So, today we are going to talk about the way Alan Rickman
plays Professor Severus Snape, and also why this simple piece of
play-acting has such a devastating effect on the viewers.
We have precisely nine scenes to help us dissect this phenomenon.
The first look at the Boy with the Scar (after Sorting)
Intimidating Harry at the first lesson (Potions Master)
Halloween (from the table into the Dungeons)
After the troll incident (standing over the knocked-out troll)
Quirrell gets his head banged against the wall (the Invisibility Cloak scene)
Good luck before the game (intimidating the trio in the dining hall)
Saving foolish Harry (countercurse at the game)
Intimidating the trio after the exams ("up to something")
Applause for Slytherin (the final)
We are not going to touch all of them. But we are going to talk about more than just the film.
Now for the belated disclaimer: this text is designed exclusively for the tight community
of the not-quite-normal readers and viewers. As a fair warning, it
should be considered a sort of Prozac for those people (predominantly
girls and women suddenly developing weakness in the knees and/or clouded
judgement) who find themselves caught on the sharp hook made from two letters, S and S, soaked in poison of the not quite clear but definitely serpentine origin.
What happened to us was double potions, those very potions which are severely proscribed by the regulations of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
And so, in the first vial we have the creation of the swift hand of Ms. J.K. Rowling, this Potions Master Severus Snape,
this disgusting villain and the evil genius of the hero, the nice and
justly beloved by the readers Harry Potter. Not quite as
two-dimensional as he appears at first sight, and not quite as
disgusting as he appears constantly while reading (up to the very end
of book 4). The other vial contains Mr. Alan Rickman
– he the complex British actor who had to reach his 55th birthday to
see his big break to the worldwide audiences which, after the Harry
Potter movie, finally learned his name.
Mix well... and see it explode!
I will probably omit the list of Mr. Rickman's accomplishments, for they are worthy of a separate
treatise, but in reality he's not quite that unknown. Emmies, Golden
Lions and SAG Awards of various kinds he possesses in abundance, the
appellation to him as a "star" has already been established, his fandom
is sufficiently wide and devoted over many years, but most importantly
– he needs literally only seconds of screen time to dispel any lingering
doubts over who is the boss on the set.
It is not enough that Mr. Rickman is
an actor amply gifted by Nature, but like any genius (that's right, no
underestimates for us) he polished his gift and knows how to utilize
it. If I decided not to hold back one of the principal statements I
wanted to make here I would say this: he draws his play out to that
moment when the viewer is just about to find the breath necessary to
shout out: "Enough! Mercy!" He knows where the moment is, and the cry
never leaves our lips. But I would offer that nowhere else have I seen
the command of screen time and the viewer's breath carried to quite
this extent. Alan Rickman does not make anguished or mock-anguished
faces (in the manner of Kevin Spacey or Robin Williams), he does not
juggle his eyebrows the way French actors do (or the way that is
suggested by authors of Snape fan-fiction), he does not endlessly curve
his lips in a refined smile (as the character is made to by the same
authors smitten with his image). He does almost nothing at all, as
befits the genuine genius actor. I'll touch on that later, but the idea
of the noble non-action is reinforced by the photos of SS made for glossy magazines.
His photo in the Dungeons – in the chair by the table with the alchemy
equipment – that one I used to stare at for ages. The snapshot does not
convey changing facial expression, voice, movement - but still
contains all of it inside. All of what? What do you mean - "of what"?
There is the stare, the pose, the man. And it was this man who gave
rise to the insanity ranging on the vast expances of Rowlingmania,
quietly beginning to overshadow the Pottermania itself.
A reservation, though: temporary inaction and permanent lack
of affectation does not equal low energy. This is where we come to the
second device that Mr. R. uses in constructing his character in the
space of the minutes of screen time allotted to him.
Don't ask me if he does this on reflection or on instinct. But… he is divinely uneven.
Let us now start the cruel dissection of the scene of the first lesson.
First off, a word of thanks to Chris Columbus:
In
the "First potions lesson" episode there is no music at all. We hear
the echoing sounds of the Dungeons, then an almost fearful silence, and
then the voice, while his owner acquires the target, the voice which
created the legion of admirers for Rickman's Snape immediately after
the second trailer hit the screens (and one sentence was all it took,
five words: "Mister Potter, our—new—celebrity"). Glory be: AR is allowed to play one of his most finely tuned instruments – yes,
yes, we're all familiar with the mantra: "If velvet could speak, it
would sound like Rickman". And speak he does. My, it's scary! And beautiful! "You don't know?.. Pity… Clearly, fame isn't everything. Mister Potter."
But that's not what I was talking about. Sorry, got distracted there.
What Rickman does to the viewer is the same procedure they
apply when tempering Damascus steel. Only viewers' steel is not
tempered, but instead quietly (or moaning, as the case may be) goes
into coma.
Now then: the door into the
classroom, the steps approaching, the door is kicked out towards the viewer (with a
foot, it seems), He storms in. Sturm, drang, the cape is flying, and parallel to the flight course come the evenly spaced words: "There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class…" O my… That's it. We are at rest. Beside the podium. Frozen.
…Breathe out. The class is silent. The room gets a look-over, empty and cold (how on earth can the
look of black eyes be cold is not known, it shouldn't be possible, but
such it is. It is lifeless, just like Rowling said, and the eyes do
resemble the "black tunnels" to a
degree that is simply beyond imagination, especially for a man with
eyes as expressive as Rickman's). We are playing an intensely peculiar
part – not quite a bat, not quite a raven. "However... for those select few... who possess the predisposition..." (pay attention to the plosive t's and p's), the head turns, the eyes are hypnotising "his own".
And then we have the gift of that exact five-second homing on target (the boy with the scar, "Then again, maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that
you feel confident enough to not—pay—attention!"), which even when viewed on the grainy computer screen sends me into the merciful dead faint.
There we go. Or rather, there we fly.
We spread the black wings (of a quite intricate design, by the way) of
our cape so that they flare up just a touch, the fingers on the left
hand perform a smooth sadistic gesture, shaking off the sleeve which,
as we already know, hides the Dark Mark (stunning, stunning costume,
gentlemen. Those white bands of the cuffs with triangular cuts, and the white collar, to say nothing of the coiffure of
elegance indescribable, I've got to get me this haircut – which is to
say that all of this transforms Rickman's Snape from the pitiful
creature of the books into the Byronically ennobled vampire... no, not
for the masses. For the rich. Very rich.)… What was it I was on
about?.. oh, right, the left hand, the horrific flaying motion, then
another half-stroke of the wings, and we are on top of the mark,
standing, steadying against the wall. The poor Harry, Merlin help him.
They were quite right when, in the theatrical release, they cut out the
insolent responce – "why don't you ask Hermione, she knows". Cheek?
What cheek?.. You'd be lucky to hold on to your seat.
This episode is in earnest, and it is played out earnestly. Rickman does not have any other serious moments in the movie.
But the most important thing here for
us, in describing our hero, is this feverish intercutting between the
outward calm and this black asp's lunge (yes, of course I know that I
was speaking of raven's wings just now, but... Well, so what! The lunge
is still absolutely snake-like) and then back into calm, at the edge of
the viewer's heartbeat. This is a false calm, and a very scary one.
Shall we continue?
Are we ready?
Have we climbed down deep enough, are our hands and feet
bound tight enough, do our heads burn hot enough? What's that? We are
losing the listeners? No matter. Only the ones bound the tightest, burning
the hottest, will ever see the end.
We continue.
The same feverish routine
with the momentary change in state of the matter, now completely
motionless - now thrusting forward, is repeated twice more, when
Quirrell bellows his "tro-o-o-oll in the Dungeons!",
we at the table soak up everything that happened and then bolt away (on
our own secret paths, always our own), and again after the little talk
with Quirrell in the dark passage.
I tend to think that this dotted line
following the "calm-action" scheme is one of the keys to Snape's entire
image. Rowling constantly has him lurking in the shadows. He generally
shuns the limelight, which does not prevent him from being wiser than
the three collectively wise little empiricists, the Harry-Ron-Hermione
trio, or than the all-knowing-all-benevolent Headmaster, who holds
Atlas-fashion the entire weight of the magical world on his shoulders,
to say nothing
of the other teachers. Even when he makes mistakes, as he does in book
3, where we are treated to the heart-rending double howl at the moon
performed by a wolf and a dog, even when he falls powerless victim to
his still not quite healed childhood wound (for what else but the
memory of humiliation can prompt a character like Severus Snape
towards, let's be honest, an open desire for murder), still it is he
who turns up at the Shrieking Shack, and not the Headmaster. It goes
without saying: at Hogwarts, Severus is the top dog. Even though he
constantly suffers setbacks at the hands of rugrats due to
peculiarities of his foul mood. We'll see (Trismegistus help us) how
Mr. Rickman is going to play all that. I wish I could sustain the
interest in the epic until the third movie is out.
However, back to the good stuff. To what we already have.
And
here please allow me to yelp in a completely non-constructive manner.
Mr. Rickman is 56, and he's playing someone 20 years his junior. Agreed,
Snape according to Rowling looks older than that, but still... Anyway,
it all came out perfectly.
The troll scene gives us a couple of absolutely ravishing
close-ups, and he who says that this man is one day over 36 can throw the
first stone.
However
this scene is played on the edge of broad comedy. Look at the sour
grimace Snape directs at the troll and the kids! Look at how purposefully he draws
the cloak over his mangled knee, giving Harry "the eye"! Ooh, I'm sooo
scared! And look at the meaningful glance he throws at Quirrell when
departing. Soon enough, Quirrell, soon enough…
Yes, this is one of my favorite
episodes. Black and blue, bluish black and full of menacing whispers.
O, you believe it, this whisper, and how, it and the menace it brings! "You do not want me as
your enemy, Quirrell… You know perfectly well what I mean... We'll have
another little chat soon, when you had enough time to decide where
your loyalties lie…"
One more study in stunning constrasts. Even just remembering
what has transpired turns chills into sweats and back: once again, the
flying lunge, but this time it results in direct violence, Quirrell has
his head (his Voldemug) smacked against the wall, and the voice of our
hero remains through it all soft and supple and serene and fingering
your nerve endings at the precise place beyond which the very real
faint is waiting.
What follows is essential Rickman – theatrical sense of timing dictated by the plot
– the gesture with which he tries to grasp Harry's Invisibility Cloak, another take-my-breath-awaying masterpiece.
…So
much so,
that I even begin to doubt how Mr. R. would tackle a lead. When half a
minute is enough for him to make you absolutely happy, what will he do
to you when given an entire movie?.. I am not sure. I guess I need to
see Mesmer and Rasputin.
Probably he does something which results in Emmies, Golden Lions and
SAG Awards all at once. Actually, I wasn't going to mention it, but in
both Die Hard and Robin Hood
his parts were cut back and redacted in such a way so as not to leave
the blanket completely in Alan Rickman's expressive hands, pulled away
from Bruce Willis' expressive jaw or, heaven forbid, Kevin Costner's
expressive belly. Still, it is said that it were precisely Rickman's
characters that have rescued those movies from total oblivion. And I
can believe it. You can tell just from looking at stills.
Back to Hogwarts.
The Quidditch sequence.
First off - the cutest piece of intimidation of the rugrats in the
dining hall, where everything clicks, but what stands out is the
interplay of the tempos, fast-slow, when talking about the "little
game of Quidditch": "Good luck today, Potter. Then again, now that
you've proven yourself against the troll a little game of Quidditch
should be easy work for you... even if it is against… Slytherin".
And the game itself, where we have the main course - the countercurse
scene. Here everything is glorious. An absolute masterpiece of makeup
and a costume – from the delirious buttons on the trouser leg, smack
above the crazy shoes of shiny black, which can be studied here and also here,
to some insanely elegant black scarf about the neck, the red lips of a
vampire are repeating the incantation, the eyes are holding poor
foolish Harry on the broom (and for some reason he doesn't give a damn
about his native Slytherin) and, finally, the catarsis is complete –
the lowered head (take care of the fire; fully in command of the
situation), the jerk backwards, hair over the face, eyes darting – did
anyone see what happened? Is Potter still alive?.. ...Oh my god. All
right, don't listen to me when I'm saying how deathly beatiful that is,
re-read someone else
instead. On the face of it - so what? And yet… Here indeed we begin to
lose consciousness. And not for the worrying about Harry.
One more little inset. Alan Rickman
began his career as an art designer. He always improvises on set.
He participates in creating costumes and hair styles. Something tells
me that the visible part of the image was developed by him along with
the official costume and hair specialists.
Thankfully, we have only two tiny episodes of Severus Snape left in this film.
Caught our breaths yet?.. Ready?..
We must. As they say, "be afraid, Ophelia, be afraid, my sister". Be afraid yet move fearlessly forward.
So we are left with one hilarious scene, the intimidation of the kids after the exams. "Good afternoon. Now what would three young Gryffindors such as yourselves be
doing inside on a day like this? Be careful. People might think that you are… up to something".
This is not scary. This is simply brilliant, we see Rickman having an
absolute ball, Snape having an absolute ball, we see that he is just
shooing the kids away from the terrible place which, as is evident to
him, draws them inexorably, and demonstrates once more who is it that's
standing on the lookout for everything. Yes, he is watching,
this is what he does apart from his complicated dissections of good and
evil in the world and in himself, from magic black and white, from his
agonizing past and equally agonizing future.
And, surprise, he has no rivals in this business, not when the author allows him to act.
No, still one more little cameo. I will never admit that Rowling was writing this
Snape. She created a sarcastic, cruel, intimidating, unfair, mocking,
professional, fearless (yes, that is indisputably established through a
series of episodes),
mysterious, much-suffered, acting wise beyond his age, but still
extremely, extremely unpleasant man. Unpleasant in any and all senses - internally as well as externally.
Her old teachers are right to take offence, and her readers - to brand
him the second most evil character in the book after Voldemort. Well,
should Columbus have engaged Tim Roth for the role, that would have
been the Snape we'd have gotten. I doubt we would have received these
quicksilver movements, this uniformly brilliant command of the entire
expressive range of an actor, including the clothes, and, of course,
this voice.
The End. Applause. Ending brings us
Snape applauding his House, this scene is again a self-parody – here AR
plays a person almost obsessed, this is for the film, not for the
character. But here he is again batlike and empty-eyed.
This is where we say goodbye. What's left is the photos.
I have lived through things that no book will tell you about
I see everything
Do not come closer
If you do, it is at your own peril
I am sitting right now, but if I have to get up…
Death to all that is living (and if you are a woman, doubly so, but this is never articulated, right?)
Noli me tangere.
That's it, and
"See me later, Potter."
P.S.
Alan Rickman often wears long cuffs, almost obscuring his hands.
Alan Rickman speaks exquisitely and possesses the most intense "presence"
Alan Rickman considers
the ability to listen what the partner says to be paramount in actor's craft, he tends to observe
Alan Rickman is capable of looking directly into the camera
in the way that no supermodel is, and that even considering that he is
not 26, not a girl and not, Heaven forgive me, some dicaprio
Alan Rickman holds within himself such an explosive mix of sorrow and merriment that you split in half looking at him, not able to decide if you should cry or laugh.
He is for some reason sadistic in a beautiful, contrived way
* Wait a minute. Robin Hood steals money from my pocket,
forcing me to hurt the public, and they love him for it? That's it
then. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans! No more
merciful beheadings!.. And call off Chrisssstmassss!
— Alan Rickman as George, Sheriff of Nottingham in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"
** Image of Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape was taken from some kind person who scanned it. All copyrights apply.
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