movies:
Vanilla Sky
Michael Clayton
The Curious Case of Benjamin button
Burn After Reading
We Need to Talk About Kevin

5 favorite performances:
Julia
Michael Clayton
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Burn After Reading
I am Love


10 fun facts:
  • Has three brothers.
  • Her family is one of the oldest in Scotland.
  • Does not always play women; she has played Mozart on stage, an Elizabethan nobleman in Orlando (1992) and an androgynous angel, Gabriel, in Constantine (2005).
  • Attended West Heath Girls' School, with Princess Diana as one of her classmates, and later Fettes College.
  • Reached great artistic acclaim through her art installation/performance piece "The Maybe", for which she lay sleeping in a glass case on public display for a week, once at the Sepentine Gallery in London and once at the Museo Barracco in Rome. The piece is often erroneously credited to artist Cornelia Parker, whom Swinton invited to collaborate for the installation in London (1995).
  • Can trace her paternal ancestry back 35 generations, to the ninth century. Her father, Major-General Sir John Swinton, is the former head of The Queen's Household Division and Lord-Lieutenant of Berwickshire.
  • Funded and held her own very successful Film Festival in her small Scottish highland home-town: The Ballerina Ballroom Cinema of Dreams. A purely cinephile, glamour-free community event. For eight and a half days in August 2008, she personally introduced and showed an eclectic mix of classics and rare films from around the world. The admission price was 3 pounds for adults, 2 pounds for children or a plate of home-baked cakes.
  • Contributed vocals on four tracks of the album 'The Bachelor' by glam-goth-folk singer/songwriter Patrick Wolf.
  • Performed live with Patti Smith on four nights of the 2005 London Meltdown Festival reading texts by Susan Sontag, Bertolt Brecht, William Blake and William S. Burroughs.
  • Lives in menage a trois with her boyfriend and with the father of her two kids.
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18 comments:

  1. I like Tilda Swinton because she really just doesn't give a fuck. She's out there and she's talented. Plus she was perfect in We Need To Talk About Kevin.

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    1. Yeah, she is such a free spirit. I really admire that.

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  2. Great tribute to a unique and very gifted actress.

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  3. Yay! I was hoping you'd do a tribute on her. Lovely pics here Sati. It's interesting isn't it about her Scottish heritage? I think she is one talented actress.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah, I had no idea prior to writing this post! So cool that she has such a rich heritage.

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  4. For a woman in her 50s, she looks great. I first saw her in Orlando. Excellent film. Yet, I think my favorite performance of hers so far is We Need to Talk About Kevin.

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    1. She really does! She wast terrific in Kevin, should have been Oscar nominated for that.

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  5. Great post! Love her work, and I really need to see Julia and Orlando.

    That Film Festival sounds like a blast. Hadn't heard about the menage a trois either.

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    1. Juia is such a great work from her, amazing performance!

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  6. Great post. I find her to be very attractive, and extremely talented. Check out Teknolust which has her starring in a fun sex comedy

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  7. Great piece! She really is an amazing actress who's work I really enjoy.

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  8. Wow she was good in We Need to Talk About Kevin. And she was one of the best things about The Beach adaptation.

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    1. That's right, I completely forgot about The Beach - she was really wonderful in this movie.

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  9. I thought that my comment hadn't gotten registered. I was right.

    Anyways, love Tilda! Queen of awesomeness itself.
    My favourite performances of her are in Kevin and I am Love. They were so much better than the one in Michael Clayton.

    Have to watch Julia soon.

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    1. I really like her work in Clayton. I thought it was a classic example of a performance that rises above the screenplay - the character was well written but Tilda took it to an even better level with her acting.

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