Rachel Weisz – Best Actress – Terence Davies’ “The Deep Blue Sea”
Rachel Weisz in Terence Davies’ haunting film “The Deep Blue Sea”
Our dear friend Terence Davies just got a very big boost.
The New York Film Critics Circle has named Rachel Weisz as Best Actress in 2012 for her haunting performance in The Deep Blue Sea, written & directed by Terence Davies, from Terence Rattigan’s 1952 play.
Terence having breakfast tea with Bonnie. Note the sweatshirt. Terence was wearing this in San Francisco when a homeless man came up to him and asked, “Do you have any spare change? I wanna go to Yale.”
Bonnie and I spoke with Terence when the film was coming out in the U.S. He was making a whirlwind publicity tour over here and, because of my work, we were sadly unable to get together with him. He told us that this was the most relaxed and easy film he’d made yet. Rachel Weisz and all the actors were his first choices and they all worked like maniacs to do whatever he asked on their tight 28-day shooting schedule. All he had to do was make a slight mention about how rooms or clothes were at the time and the next day the set decorator or costume designer would have it done and ready for him.
Terence and Bonnie in our living room. I became friends with Terence because of our love for films. He fell in love with Bonnie because . . . well, who wouldn’t.
The Deep Blue Sea was well received in the U.K. and very well reviewed here in the U.S., although little seen. David Edelstein on NPR named The Deep Blue Sea as being number 5 on his Top Ten Films of 2012.
We’re so happy for Terence to have one of his films receive recognition like this in the U.S. Hopefully this will open a few more film investment doors for him.
Bravo to Rachel Weisz! Bravo to Terence!
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“The Deep Blue Sea” continues to haunt me. That wonderful use of the Samuel Barber Andante, the superb acting – Ms. Weisz, Mr. Higgleston, and Simon Beale. Absolutely perfect casting. Usually I can’t forget that I’m watching a star. However Ms. Weisz’s performance is the exception that proves the rule. And that glorious ending as the camera booms down the exterior facade of the building and Ms. Weisz is transformed ( to my eye), to an angel on the exterior of a great cathedral; and then the negative shape between the windows momentarily reading as a cross. Just transcendent filmmaking…and, for me, the finest ending to a film I have ever seen.
Thanks for posting this Mike!