Donald Sutherland, il, has died cinema chameleon. She was 88 years old. He left for Miami, the announcement was made by his son Kiefer. They left us those huge ones ironic blue eyes, sometimes severe or ambiguous, which were even larger on the screen and seemed to pop out of their eye sockets. An anomalous career, one enigmatic face, seemed more like a supporting actor than a leading actor. When they gave him the Oscar for his career in 2018, he commented: «I didn’t feel like I was expiring, but at 82 years old time was starting to run out. be in short supply».
From Casanova to the saga of Hunger Games, he acted without overdoing it. Canadian born in 1935, you have acted in over 130 films. Her second feature film, in 1964, is an Italian horror film, The Castle of the Living Dead. She had a look of free hitter. He achieved success by chance, in The Dirty Dozen where he was hired for just one line, then he forced a replacement and a guy from MGM production said to him: «Hey you with the big ears, come forward, the part is yours».
In 1976 he shot for two great Italian directors, Fellini and Bertolucci. She spoke about it with humor. Fellini? For Casanova, Donald had been chosen because with those big eyes he reminded Federico of an onanist. And then he added: «He was a beautiful relationship, the first few weeks were embarrassing, the most complicated of my life. Then we moved on eleven months of idyll. She would give me the pages to memorize right before shooting the scenes. Federico sat on my lap to direct the other actors.” In the car together, in the back seat Fellini noticed that Donald had a lot of books on Casanova. The director opened the window and threw them away. What are you doing? “This is not a film about Casanova. It’s a film about me” », he replied.
Then the meeting with Bernardo Bertolucci. Donald is the ogre Attila in Twentieth centuryin black uniform, as dark as the Twenty Years: «We had different ideas about the character, for two weeks we shot two versions of each scene, then I gave up and followed his directions. For the sequence where I kill the cat they used a fake animal, filled with blood.” Paolo Virzì for Ella & John with Helen Mirren asked him to tell a season of life in which one can still seek pleasure, despite everything, terminal illness. Those great actors, a solo for two, did their part in the film last tripaboard a camper.
At the Zurich Festival a few years ago he practically wrote his autobiography. Animal House? «My wife made John Landis promise that she would not include the scene where I show my butt, which was mine gags to make people laugh the crew. Instead then…” There were big rejections: A quiet weekend of fear And Straw dog, but at the time Sutherland thought there should be no violence in the cinema. When it was objected that he had accepted Bertolucci’s Attila, he replied in Italian: «It’s true! Attila is a monster».
He loved cinema so much that his five children have names linked to the directors with whom he worked. One is called Robert. And Redford wanted him in Common people. The scene where she tells Mary Tyler Moore that he doesn’t love her anymore he turned it over crying. Donald wasn’t convinced by those tears. Months later Redford called him back: “You’re right.” They turned it overRobert read the lines off-screen.
Robert Altman didn’t want it for MASH. And Donald said: «The first screening in New York was a phenomenal successee the marketing hadn’t been great. There was no Internet, there wasn’t that thing that the other Donald uses, Trump, what’s his name? Oh yes, the lie». They had recently asked him if he death was scary. «All my life I have been sick: polio, rheumatic fever, hepatitis, scarlet fever, meningitis. On the set of The warriors I’ve even been to Clint Eastwood in a coma and the body abandoned me for a few seconds. A large white door opened. I felt like I was inside an oyster. I had never felt better».
