tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

I agree with Colin Boyd over @TheBigPicture about Keira Knightley, when he said: Sure, the Pirates movies built her stardom, but she's also picked up an Oscar nomination in the past six years (Pride and Prejudice), was quite good in Atonement, and has done a lot of left-of-center stuff when she could have played it safe and gone for romantic comedies.

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That's why Ms. Knightley remains one of today's most sought-after actresses, she is always looking for ways to hone her craft. Now, she's determined to enter theater - Knightley joins Damian Lewis and an outstanding ensemble with Tara Fitzgerald and Dominic Rowan in Martin Crimp's blistering version of Molière's greatest comedy, The Misanthrope.

Transported from 17th century Paris to modern-day London, Alceste (Damian Lewis) is a famous British playwright disillusioned and angry with the hypocrisy, shallowness and vanity of the contemporary world. Vowing to reject society, Alceste's plans are derailed when he falls madly in love with Jennifer (Keira Knightley). An ambitious American film star and darling of the social scene, she may prove to be his biggest challenge yet.

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Stage vs. Movie acting: It is a time-tested tradition for most British actors to get extensive exposure on theater, that is aside from the formal acting education they received from acting schools in the UK - such as the prestigious Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art (RADA).

But why is stage acting difficult, especially to those who are already enjoying a fruitful movie career?

... film demands a fundamentally different kind of performance work from its actors than does the stage; as D. W. Griffith himself put it, the stage actor projects an emotion or a character to an audience, whereas a film actor must in some way embody and perform these emotions in as true and believable a way as possible. Though some have made the theater-to-cinema transition quite successfully (Olivier, Glenn Close, and Julie Andrews, for instance), others have not. [ read more ]

The cast of The Misantrophe:

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This is not the first time Knightley made her foray into stage acting. As Colin pointed out, she was part of the ensemble cast for King Lear. Reports the Telegraph:

The actresss was due to play Cordelia, the youngest daughter of the King, who would have been portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins. Gwyneth Paltrow as Regan, Lear's treacherous middle daughter, and Naomi Watts would have completed the cast as his eldest daughter, Goneril. The film was announced at the Cannes Film Festival last year and was expected to feature epic battle sequences. It may be the first high profile casualty of the recession in the movie business, when one of the world's most bankable stars - number 42 in a recent Forbes power list - cannot get a project made. It now leaves the way open for a rival production Shakespearean production with Al Pacino in the title role. King Lear would have been 24-year-old Keira's debut in a work by the Bard. [ read more ]

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What's on your mind? What can you say about Keira Knightley and her entry into stage? Are you interested in watching her in The Misantrophe? Let us know what you think!
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