This is one of my all time favorite films and it's a shame that no one will probably read this. Albert Finney should have won an Oscar for either this or 'Under the Volcano.' What other 47 year old actor can pull off this age as make it believable as well as Sir Albert Finney?
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Hello, Oliver !!!
One of my favorite films of all time, too... such fine performances from both leading actors !!!
Regarding the Oscars... Albert Finney has been nominated five times and still no golden statuette for him, but... who can take seriously a bunch of guys who nominated the great-great-great Hitchock six times and never considered him Oscar-worthy ??? Not to mention the seven (!!!) nominations for Martin Scorsese, but let's give one to Robert Zemeckis !!!!
Greetings !!! Peace !!!
Not to mention the way Peter O'Toole has been short-shrifted.
shareHave you seen Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, I watched that in film Studies and have watched rewatched a lot of Albert Finney since.
I loved this film, I liked the camera work through the halls of the theatre, and the make up scene, how he becomes the character physically and mentally prepares himself to become him.
Gosh it must be draining to do a Shakespeare Tragedy a Eugene ONeill or a film like hours, you could get lost in the depression giving yourself to such characters, no wonder he was totally exhausted.
I thought Finney was superb in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - the film as a whole did not impress me though. Good, just not great.
shareOne of the more obvious reasons why"Sir" is exhausted is that he is no spring chicken. As FlorenceLawrence notes, doing Shakespearean tragedy must be physically tiring, but it must also be - at another level- exhilarating. Achieving the kind of insight that Lear does, for example, must be tremendously satisfying even though he doesn't live very long after he achieves it. Being reconciled with Cordelia has to be the greatest accomplishment in Lear's life, and death is a minor inconvenience compared to it. But now I ramble.
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I respect all of your opinions for liking it, so i hope you will respect me too. I walked out on this movie, the acting may have been good, but the plot was so BORING. I would have to say this is one of the worse films i have ever saw. I would have having more fun at home cleaning my house.
Try watching it in about ten years' time-you may change your opinion....
"STOP THAT TRAAAIIINNN!" still gives me the heebie-jeebies.....
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I'm currently watching "The Dresser", so I don't have an opinion of it yet. I can relate though - I fell asleep watching "Goodfellas". So many people consider "Goodfellas" as a masterpiece. I don't know - every time it's been on TV, I've thought about watching it, but I still haven't seen it.
shareI read this, and i'm embarrassed to say i finally saw the dresser for the first time today . brilliant. one of the great films in teh history of cinema. peter yates, finney, courtnery & the crew should be proud of themselves. Bravo. 10/10.
shareYou expressed "it's a shame that no one will probably read this"! Well as it happens, by surfing around Albert Finney's movies, I have read it and I couldn't agree more as regards the quality of "The Dresser". It is one of those films where the acting honours are just about equally shared between 2 people, in this case of course, Sir Albert and Tom Courtenay. Just brilliant work on both their parts, wouldn't you agree? I only saw it once but have never forgotten it. Tonight I happened to catch "The Browning Version" on TV, a movie that I had seen once before; it certainly was a pleasure to watch it again. Are you familiar with this one? Sir Albert Finney heads up a very fine cast. Also I saw him recently in "Amazing Grace"; I am a big Ioan Gruffudd fan, but also really appreciated the supporting role played by Sir Albert. This man has never made a bad film, as far as I can tell!
shareI saw the Browning version last year, and I liked it. Not one of the best films I've seen, but good. And Finney was great as always.
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- Who's the lady with the log?
- We call her the Log Lady.
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Finney was robbed. When he's asked if he does not hate the critics and he responds something like, "how can you hate the blind and the crippled, you pity them but you cannot hate." I stood up and cheered. Best performance that stands up across the decades. Really enjoyed rewatching it.
shareTender Mercies and Terms of Endearment won most of the major Academy Awards in 1884. Robert Duval won the best actor award for his role in Tender Mercies. Tender Mercies has its moments for sure, but The Dresser is the better picture.
shareFinney is sensational here, both engaging and furiously funny (Courtenay is very good too, but Finney should have won the best male lead Oscar). Superb script too, but who would be surprised to hear Finney did improvise some of the one-liners, such as "No fascist Bolsheviks can stop me now!"
It's simply a joke that Terms of Endearment made such an Oscars smash, but what can you expect?
Mr.Hitler has made life very difficult for Shakespearian companies.
I agree, he played the age very, very well. He and Courtenay both were just magnificent together.
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I can't decide which is the best actor for this film. Tom Courtney or Albert Finney, they're both brilliant but I think it is Courtney for me. This is one of the best films of all time.
-- If Ewan McGregor were a lollipop I'd be a diabetic strumpet --
Finney should indeed have won an Oscar for this - it is appalling when four Brits lose out to one American.
This later happened in 1997, when Helen Hunt beat four British actresses to the title of Best Actress - although one of them had won the statue years previously, and two would go on to win the statue for later films.
If Philip Kaufman had been nominated as Best Director for "The Right Stuff", then he should have won - with the film itself winning Best Picture.
And Best Original Screenplay should have gone to the legendary Ingmar Bergman, for "Fanny And Alexander".
As for past Oscar snubs:
(1) Alfred Hitchcock did at least receive an Honorary Oscar in 1968, thus not going to his grave empty-handed - but he should have won Best Director for "Rebecca", since that film won Best Picture;
(2) for Peter O'Toole also received an Honorary Oscar, in 2002, and so...oh, you know - but he should have won Best Actor for "The Lion In Winter", instead of being bested by Cliff Robertson for "Charly";
(3) Richard Burton should have won Best Actor for "Equus" (1977), instead of being bested by Richard Dreyfuss for "The Goodbye Girl".