Alan Rickman's topics - tribe.net

Jonathan Lunn Dance Company

SnapesMistress — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:52:13 GMT

Friday 27th June at 7.30pm

Critically acclaimed international choreographer and director Jonathan Lunn brings his company to The Point for the first time. This inspiring show includes
specially commissioned text by the late Anthony Minghella performed by special guest actor Alan Rickman. The Reading Room is a series of scenes focusing on different lives and relationships and examining the connections, disconnections,
pacts, secrets and lies of our human interactions. This very special evening brings together an array of artists from the worlds of film, dance, music, literature and
opera and features a choreographed section by Hampshire Youth Dance Company. Lunn’s previous credits include opera work in London, Los Angeles, Washington and Paris and for the National Theatre, whose production of Pericles earned him an Olivier
nomination for best choreography in theatre.

Duration: 60 minutes approximately

Recommended age: 12 years+

Tickets: £10

Buy tickets

Friday

Saturday

“The dancers perform intricate movements with careful delicacy drawing the audience into the tiniest detail. Light humour and tenderness completed this intelligently executed beautifully wrapped package including striking lighting

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Happy Birthday Alan!

Gael_Force — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:02:39 GMT

... to the hottest man on the planet.

Had a discussion the other day with the 20-somethings I work with about just how LONG it took them to figure out that the guy in "Dogma" was Hans Gruber from "Die Hard"! I said, "OK, you DO know he's Professor Snape as well, right?" Yes, that they DID know....

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Snape Collector Doll

SnapesMistress — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:40:20 GMT

PROFESSOR SNAPE™

DRESSED TONNER CHARACTER FIGURE™

T8-HPDD-02 LE1500 $179.99

Sculpted in the likeness of Alan Rickman as PROFESSOR SNAPE™ and brought to life by award-winning designer Robert Tonner, the authenticity of this makes it a true collector’s treasure. PROFESSOR SNAPE™ stands approximately 19” tall and features 14 points of articulation (neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, hips, knees, and ankles) , is crafted of high quality vinyl & hard plastic, and features high-end details including rooted saran hair and hand-painted face details. The potions master comes dressed in an authentic reproduction of his signature costume from the film. His costume includes a cotton high-collar shirt, chiffon neck scarf, tunic jacket with mandarin collar and button detailing, matching slacks, socks, faux leather slip-on boots, and full-length professor's robe. Of course, SEVERUS™ also comes with his signature wand; display stand included.

http://www.tonnerdoll.com/2008TonnerSite/2008Images/HPotter/SNAPE.jpg

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Sundance Photos-

SnapesMistress — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:37:18 GMT

http://www.gryffindorgazette.com/2008/01/28/alan-rickman-at-the-sundance-film-festival/

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Sweeney Todd London Premere

SnapesMistress — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:41:04 GMT

http://www.abacausa.com/ximagi/search.php?u=&assignment_id=41067

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Alan Rickman Interview Transcript from the Sweeney Todd Press Junket!

SnapesMistress — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 16:40:08 GMT

Alan Rickman Interview Transcript from the Sweeney Todd Press Junket!

This is from the IMDB here http://imdb.com/title/tt0408236/board/nest/90843574?d=90843817#90843817 Thank you to the person who donated it and the person who shared it. :-)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

QUESTION: WAS THE THOUGHT OF
SINGING INTERESTING TO YOU? WAS THAT WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO THE PROJECT?

RICKMAN: Well, it was one of them. I
suppose that it's in this life it's looking for the next high wire. So that was
definitely one of them and then you just have to find out on a practical level
if you can hit those notes. Some of them were a bit high. Then you've got to
quickly find a singing teacher and work. So that was definitely an attraction.

QUESTION: HOW LONG DID
YOU WORK WITH A COACH BEFOREHAND?

RICKMAN: I don't really remember. A while,
maybe a month or so.

QUESTION: DO YOU ENJOY
BEING THE REALLY BAD GUY OR DOES IT DEPRESS YOU IN A WAY?

RICKMAN: In this film? Well,
who's bad or who's good, I don't judge the characters at all. I don't label
them. And the bad guy never depresses me at all.

QUESTION: IS IT MORE FUN
TO PLAY THE BAD GUY?
RICKMAN: Well, weirdly, I play it so
rarely. I don't play it very often. It's just like maybe three times with big
publicity budgets. But if you actually look at the work there's an awful lot of
work there with no money for publicity and that. So if you look at it from that
end of it, that end of the telescope and I'm looking down the other end of it.
Indeed I have two other films coming out this year that are very different, but
to me doing 'Sweeney Todd' was like, 'Whoa, this will be interesting.'

QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT
MOVIES?
RICKMAN: One is
at Sundance in January called 'Bottle Shock' and one opens in America in March
called 'Nobel Son'.

QUESTION: WHAT SORTS OF
CHARACTERS ARE THOSE?
RICKMAN: In
'Bottle Shock' I play somebody who's actually still alive. He's called Steven
Spurrier and he's a wine expert and the film is about the true story of a 1976
blind wine tasting in Paris when the American wines beat the French with an all
French jury. That's the story of it and we shot it in Sonoma which is where I've
just come from.

QUESTION: SO THE ONLY
EVIL PERSON IN THAT WOULD BE THE FRENCH?
RICKMAN: [laughs] I don't know. I think they're
still cross. And the other one is an American winner of the Nobel Prize for
Chemistry. My son kidnaps me in order to hold me to ransom to get the money from
Sweden.

QUESTION: IS THAT BASED
ON A TRUE STORY?
RICKMAN: No.

QUESTION: WHAT'S IT LIKE
WORKING ON A TIM BURTON SET WITH JOHNNY DEPP WHO'VE DONE SO MUCH TOGETHER?

RICKMAN: No sense of your invading
private territory. It's completely shared and open and you all work on this
piece of work together, particularly with Johnny because he's very much a team
player. You've just got problems to solve. So the vision and the imagination and
the drive and the energy which is one thing. You're like a sponge as an actor.
You just pick up what's wanted, what the tone is you're aiming for. Then there
are practical problems. If you've got to sing and you're shaved it's not going
to help if you've got foam right over your mouth. The next time you see the
film, if you see it again, you'll see that just as he puts that stuff around my
mouth I go like that so that when I open my mouth there's nothing on the lips.
But it took a while to figure out how we were going to get around this. I'd be
spitting it all the time.

QUESTION: IT LOOKED
FANTASTIC. WAS IT ALL SHOT INSIDE?
RICKMAN: Indoors. All of Fleet Street was indoors,
yeah.

QUESTION: WHAT WAS THE
SET LIKE?
RICKMAN: I'm very connected to
The Royal Academy where I trained and I rang them up and said, 'You've got to
get the technical students down here to have a look at this. They won't see this
again.' It was unbelievable craftsmanship and womenship on that set. It was
amazing. Because of the bleaching out process you don't see so much of the
detail that we saw and the clothes and everything. I mean, it's right that he
did that so that you get that kind of dark sense of the world, but the actual
detail of a sign over a door or what's going on in a shop window was phenomenal.
It's just like food for your imagination which is what Tim said.

QUESTION: DID YOU RECORD
YOUR SONGS WITH JOHNNY IN THE STUDIO TOGETHER OR SEPARATELY?
RICKMAN: Separately because they've got to have
control, especially in a duet where they want to turn one up and one down. So
it's a little odd to do that. The first time that we sang it together was miming
it together [laughs]. But I could see why. All I did was say, 'Please could I go
second so that I can hear him.' I know that he would have the lighter voice and
he drives it so I needed to know what train I was jumping on. That sort of
thing.

QUESTION: AS AN ACTOR
GIVING A VOCAL PERFORMANCE, DO YOU CONSIDER IT ACTUALLY SINGING OR IS IT SORT OF
AN EXTENSION OF THE ROLE THAT YOUR PLAYING, PART OF THE CHARACTER?
RICKMAN: That. But of course at the same time you
don't want to flat or sharp or any of those awful things. So you've got to be
singing too.

QUESTION: HAVE YOU SEEN
A PRODUCTION OF 'SWEENEY TODD' BEFORE?
RICKMAN: One, two years ago in New York. It was
the one where they all played musical instruments as the orchestra which was
brilliant, but totally different of course.

QUESTION: SO THAT HAD NO
BEARING ON WHAT YOU WERE DOING WITH THIS.
RICKMAN: None.

QUESTION: HOW DID YOUR
WORK SCHEDULE PLAY INTO THE NEXT 'HARRY POTTER' FILM? DID YOU GO FROM ONE TO THE
OTHER OR DID THEY OVERLAP AT ALL? I KNOW THAT IN 'HALF-BLOOD PRINCE' THERE'S A
LOT OF SNAPE AND SO I WOULD IMAGINE THERE'S A LOT FOR YOU TO DO IN THAT FILM?

RICKMAN: Yeah, but they still have to
get inside a certain period of time. I do seven weeks. I can't even remember
when we shot the last one so I think – we shot 'Sweeney Todd' this year – it was
over a year ago that I did 'Order of the Phoenix'.

QUESTION: SO YOU HAVEN'T
STARTED ON THE NEXT ONE?
RICKMAN:
They're doing it already. I start at the end of January.

QUESTION: HAD YOU SUNG
BEFORE?
RICKMAN: Well, yes, in the sense
that you come out of drama school and you're in 'Guys and Dolls' and God knows
what in regional theater. Then when I did 'Private Lives' in London and on
Broadway I sang a little. Well, Lindsay Duncan and I sang one Noel Coward song
onstage, but it was so much part of the action that it wasn't like, 'And now
we're going to sing.' So it's not quite the same as this, but yeah, I had a
little bit before.

QUESTION: DO YOU ENJOY
SINGING?
RICKMAN: I do. I'm only
thinking about that because since the movie I kept up the singing lessons
because it helps an enormous amount with speaking, one discovers. I have an
incredibly sarcastic singing teacher and so when I say I enjoy it, he's so rude
that it's sort of masochism. But I know something is happening that's making
speaking better and breathing because it's just basically reminding me to
breathe. Sometimes you forget to do that. It's great to find a discipline and
work it.

QUESTION: IS IT POSSIBLE
THAT SOMEONE COULD CONVINCE YOU TO GO ONSTAGE AND DO IT?
RICKMAN: Yeah, anything is possible. It just would
have to depend on how high the notes are. That's what we're working on now,
pulling that range up a bit.

QUESTION: ARE YOU A FAN
OF THE BARBER CHAIR YOURSELF? IT LOOKS VERY SCARY. HAVE YOU HAD A REAL LIFE
SHAVE?
RICKMAN: Once or twice, in one's
life. I'm like most men. One's a bad shaver in the morning because you've only
got three minutes to get out the door. So it's not a great skill.

QUESTION: A BIT OF
BLOOD?
RICKMAN: Some blood. Then of
course you've got three minutes to get out the door and now you have a piece of
tissue paper stuck to you. It's the usual chaotic scene, I'm afraid.

QUESTION: WILL 'HARRY
POTTER' BE AFFECTED BY THE SAG STRIKE AT ALL?
RICKMAN: No. It's written already, something like
that.

QUESTION: THAT'LL COVER
THE WRITER'S GUILD.
RICKMAN: Well, if
the actor's come out then we'll be out, I suppose.

QUESTION: DON'T THEY
USUALLY TAKE ABOUT NINE MONTHS TO FINISH THOSE FILMS?
RICKMAN: Watch the space, literally.

QUESTION: WITHOUT ANY
SPOILERS THIS FILM DOES HAVE SOME SNAPES' BIG MOMENT.
RICKMAN: Well that's a spoiler, isn't it.

QUESTION: ARE YOU
LOOKING FORWARD TO THAT WITHOUT SAYING WHAT IT IS?
RICKMAN: Well, the only thing that I'll say is
that for the first time shooting those films I know what I'm doing and why.

QUESTION: HAVE YOU READ
AHEAD?
RICKMAN: That's what I mean by
that.

QUESTION: YOU'VE READ
THE SEVENTH BOOK?
RICKMAN: That's what I
mean by that [laughs].

QUESTION: AS THE END OF
THOSE THINGS DO YOU REGARD THAT WITH EITHER RELIEF OR SADNESS?
RICKMAN: It's a unique experience. I mean, where
else is film history going to watch three kids grow up and the films actually
growing up with them.

QUESTION: ARE YOU PROUD
OF YOUR CONTRIBUTION TO THAT?
RICKMAN: I
do the best that I can [laughs]. I'm very proud to be involved in it and part of
world history.

QUESTION: ARE YOU
COMFORTABLE WITH THE SEX SYMBOL STATUS THAT'S COME ALONG WITH THAT BECAUSE
THERE'VE BEEN BLOG GROUPS OF WOMEN TALKING ABOUT YOU IN THAT SENSE?
RICKMAN: The world is weird. This is the thing.
This is why 'Sweeney Todd' has only ever been relevant because there are
apparently – I haven't looked – websites now where grown, mostly women, write
porn and putting those characters together. So, 'Sweeney Todd' is a smallfry to
the idea of that going on and this isn't even being done covertly. They have
conventions and things.

QUESTION: HAVE YOU HAD
ANY STRANGE ENCOUNTERS WITH THOSE FANS OR NOT?
RICKMAN: I think that every actor has.

QUESTION: CAN YOU TALK
ABOUT IT OR NOT?
RICKMAN: No. I don't
want to encourage it.

QUESTION: YOU DIRECTED
SOME STAGE WORK. I SEE THAT YOU DID 'MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE'. DID THAT HAVE
THE SAME SORT OF CONTROVERSY HERE AS IT DID IN THE U.S. WHEN THEY TRIED TO MOUNT
IT?
RICKMAN: Well, we did it here first
and because it was such a success here the New York production was important
that it happened especially because, of course, she was American and it's part
of the current American history. So it was very important that it go there. The
controversy was the same everywhere. There were always people standing outside
the theater handing out leaflets. Fair enough. Everybody can have their point of
view, but it usually drifted away eventually when people actually bothered to
read it or come and see it rather than making assumptions.

QUESTION: WOULD YOU LIKE
TO TAKE THAT FURTHER INTO MOVIES, OR DIRECTING IN GENERAL?
RICKMAN: I did direct a movie which I'm very proud
of called 'The Winter Guest' and now I look with horror and find out that it was
ten years ago. How did that happen? Because you get caught up in movies and
making them and you're time gets eaten up.

QUESTION: AND DIRECTING
PLAYS DOESN'T FILL THE SAME SPACE?
RICKMAN: Well, no, because you direct a movie and
that's a year or so of your life. Pre-production. Shooting the movie is a short
period of time. Before it and after it is what eats it up. But I do have plans
to direct again. It's just organizing your day.

QUESTION: DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT IT WOULD BE?

RICKMAN: I do, yeah. One completely
original script called 'A Little Chaos' which is about the building of a
fountain at the court of Louis the XIIII in Versailles. Then another one I don't
think I can talk about because I haven't had the meeting in New York yet, but
that's happening next week while we do the premiere.

posted in Alan Rickman - 7 replies

Sweeney Clips

screamapillar — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:45:13 GMT

This site has about every clip out there:

http://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=16053

Pay attention to Clip 9 - 'You Ganderd at My Ward' (it's Alan's clip!).

Also, on the official website http://www.sweeneytoddmovie.com they have Turpin's character page up now with a nice new picture of him! His vest looks awesome.

Finally, there are clips of all the music on Amazon.com.

THERE! Whew. So much Sweeneyness happening.

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

Sweey Todd Premere Photos

SnapesMistress — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:55:45 GMT

A few links to the different sites carrying pictures of Alan Rickman at the "Sweeney Todd" premiere last night!

http://photo.wenn.com/index.php?ref=sweeney%20todd%20premiere%20031207&action=search&tb=&fp=1&st=0&hs=&start=1

http://www.wireimage.com/SearchResults.aspx?navtyp=SRH&sfld=C&logsrch=1&s=Alan%20Rickman

http://www.rexfeatures.com/search/?kw=Alan%20Rickman&ord=N wish I could get bigger than thumbnails on these :-(

http://www.newscom.com/GetLogin Wish I could access the bigger ones again of find half the other sites these come from... :-(

http://www.lfi.co.uk/dynevent-action-nl.do?orderby=asc&page=2&noipp=24&eventid=554003

http://www.gettyimages.com/Editorial/Editorial.aspx

http://www.filmmagic.com/SearchResult.aspx?navtyp=CLB&str=61&styp=clbi&nm=Alan+Rickman Another one which only allows thumbnails :-(

http://new2.isifa.com/result_ed.php?search_id=180666 yet another thumbs only :-(

http://www.globephotos.com/dynevent-action-nl.do?orderby=asc&page=1&eventid=308384&noipp=12&hmessage=PREMIERE+OF+%22+SWEENEY+TODD+THE+DEMON+BARBER+OF+FLEET+STREET%22+ZIEGFELD+THEATER%2C+NEW+YORK+CITY++12-03-2007

http://www.famous.uk.com/search-action-nl.do?searchstring=alan+rickman&Submit=Submit

http://www.brunopress.nl/fotoweb/

http://www.anp-photo.com/home.pp

http://photo.grazianeri.com/Search/SearchResults.aspx?sm=Basic&cid=-1&All=Alan+Rickman

http://www.fotobank.com/editorial.go second page has one from last night

If the link doesn't bring up Alan Rickman just go to the site home page and do a search :-) Newscom you have to follow the instructions to log in as a guest before you can do a search :-) Enjoy

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Rickman to be in Burton's Sweeney Todd

SnapesMistress — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:04:33 GMT

According to an interview Mr. Rickman did on the Canadian television show The Hour, he will be starring alongside Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in Tim Burton's film version of the Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd.

For those unfamiliar with the story-Sweeney Todd is the story of a murderour barber who killed and robbed customers then shares his kills with the woman next door who runs a pie shop.
She in turn uses the corpses for pie-filling (think the British meat pie) and keeps his secret.

Further info at-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweeney_Todd

posted in Alan Rickman - 13 replies

Bottle Shock

SnapesMistress — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:50:31 GMT

'Lights, camera, action ...'
Feature film to be shot in Sonoma
By David Bolling INDEX-TRIBUNE EDITOR

It will be called "Bottle Shock," famed English actor Alan Rickman will star, and it will be shot mostly in Sonoma and Napa, partly around the Plaza.
Rickman is the famed star of countless British stage productions, as well as numerous films, including the original "Die Hard," "Robin Hood," "Love Actually," and most notably of late, the "Harry Potter" series in which he plays the oily Severus Snape.

"Bottle Shock" is the brainchild of Brenda Lhormer who, with her husband, Marc, has been a driving force behind the Sonoma Valley Film Festival. The film chronicles the events leading up to the famous Paris Tasting of 1976, at which California wines bested the exalted French wines in a blind tasting organized by Steven Spurrier, a Paris wine merchant.

The film unfolds through the lives of father and son, Jim and Bo Barrett, who founded Chateau Montelena in the early 1970s and whose chardonnay, made by winemaker Mike Grgich, went on to win the white wine competition in what was eventually coined "The Judgment of Paris." The red wine winner was a 1973 vintage from Stag's Leap.
"Bottle Shock" will be directed by Randall Miller, whose career has been primarily in television, but who directed the film "Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dancing and Charm School," which opened the Sonoma Valley Film Festival in 2006.

Miller and his wife, Jody Savin, reworked the original "Bottle Shock" script and Savin is now one of the film's producers.

Filming will be done primarily at Sonoma wineries, as well as in Glen Ellen and Calistoga. There will be some filming in downtown Sonoma around the Plaza on Aug. 22 and 27 that will close down portions of East Napa Street. Foot traffic will be minimally affected and traffic will be rerouted. Filming will include the Ledson Hotel, the Swiss Hotel and Toscano. Businesses impacted by the shooting schedule will be fairly compensated for any demonstrable losses.

Numerous local extras will be hired to augment the 50-person cast. Some 10 to 20 actors will be hired from Sonoma and San Francisco.
Some 18 crew members are already in Sonoma, renting local lodging, and a production office has been set up on Eighth Street East.

The release date for the film has not been set, but Lhormer said the Sundance Film Festival will be an early venue, along with other key festivals, to build interest in the film and drive distribution deals in 2008.

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

obadiah slope!

mg — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:32:34 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaXL5Vi9MRg

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

i dream of alan

mg — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:27:13 GMT

i was having a marvelously tension filled dream about him. he was my music teacher, and we were studying french horn and trumpet. it was a group class, i did not get him to myself. and for some reason i thought he was not telling people how to empty the horns right. so i took his, did a little swoosh, rotate, and tipped a long stream of spittle out of alan's horn! the rest of the class burst out laughing and i blushed. he looked a bit.... discomfitted. then my phone rang.

i never got to find out what he did to me for making the class laugh at him.....

hee! not so naughty as naughtyness goes.. but i do enjoy tension ever so much....

anyone else have any naughty dreams to share?

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Just saw Snow Cake

SnapesMistress — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:16:09 GMT

quite good-a bit emotional-
and our man is lovely and does a great job-

SHE however, will get an Oscar nod for sure
:)

posted in Alan Rickman - 5 replies

The Search for John Gissing Out on DVD

SnapesMistress — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:49:15 GMT

A reigon free release is available online

http://thefreebird.com/gissing/home

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Perfume DVD release date

Scintilla Divina — Thu, 24 May 2007 23:25:43 GMT

USA: July 24,2007.

Can be pre-ordered at amazon.com !

wooo-hooo!

finally !

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Alan on Youtube

Beatrice — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 23:23:37 GMT

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Nak-ZX08PuI&mode=related&search=

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Perfume!

SnapesMistress — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 05:15:41 GMT

Saw it today-
special engagement in LA.

Our man shows up about half way thru and does a great job.
Wonderful film-very true to the book.

posted in Alan Rickman - 5 replies

Perhaps, my favorite A. R. scene ...

meowfix — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:00:45 GMT

... was in, the worst version of Robin Hood, ever, with oh, the 'Dances with Wolves', guy ... it escapes me right no ...

so, anyway, Alan is the Sherriff of Nottingham, and sexy in that dark, sinister way, he does so convincingly ... he's working to marry and bed Maid Marion, before Robin gets to him ... she is of course, alluding him ... and he's dodging arrows' ...

it's a great scene for the physical comedy, as well as, the striptease, he afffects ... hilarious & predatory ... bravo, Alan! Eileen

posted in Alan Rickman - 8 replies

Closet Land and Rasputin

Chrissy — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 21:07:36 GMT

So these are two of Alan's movies that I have wanted to see, but can't find the DVDs anywhere. None of my local rental places carry them and neither does Netflix. So I've started ebay searches for them and occasionally find them on DVD, but they're R2 - which is not compatible with US dvd players. AH! So frustrated... any tips?

posted in Alan Rickman - 4 replies

Didn't get Alan for Christmas

Beatrice — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 00:22:21 GMT

So Santa didn't bring my first choice, but the second is almost as good. Got a FREE movie pass to the theatre by my house that is showing Perfume soon!! Thanks Big Guy!!

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Snow Cake stills

SnapesMistress — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 22:06:00 GMT

http://outnow.ch/Media/Img/2005/SnowCake/

posted in Alan Rickman - 6 replies

Nobel Son

SnapesMistress — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:08:06 GMT

Alan film to be released early 2007-
Alan plays Eli Michaelson

Barkley Michaelson is in a deep life rut. He's struggling to finish his PhD thesis when his father, the learned Eli Michaelson, wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Barkley and his mother, Sarah, a renowned forensic psychiatrist, now have the ill-fortune of living with a man-eating monster whose philandering ways have gotten less and less discrete. As if Barkley's world is not bad enough, on the eve of his father receiving the Nobel, Barkley is kidnapped and the requested ransom is the $2,000,000 in Nobel prize money. Needless to say, Eli refuses to pay it and so starts a venomous tale of familial dysfunction, lust, betrayal and ultimately revenge. In the words of Michel De Montaigne, the 16th century philosopher: "There is more barbarity in eating a man alive than in eating him dead."

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

The Villa Golitsyn

SnapesMistress — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:11:21 GMT

Per IMDB Alan is attached to play Will-filming has begun

Simon Milson of the British Foreign Office is invited by an old friend from Cambridge to help him sort out a situation in the South of France with their old friend, Will Ludley. Priss, Will's wife, insists that Simon come. Simon has never met Priss and hasn't seen Charlie nor Will in 20 years, and is hesitant to get involved. However, when a top-secret assignment comes up and Simon is asked to investigate Will's involvement in a military operation that went horribly wrong some years back in Djakarta, Simon finds himself on his way to the Villa Golitsyn for a much needed vacation. Along for the ride is Charlie, who initially invited Simon, as well as Helen, a 17-year old runaway schoolgirl, whom Simon feels a fatherly compulsion to help. As the story unfolds, Helen, Charlie, and Simon become entangled in the marital problems befalling Priss and Will. In hopes of drinking himself to death, Will has become a raging alcoholic due to past sins he has committed. Simon, suspecting what these sins might be, hopes to extract a confession regarding Djakarta, but finds himself slowly falling in love with Priss and forgetting his assignment as the chaos swamps him. Priss, with mysterious motives, hopes to manipulate Helen into a relationship with Will, and asks Simon to assist her scheming. As the traumatic events unfold, startling confessions are given, lives are shattered, and life at the Villa Golitsyn is not always just fun in the sun.

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Alan starts press for Perfume

SnapesMistress — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 14:00:25 GMT

Alan appeard on a Candian talk show, "The Hour" last night.
Haven't seen any video of it yet.

Since we know he does not often do press tours for films, this appearance may be a clue that we'll get lots of Alan on TV as the release of Perfume gets closer.

posted in Alan Rickman - 6 replies

Alan birthday charity drive

SnapesMistress — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:01:07 GMT

It's that time again-

rickman-online is starting their yearly birthday fund drive in honor of Alan-
This year's selected charity is Autism Speaks.

Stop by http://www.rickman-online.net/ if you'd like to contribute.

Check out Birthday Bash on the right hand side of the page :)

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Women want Alan in bed-

SnapesMistress — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 15:42:16 GMT

And of note-
Hagrid?!?!?

Lamps Pips Becks To Fantasy Pin-Up Title
Thursday, 9th November 2006, 15:43
Category: Celebrity
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Beckham has been given the boot by babes as well as England boss Steve McClaren after his former Three Lions team-mate Frank Lampard was named top fantasy lover in a saucy poll.

Becks was voted the second most desirable man with only 18 per cent of women lusting after Golden Balls compared to 22 per cent who would like to see Chelsea ace Lamps in the shower room after a match.

Not one of the 1,200 women in the annual survey by Sheila's Comforts of what women want in bed named England goal machine Wayne Rooney as the man they fantasized about.

However Arsenal's smoothie French strike Thierry Henry got the vote from seven per cent of women, making him the seventh most desirable man.

Actors also featured strongly in the Top 10 with old favourite Johnny Depp (12 per cent), new Bond Daniel Craig (11 per cent), and classic brooding hero Clark Gable (10 per cent) making up the top five.

Orlando Bloom also got the girls swooning with nine per cent of the vote, while sophisticated older man Alan Rickman and lothario Jude Law finished off the top 10 with three per cent each.

The only musician to make it into the top ten was Coldplay singer Chris Martin, with five per cent of women imagining he would be great in bed, despite the fact he was a virgin until the age of 22.

Fictional characters that women daydreamed about having sex with included Rhett Butler (22 per cent), Mr Darcy (17 per cent), James Bond (14 per cent) and time travelling Dr Who as played by David Tennant (12 per cent).

Robert Redford's brooding Sundance Kid got 11 per cent of women's vote, and Marc Antony in Cleopatra, played by Richard Burton, came fifth with 9 per cent.

More disturbingly, Hagrid, the giant hairy gardener from the Harry Potter films, played by Robbie Coltrane, and Star Trek's Captain Kirk, played by William Shatner, came in places seven and eight respectably as women's fantasy fictional lovers.

Superman was what four per cent of women wanted in bed, and Jude Law made another appearance with his role as Alfie getting two per cent of the vote, proving women always love a bad boy.

Asked what profession they would most like to fantasize about, 52 per cent of women said a fireman got them all hot and bothered, with 18 per cent plumping for a workman and 12 per cent digging gardeners.

Doctors did well with 10 per cent, and eight per cent said that the idea of getting it on with a stranger was their favourite fantasy.

A huge 88 per cent of women questioned said they were happy to talk about their fantasies. Only two per cent said they never fantasized, and the rest said they did but wouldn't talk about it with anyone else.

Sheila Taylor, founder of Sheila's Comforts, said "I was surprised by a lot of these results. It was quite a summer of football and I think that's why footballers did so well, although I do think David Beckham is rather lovely.

"Rhett Butler was another surprise. I think it's the sheer romance of the story. I've no idea what Hagrid is doing in the top ten. I think it's also to do with his character in Cracker, but one woman said he would be lovely and someone big and powerful.

"This research shows that women are more open about talking about fantasies. They realise that it is something that the majority of us experience and it is not shameful to talk about them.

"Research shows that people who fantasize the most are in happy, loving, trusting relationships. But it is getting started that can put people off. Role playing and fantasies are a part of human nature but it is not about
rubber and bondage, it is about romance and excitement."

Overall Top 10 Fantasy Men:

Frank Lampard (22%)
David Beckham (18%)
Johnny Depp (12%)
Daniel Craig (11 %)
Clark Gable (as Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind) (10%)
Orlando Bloom (9%)
Thierry Henry (7%)
Chris Martin (5%)
Alan Rickman (3%)
Jude Law (3%)

Fictional Top 10 Fantasy Men:

Rhett Butler (18%)
Mr Darcy (17%)
James Bond (14%)
Dr Who (David Tennant) (12%)
The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) (11%)
Marc Antony (Richard Burton, Cleopatra) (9%)
Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane, Harry Potter films) (7%)
Captain Kirk (William Shatner, Star Trek TV series) (6%)
Superman (4%)
Alfie (Jude Law) (2%)

Top Five fantasy occupations:

Fireman (52%)
Workman (18%)
Gardener (12%)
Doctor (10%)
Stranger (8%)

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

King of the Hill

amyv — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 20:53:58 GMT

I was flipping through the channels, and came across an episode of King of the Hill, where Hank and Peggy are working at a Renaissance Faire. I almost turned it off, until I heard The Voice. Talk about surprised. God, that man is even sexy when he's voicing a cartoon character.

posted in Alan Rickman - 3 replies

Alan's look

Beatrice — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 01:28:46 GMT

Hi,
I am new to this tribe and my friend and I are taking an informal poll on Alan's style. We both like him with facial hair like in Die Hard but some of his pictures are great without. I just mailed her more pics and the one we both agree on is his smiling Snape picture.
So what do tribe members like?

posted in Alan Rickman - 20 replies

Rickman & Duncan to Star in Old Times for the Roundabout?

SnapesMistress — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 16:14:34 GMT

Tuesday, August 22, 2006; Posted: 10:47 AM - by BWW News Desk
Variety reports that Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan may star in Harold Pinter's 1970 play Old Times as part of the Roundabout Theatre Company's 2006-2007 season.

However, a revival for the play has not yet been confirmed, and the industry paper explains that "Production has not yet secured an actress to play the third role in Pinter's ambiguous tale about a married couple visited by an old friend. It's said Lena Olin passed, and there's also talk of Duncan changing her mind about which female role she wants to play." If the production goes through, it will join the previously-announced 110 in the Shade and Heartbreak House as part of the season line-up, as well as Off-Broadway productions of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer, Patrick Marber's Howard Katz and Brian Friel's The Home Place at the Laura Pels Theatre. Old Times would play Studio 54.

Rickman and Duncan were last seen onstage together in the Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives. They also appeared as amoral aristocrats in the London and Broadway productions of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, adapted by Christopher Hampton.

Rickman's film credits include the Harry Potter films, Love Actually, Dogma, Sense and Sensibility and Die Hard. He co-adapted the diaries that served as the basis for the controversial My Name is Rachel Corrie, which is set to begin at the Minetta Lane Theatre this October.

Duncan's London theatre credits include Mouth to Mouth and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Film and TV credits include "Rome," Under the Tuscan Sun, AfterLife, Mansfield Park, An Ideal Husband, Prick Up Your Ears, and Manifesto.

Visit www.roundabouttheatre.org for more information on the Roundabout Theatre Company.

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Alan Q&A in London Sept 5th

SnapesMistress — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:42:28 GMT

Alan Rickman flutters into Everyman for 'Snow Cake'
Award-winning actor Alan Rickman and director Marc Evans present a charity preview screening of their latest film 'Snow Cake' followed by a Q&A session on 5 September 2006 to raise funds for St Stephen's in Hampstead.

Nominated for the top prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival, Rickman plays the tight-lipped, spiritually lost Englishman Alex Hughes who forges an unexpected bond with an autistic woman, Linda, following his arrival in small-town Canada. He becomes increasingly involved in Linda's life and forms a relationship with her sassy independent neighbour Maggie (Carrie-Anne Moss). When Alex finally gets back on the road he has exorcised his inner demons, and the town he leaves behind has also been transformed.

"It's those small releases of emotion that happen in real life that you notice in a really well-written script," Rickman says, adding "It's going to be an education to people on one level, but it's hugely entertaining and very funny and touching as well."

The screening will raise funds for St Stephen's situated at the junction of Rosslyn Hill and Pond Street, NW3. Built in 1869, St Stephen's is Grade 1 listed with remarkable interior and is the major London work of notable English architect Samuel Teulon who specialised in the Victorian style of Gothic churches. After many years of neglect, a public fundraising scheme is underway to restore the landmark site and once again bring it back to the community for both public and private events.

'Snow Cake' Charity Preview followed by Alan Rickman Q&A takes place on Tuesday 5 September at 8.45pm
Tickets £20 with proceeds to St Steven's, Hampstead – to book, please visit www.everymancinema.com or call the Box Office on 0870 066 4777.

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Alan's READ Poster now Available

SnapesMistress — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:20:57 GMT

http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog&_pn=product_detail&_op=2131

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

New Alan interview

SnapesMistress — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 14:32:57 GMT

http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1092402006

A man for all seasons
JACKIE MCGLONE

FIGHTING through the crowds spewing out of Sloane Square tube station, I spy Harry Potter's nemesis, Professor Severus Snape, sloping by in the sunshine, chewing on a sandwich. And this, I promise Alan Rickman a few minutes later, will be the only reference to those films and that role over the next hour or so. For, sighs the aquiline-profiled actor, who has graced films such as Dogma, Truly Madly Deeply and Sense and Sensibility, and who is famously lusted after by women of a certain age for his effortless ability to exude languorous sensuality, all anyone ever wants to talk to him about is what it's like being a wizard.

Nonetheless, it must make a change from forever being asked how come he's so good at being bad - Die Hard, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and the BBC's Barchester Chronicles, in which he was the slithery Obadiah Slope, a seductive serpent in a cassock. Or, indeed, whether there's any truth in his co-star Lindsay Duncan's claim that audiences used to leave the theatre after seeing him in Les Liaisons Dangereuses wanting to have sex. "And preferably with Alan Rickman."

"Oh, God, it's years since I played the villain," says Rickman wearily. "I haven't played a baddie for ages."

Clearly, the 'best baddie' persona and the sultry sex symbol image bore him to tears and bear no relation to the man himself, who comes across as seriously intelligent, thoughtful and amusing, with a nice line in sarcasm. The wickedest man in Britain? It's only acting, ladies, so stop sending him all those mildly obscene fan letters. "I am a feminist, so I don't understand how you can have this effect on me..." is typical.

The bad news for all who write to him in a similar vein is that Rickman is a one-woman man. He has had the same girlfriend for more than 40 years - Rima Horton, an economics lecturer at Kingston University. Clever, very chic, she has stood twice as a Labour candidate for parliament and lost, unsurprisingly, in cast-iron Tory seats. She also lost her place on Kensington and Chelsea's council in May's local government elections. "She was part of the national shift, so she's a free woman - a dangerous thought," says Rickman, flashing a smile.

They met when they were students at Chelsea School of Art. He was 19; Horton a year younger. She was his first girlfriend, to whom he has remained steadfastly faithful, although they've never married or had children. He carefully guards the sanctity of his private life and that of his many close friends, among them the actors Ruby Wax, Juliet Stevenson, Geraldine McEwan and Richard Wilson. Interviews with him, therefore, are few and far between.

Today is an exception, though, because he has both a play and a film coming to Edinburgh next month. And he and I have met before, years ago, when he starred in Tango at the End of Winter at the Festival. As he shakes my hand - with a grip so firm it makes my fingers ache - he mentions that meeting, out of sheer good manners, I'm sure.

So here we are, at the stage door of the Royal Court Theatre, where, looking elegantly rumpled in jeans, navy pinstripe jacket and black shirt, Rickman is still chomping on his toasted panini. He offers me half - which I politely refuse, although certain women of my acquaintance would have accepted and preserved the crumbs like a piece of the true cross.

He charms the stage doorkeeper into making me a cup of coffee - he has brought his own - and finds us a large, empty rehearsal room, where we talk about the play, My Name Is Rachel Corrie, and his new film, Snowcake. This is not bad going, given the fact that he later tells me, somewhat mournfully and sounding very Eeyoreish, that every day he looks in the shaving mirror and waves goodbye to yet another major role in theatre or film. "Suddenly, you're 20 years too old for all those roles you planned to do."

He was 60 in February. He has always been guarded about his age, since he was a late-starter - he worked as a graphic artist until he was 25, before going to RADA. In 1991, for example, he told me he thought he was "far too old" for Hamlet. (He went on to play the gloomy prince on the London stage the following year for the legendary Russian director Robert Sturua.) When I asked how old he was then, he refused to tell me, snorting, "It's ridiculous; I don't know why there is this fascination with age. 'Alan Rickman, blah, blah,' in brackets..."

The years may be advancing, but he shouldn't moan. The dark-blond hair may be silvering, but not only does he still get big, meaty roles in movies (he has made three in rapid succession, and in Snowcake he even gets bedded by a vampish young woman), he directs too. His critically acclaimed, pitch-perfect production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie, the story of a young American peace activist who was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in the Gaza Strip, is tipped to be one of the must-see plays on this year's Fringe. He has refused all interview requests about the play, which is superbly designed by Hildegard Bechtler, the wife of Bill Paterson. It has already had a successful run in London, after the original off-Broadway production was dramatically derailed in New York.

Meanwhile, Snowcake, in which he plays opposite Sigourney Weaver (as an autistic woman) and The Matrix's Carrie-Anne Moss (as the aforementioned vamp), brings Hollywood glamour to the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Weaver - an old friend of the actor since they made the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest together - will be jetting in to promote it with him.

All this, plus the release this autumn of a film of Patrick Suskind's bestselling masterpiece Perfume, in which Rickman stars alongside Dustin Hoffman. He has also made a low-budget American indie movie, Nobel Son, a darkly comic tale of a dysfunctional family in which he plays a Nobel prize-winning American physicist. "He's an egomaniac beyond belief. It was terribly enjoyable to play, like going back to panto. All I knew was I needed wonky teeth, so I got my dentist to make me a set. I got on the plane with no character and a set of overlapping teeth."

Currently, though, Rickman is rehearsing the Edinburgh production of My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which he has re-cast with 22-year-old Josephine Taylor, fresh out of drama school. Taylor was chosen in March to understudy the Californian-born actress Megan Dodds, who debuted in the role. (Dodds will play Rachel again when the play transfers to New York in October.) "I've never spoken before about My Name Is Rachel Corrie because it's not about me, and I've always been fiercely protective of Rachel's parents, Cindy and Craig, and of Rachel," says Rickman.

He edited Corrie's writings with Katharine Viner, a journalist on The Guardian, the newspaper that published the 23-year-old's e-mail messages home following her tragic death in March 2003. A middle-class student from Olympia, Washington, Rachel joined the International Solidarity Movement in Gaza. Barely two months later she was run over and killed as she attempted to stop an Israeli army bulldozer destroying a Palestinian home.

On the morning we meet, the headlines are dominated by the crisis in the Middle East, so the issues raised by this passionate, poignant piece of theatre could not be more timely. "This terrible situation simply proves that the play needs to be seen, and to go on being seen," he says quietly, "because it comes from a very human perspective and it's not about taking sides at all."

Does he not find it ironic, then, that the original production, at New York Theater Workshop, was "postponed" by artistic director James Nicola, "because of the edgy situation", citing the fact that the prime minister, Ariel Sharon, had recently slipped into a coma and Hamas had been elected? Surely, ironically, the theatre was taking sides? "I don't think so," replies Rickman, who makes no secret of the fact that he is politically involved, a Labour party supporter.

"The real irony for me was that we had a situation where two independent theatres were in some kind of conflict, which, given the world we are living in, was a great pity. I hope that it's resolved now." Nonetheless, when the play goes back to New York, it will be to another theatre, with new producers.

Rickman was quoted as saying that the cancellation of the production was due to "censorship born out of fear", after Nicola revealed the vehement response of Jewish friends and advisers to the play, some of whom regarded it as "a piece of anti-Israeli agit-prop". "Well, I had to say that about censorship, didn't I?" replies Rickman in measured tones, circumflexing an eyebrow. "We can only guess at the sort of political pressure they were under. I don't feel anything but understanding of their problems. In any case, one of the new producers, Dena Hammerstein, is Jewish herself. Who knows? More rocks may still be thrown in our path, because the subject-matter is a hot potato."

Nicola's decision was condemned by Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Vanessa Redgrave, a longtime supporter of Palestinian rights. Now Rickman only wants the play to be seen by as many people as possible. "There are times when a piece of work attaches itself to you in a very deep way. For this important play to be turned into a personality thing would be inappropriate; that's why it's not about me."

Rickman read Rachel's e-mails in the newspaper. "Two things stick in my mind: one was that the writing didn't feel as if it wanted to be trapped on a page for ever, it wanted to be spoken. The second is, I might not have read that paper, just as I haven't got round to reading one today - I might not have known," he says, trying to imagine the unimaginable.

Immediately, he left his home in west London and went to the Royal Court to suggest to Ian Rickson, the artistic director, that they should do something with it. "Then Rachel's parents arrived in London. They were a bit dazed, not just by what had happened to their daughter, but because this theatre was saying, 'We want to do a play based on her writings.' But they are remarkable people. There was never any bitterness or anger, only reasonableness and a desire for justice - because there has never been an investigation into Rachel's death."

The Corries gave Rickman "everything" - Rachel's school notebooks, jottings, diaries, poems. "We got 182 pages, from the time she was 12 up to the Gaza e-mails. I went to the Corries' home, in Washington, and spent time with them. 'Don't put her on a pedestal,' they said to me. But I was always concerned that this would not be a 90-minute polemic. You come, you make up your own mind," he says. "Of course, when Cindy and Craig saw the play, they were like human waterfalls."

When I saw the production, I veered between wanting to shake Rachel for her naivety and wanting to embrace this "scattered and deviant and loud" young woman for her intelligence, spirit, honesty and courage.

"I'm so glad you felt that, because that's exactly how I hope audiences will feel," responds Rickman. "This isn't a play about Palestine or Israel, it's about being a citizen of the world."

The play ends with a video of a ten-year-old Rachel galvanising her schoolmates with a speech about world hunger. "People say to Craig and Cindy, 'Who wrote that for her?' Unbelievable! But that's not as bad as the person who said at one after-show discussion, 'It's just a pity you couldn't get a better actress for the video at the end.'

"The crucial thing for me about the play is that it corrects the slanders on the internet about Rachel and the way she has been demonised - such as, 'Did you know she was a member of Hamas?' She was just this normal, all-American girl who cared. Do I know her? I go to their home - what Rachel called 'a doll's house, floral world' - and I realise I don't know the half of it. There are all those family photographs on the piano - another life.

"I know Rachel only as I know any character, the way I know Alex Hughes, say, the man I play in Snowcake, who is probably more like me than anyone I've ever played. He's very close to me, because I enjoy playing somebody who is just doing his best - that's me."

If Rickman is Alex, he's also an honourable man with an enormous hinterland of grief and guilt. A kind man - as Carrie-Anne Moss tells him in the low-budget Canadian film, which opened this year's Berlin film festival - who has "a face with interesting baggage". Or, as Alex responds drily, "In my case, haulage."

Rickman asks me not to give away how he ends up caring for the autistic mother - Weaver's character - of a young hitchhiker. But you'll need the Kleenex as the frozen wastes of Alex's heart thaw and Weaver enjoys the orgiastic pleasures of snow. "I love that movie; I hope people get it," he says. "It's funny, full of light and hope. Great friendships were made on it. By the time the money needed to make it was eventually raised, it had stopped snowing in Wawa, in northern Ontario, where it's set, but the locals saved snow for us in their sheds and garages."

With Rickman bespectacled and in an anorak, it's all a far cry from the lace cuffs of the vulpine Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, or indeed the truly madly creepy Professor Severus Snape.

HE may have aristocratic looks, but Alan Rickman was raised on a council estate in Acton, London. Of Irish-Welsh parentage, he is the second of four children. His father, Bernard, a painter and decorator, died of cancer when his son was eight. That silkily sexy, languid tone and delivery are the result of a speech impediment he was born with - the award-winning actor cannot move his jaw properly, which gives him a voice unlike anyone else's.

At 12, he won a scholarship to Latymer Upper, a private school in Hammersmith (the alma mater of Hugh Grant and Mel Smith), where his interest in acting was piqued. He and Rima did am-dram shows together until Rickman finally applied to RADA. One of his first major roles was at the Citizens Theatre, in Glasgow, where he was in Giles Havergal's renowned 1980 production of Brecht's Fears and Miseries of the Third Reich. "Layers of authoritarian corruption are laid bare with merciless economy and real glee," wrote one critic of Rickman's performance. "I can't tell you what it meant to know that the Citizens would give you an audition if you asked - and, if they thought you were pretty enough, a job. I miss it. They changed all our lives," Rickman says, adding that he is planning a return to the stage soon. "It's still under discussion," he says, adding that it will be the first piece of theatre he has done since Private Lives, in the West End in 2001.

In the past year, Rickman has worked and travelled incessantly. Perfume, directed by Tom Tykwer, who made Run Lola Run, was filmed in Barcelona, on a budget of £35 million. "The malodorous world of 18th-century Paris is brilliantly conjured up in the film, which is very beautiful," he says. "I love perfumes. Every morning when my girlfriend and I come down to the courtyard in our block of flats we're assailed by the most delicious scent - jasmine round a doorway. It almost makes me swoon."

There, I think, you have the contradiction that is Rickman: an actor who can do bad-smell-under-the-nose disdain to the manner born and a guy who makes time to sniff the posies. But, ladies, I beg of you, do not bombard him with bouquets of jasmine. Just carry on lusting in the privacy of a darkened auditorium.

• My Name Is Rachel Corrie, Pleasance Grand, August 5-28; previews August 3 and 4 (www.edfringe.com); Snowcake, Dominion, August 15; Cameo, August 17 (www.edfilmfest.org.uk)

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Perfume and Snow Cake release dates

SnapesMistress — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:15:06 GMT

It is reported that Snow Cake is to be released in the UK in September 2006
and
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer on December 1st 2006 in the UK
and December 8th 2006 in the US.
There is so far no release details for Snow Cake in the US

posted in Alan Rickman - 4 replies

MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE to Open on Broadway October 15

SnapesMistress — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 16:33:43 GMT

Dena Hammerstein and Pam Pariseau for James Hammerstein Productions present the American premiere of London's Royal Court Theatre production of MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE, a new play taken from the writings of American activist Rachel Corrie, edited by Katharine Viner and Alan Rickman. The play will open Off Broadway at The Minetta Lane Theatre on Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 7pm for 48 performances only, through Sunday, November 19, 2006. Directed by Alan Rickman, who edited the piece with Katharine Viner, Features Editor with The Guardian newspaper in London, MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE begins previews on Thursday, October 5, 2006. Tickets are now on sale through Ticketmaster.com at 212-307-4100 or at the Minetta Lane Theatre box office at 212 420-8000. Casting to be announced shortly.

MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE was originally produced at London's Royal Court Theatre, where it opened in April 2005 and returned for an encore engagement in October 2005. In Spring 2006, it played for nine weeks at the Playhouse Theatre in London's West End. Compiled from writings left behind in the diaries, letters and e-mails of American activist Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old protester who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza, MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE chronicles the human, social and political evolution in the life and controversial death of a young woman. The play traces the life of Rachel from her early days in Washington State through her experiences as an activist seeking to learn more about the community within Gaza.

The Daily Telegraph said of MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE, "[It's] a powerful and thought-provoking piece of theatre. Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner offer a fully rounded picture of this passionate, idealistic young woman." The Guardian called MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE, "A deeply moving personal testimonial, a stunning account of one woman's passionate response to a particular situation."

MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE received the 2006 London Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Play, Best Director and Best Actress; and was nominated for a Time Out Award (Best Actress), a South Bank Show Award (Best Production) and an Olivier Award (Outstanding Achievement).

MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE is edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner, in collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre's International Department and produced with the kind permission of The Corrie family.

Alan Rickman says, "We were never going to paint Rachel as a golden saint or sentimentalize her, but we also needed to face the fact that she'd been demonized. We wanted to present a balanced portrait. The activist part of her life is absolutely matched by the imaginative part of her life. I've no doubt at all that had she lived there would have been novels and plays pouring out of her."

MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE has a set design by Hildegard Bechtler, lighting design by Johanna Town, sound and video design by Emma Laxton.

Biographies

Alan Rickman (Director/Co-Editor). His film work includes "Dogma," "Love Actually," "Michael Collins," "Sense & Sensibility" and the Harry Potter series. This year also sees the release of "Snow Cake," "Perfume" and "Nobel Son." His work on stage includes The Seagull, The Grass Widow and The Lucky Chance at the Royal Court, seasons at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre and Private Lives and Les Liaisons Dangereuses in London and New York receiving Tony Award nominations for both performances. Alan directed The Winter Guest by Sharman Macdonald at West Yorkshire Playhouse and the Almeida Theatre and the film of "The Winter Guest" which won awards at the Venice Film Festival, Jerusalem Film Festival and was judged Best Film at the Chicago Film Festival.

Katharine Viner (Co-Editor) is an award-winning journalist and is currently Features Editor of The Guardian newspaper, London.

Dena Hammerstein and Pam Pariseau for James Hammerstein Productions (Producer) currently represented by I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change happily celebrating its 10th year Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre. Other off-Broadway productions include Over the River and Through the Woods, Slut and the London, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston companies of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. JHP also brought the original Broadway cast of Dirty Blonde to the West End at the Duke of York's Theatre and are currently Associate Producers on the West End production of Sunday In The Park With George. Projects in development include a newly revised version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Allegro, which received a critically acclaimed production at the Signature Theatre in Washington DC (Helen Hayes Award for Best Musical) in January 2004. Dena is also the founder of Only Make Believe, a not for profit charity she created to bring theatre to children confined to hospitals because of serious illness and disability (http://www.onlymakebelieve.com). Ms. Hammerstein received the 2003 United Hospital Fund's New Leadership Group's Humanitarian Award for her work with Only Make Believe, and has been active volunteer in Child Life Programs in Manhattan for over fifteen years.

London's Royal Court Theatre (Original Producer) is the UK's leading theatre for new writing. Recent productions in New York include; Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis, Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1998 winner of four Tony Awards), David Hare's Via Dolorosa (1998 Drama League, Drama Desk and New York Critics' Circle Award), Conor McPherson's The Weir and Eugene Ionesco's The Chairs (nominated for six Tony Awards, 1998). 2006 is the Royal Court's 50th Anniversary.

For more information about Rachel Corrie, please go to rachelcorriefoundation.org.

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

May 27th images

SnapesMistress — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:17:15 GMT

http://photolinkonline.smugmug.com/gallery/1489460/1/71327350

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Galway Arts Festival.

SnapesMistress — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:14:09 GMT

Alan is to direct My Name is Rachel Corrie at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Galway Arts Festival.
The play will be performed at the Edinburgh Fringe between August 3rd and 28th 2006.

At the Galway Arts Festival, Rachel Corrie will be performed at The Black Box from July 24th to 30th 2006.

http://www.galwayartsfestival.com/

http://www.edfringe.com/shows/detail.php?action=shows&id=MYNAM

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Something the Lord Made

amyv — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 22:16:47 GMT

So, I found this on Netflix last night, and I'm thinking about adding it to my queue. Of course, it's got our guy in it. Has anyone seen this movie, and is it worth watching?

posted in Alan Rickman - 7 replies

Alan Rickman signed items up for auction

SnapesMistress — Mon, 15 May 2006 18:18:08 GMT

Now is your chance to purchase several items autographed by Alan Rickman (Severus Snape). DebRA, an organization that provides nursing and social care for those with Epidermolysis Bullosa (a condition which causes the skin to blister at the slightest touch), is holding an auction with the proceeds going to benefit those with EB. Items up for auction include Rickman's "LoveActually" hat and a photograph of himself, both signed by him. You can place your bid over at eBay right now.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8285279827

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Alan attached for OotP

SnapesMistress — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:11:43 GMT

IMDB is now listing Alan as attached for Order of the Phoenix-
no official confirmation has come from WB yet (as in the case of Gary Oldman) but Alan's offices have said he returns to the studio in April to begining filming.

posted in Alan Rickman - 4 replies

Tribeca Film Festival Images

SnapesMistress — Mon, 08 May 2006 15:20:25 GMT

http://www.harrypotterspage.com/images/photogallery/displayimage.php?album=78&pos=22

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Snow Cake preview!

SnapesMistress — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 01:35:58 GMT

http://fortissimofilms.com/catalogue/title.asp?filmID=264

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Mad Hatter auction

SnapesMistress — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 20:00:14 GMT

Alan has donated one of his hats to the celebrity ebay mad hatters auction in aid of DebRA. The UK charity works on behalf of people with the genetic skin blistering condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). The auction takes place between April 27th and May 21st 2006. Other celebrities taking part are Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor and Bill Nighy.

http://members.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=debra_charity

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

Raise the Roof

SnapesMistress — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 15:22:21 GMT

CLEVEDON'S Curzon Cinema has launched a special sponsor a tile campaign to raise £170,000 towards the restoration of the picture house's roof.

The new 'Raise the Roof' campaign was launched on the Curzon's 94th birthday celebrations on Sunday. The drive is being fronted by one of the Curzon's celebrity patrons, actor Alan Rickman.

It is hoped the campaign will raise the £170,000 needed for roof repairs at the Curzon, which is believed to be the oldest purpose-built continuously operated cinema in the world.

Although Alan Rickman was unable to be at the launch, he is appealing to the local community to support the fund-raiser.

He said: "The Curzon is such a unique community facility. Please help preserve it for future generations."

Curzon vice chairman and director of fund-raising Hilary Neal said: "We are delighted that Alan has agreed to support our first major fund-raising campaign.

"We need the whole community to get behind this appeal and we are confident that such is the love and support for the Curzon from local people, that the campaign will be a huge success.

"The campaign is vital as the roof is in a very poor state and deteriorating rapidly.

"This deterioration has to be arrested to prevent further damage to the building fabric and to enable the internal restoration phases to happen."

There are three main ways that people can make donations to support the campaign.

There are individual tile postcards costing £1 that supporters can purchase from the cinema box office.

If everyone who sees a film at the Curzon over the next year buys one tile, this would raise nearly one third of the fund-raising target.

People can also sponsor a stack of tiles for £5 per stack or in multiples of £5. For those who can afford a regular commitment, roof tile covenants are available which involves a monthly covenant to the Curzon by standing order, from £5 per month upwards.

Information is available from the box office or on www.curzon.org.uk

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

rumored new project-THE VILLA GOLITSYN

SnapesMistress — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:01:08 GMT

Alan is supposedly attached to this new project-
found a synopsis here:

http://www.intandemfilms.com/movies/villa_golitsyn.htm

posted in Alan Rickman - 3 replies

Beckett Centenary Festival

SnapesMistress — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 16:43:19 GMT

http://www.beckettcentenaryfestival.ie/

April 1st - April 30th

An analysis of the ‘Beckett on Film’ series using screenings Krapps Last Tape, Film and Play, arranged by the Irish Film Institute Schools Department.

The Irish Film Institute will present a diverse programme of films relating to the work of Samuel Beckett, and co-ordinate a tour of the line-up to cinemas around the country—as well as provide a Schools’ screening and discussion forum.

Touring Venues:

Triskel Arts Centre, Cork: 021 427 2022
Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo: 071 914 1405
Queens Film Theatre in Belfast: 0044 28 9097 1097
The Eye Cinema in Galway: 091 780 000

Alan appeared in the Anthony Minghella directed, 'Play'.
'Beckett on Film' is a collection of Beckett plays filmed by several directors, starring many of our faves.
It is available from NetFlix.
http://www.beckettonfilm.com/plays/play/synopsis.html

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

My Name is Rachel Corrie re-opens in London

SnapesMistress — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 16:34:33 GMT

My Name is Rachel Corrie opened in London’s West End this week. Alan was there on opening night.

Pic added to album.

posted in Alan Rickman - 0 replies

Snow Cake US premiere

SnapesMistress — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 15:49:10 GMT

Snow Cake will have its Amarican premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The event will take place form April 25th to May 7th. For more information and tickets, visit the Festival's official website.

http://www.tribecafilmfestival.org/

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Rachel's Words performed last night

SnapesMistress — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 15:50:25 GMT

Rachel's Words, a selection of Rachel Corrie's journal entries and e-mails will be performed by a panel of writers, artists and activists, co-hosted by Amy Goodman and James Zogby, at New York's Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive. Also participating via video or read statements will be Maya Angelou, Patti Smith, Eve Ensler, Vanessa Redgrave, Mariam Said, Alice Walker, Howard Zinn and others. Doors open at 8 PM. Admission is a sliding-scale $20. A part of the proceeds will go the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice

http://www.rachelswords.org/

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

New Images!

SnapesMistress — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 01:25:43 GMT

Cambridge Jones Photography has published more from the black and white shadow photo shoot shot earlier this year-
check the album :)

posted in Alan Rickman - 3 replies

Another Hello Poll

SnapesMistress — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 00:19:48 GMT

http://www.hellomagazine.com/vote/mostattractiveman/index.html?presentar=resultado&reciente=false

posted in Alan Rickman - 3 replies

Teaser for Perfume

SnapesMistress — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:57:49 GMT

http://www.parfum-fan.de/

no Alan in the teaser, but it's nice and creepy :)

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Hooked

SnapesMistress — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:31:05 GMT

SHIRLEY!!!!!

Just saw the 2003 Peter Pan-
Jason Issacs plays Capt Hook!

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005042/photogallery-ss-0

and here's our boy as Capt Hook :)

http://www.alan-rickman.nl/aaba221.jpg

posted in Alan Rickman - 18 replies

My Name is Rachel Corrie cancelled for NYC

SnapesMistress — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 15:17:22 GMT

The Nation
Mon Feb 27, 2:46 PM ET

The Nation -- So much for freedom of speech, let alone thought.

The play My Name Is Rachel Corrie, directed in London by actor Alan Rickman and due to open in New York City in March, has been canceled for fear ofcontroversy.

The play adapts the diaries of the 23-year-old woman from Seattle who wasmurdered inRafah in 2003, when she was deliberately run down by anIsraeli Defense Forces bulldozer. Rachel had traveled to the Gaza Strip during the last intifada as an activist for the International Solidarity Movement.

My Name Is Rachel Corrie has enjoyed two sell-out runs in London at the Royal Court Theatre and greatcritical acclaim; it was due to open at the New York Theatre Workshop inthe East Village.

In private conversations with those who staged the play in London, theTheatre Workshop cited the election of Hamas in Palestine, ArielSharon's medical condition and the furor over the Danish cartoons asreasons for refusing to stage the play.

"The decision is incredibly frustrating," said one of the peopleclosely associated with the play. "It underestimates the intelligenceand compassion of the American people."

During a period of such intense reflection about freedom of speech andthe so-called "clash of civilizations," the play's cancellation is auseful reminder of the forces at work in constructing and limitingAmerica's freedom to access the views and experiences even of otherAmericans.

How is the American public supposed to develop a civilizedunderstanding of what their government is bankrolling in Israel andPalestine when plays like this cannot be shown?

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

60th Birthday coming up

SnapesMistress — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 19:18:08 GMT

Alan will be turning 60 on Tuesday February 21st

posted in Alan Rickman - 4 replies

Pix from the Berlin Film Festival

SnapesMistress — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:19:30 GMT

http://www.severusgaleries.free.fr/thumbnails.php?album=9

posted in Alan Rickman - 3 replies

Closetland

Chrissy — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 22:15:49 GMT

Alrighty Alan lovers, has anyone seen this movie? Would you recommend it? Thanks in advance!

posted in Alan Rickman - 26 replies

Snow Cake premeres today

SnapesMistress — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 17:49:21 GMT

The Berlin Film Festival opened today with the world premere of Snow Cake-

56th Berlin International Film Festival opens today. The opening picture is Snow Cake by German-born director Marc Evans. It is a drama starring Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman and depicting the friendship between an autistic woman and a man traumatized after a fatal car accident.

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

Rickman wins at theater awards

SnapesMistress — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 15:19:54 GMT

Link also has new photos

http://www.whatsonstage.com/dl/page.php?page=greenroom&story=E8821138972178

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

anyone see Tristan and Isolde?

SnapesMistress — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:55:07 GMT

It had some pretty moments, but overall was kind of eh.
BUT

Ronan Vibert

doesn't have the voice, but looks enough like our boy that I spent weeks trying to figure out who he was :)

http://rv.hakobe.net/

http://rvgallery.hakobe.net/

posted in Alan Rickman - 7 replies

WOOF!!!!!

screamapillar — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:27:02 GMT

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the new main pic!! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

Goblet of Fire release date

SnapesMistress — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:22:13 GMT

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will be released on DVD March 7th, and comes with deleted scenes, including a scene with Snape and Karkaroff discussing the dark mark.

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

Snow Cake world premere

SnapesMistress — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:17:39 GMT

Snow Cake, the film Alan shot in Canada that also stars Sigorney Weaver will have it's world premere at the Berlin Film Festival.

The festival starts Feb 9th, and winners are to be announced Feb 18.

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

Hello! Year end poll

SnapesMistress — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 03:07:16 GMT

So we helped Alan win nis month, and now all the years winners are being voted on for the top male of the year.

Log on often and vote-right now he is in 2nd behind Orlando Bloom

http://www.hellomagazine.com/vote/grand_finale2005/hombreatractivo.html

posted in Alan Rickman - 33 replies

An Awfully Big Adventure

Chrissy — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 19:09:10 GMT

Just netflixed this and watched it over the weekend. Has anyone else seen it? Curious about your feedback...

posted in Alan Rickman - 1 reply

New Images

SnapesMistress — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 21:19:23 GMT

http://www.rexfeatures.com/cgi-bin/r2show0?k=alan+rickman&fNewest.x=7&fNewest.y=9

posted in Alan Rickman - 3 replies

Alan nominated for Whatsonstage.com Awards for Best Director

SnapesMistress — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 21:11:38 GMT

5th December 2005 - What's on Stage News

Two Donmar Hits & Corrie in South Bank's Running

Another batch of award nominations for the 2005 theatre year – this time for the tenth annual South Bank Show Awards, which honours the UK’s creative talent across a wide range of the arts – was announced today.

In the Theatre category, the Donmar Warehouse is battling against itself with its productions of The Philanthropist and Mary Stuart, now transferred to the West End’s Apollo Theatre, both in the running. The productions have already netted the Evening Standard awards for Best Actor (Simon Russell Beale in The Philanthropist) and Best Actor (Harriet Walter in Mary Stuart) as well as multiple Whatsonstage.com Theatregoers’ Choice Award nominations.

The third production in the South Bank line-up is the Royal Court’s My Name Is Rachel Corrie, which has been nominated for three Whatsonstage.com Awards: Best New Play, Best Solo Performance (Megan Dodds) and Best Director (Alan Rickman).

In the Breakthrough Award field, run in association with The Times newspaper in recognition of rising British talent, actor Ben Silverstone, who co-starred with David Suchet in Man and Boy on tour and at the West End’s Duchess Theatre, is up against nine other contenders, one apiece from the other arts (Film, Dance, Opera, Pop, Visual Arts, TV Drama, Literature, Classical and Comedy).

Winners of the 2006 South Bank Show Awards will be announced at a star-studded ceremony, hosted by South Bank Show presenter Melvyn Bragg, at the Savoy Hotel on Friday 27 January 2006. The ceremony will be aired, as part of the ITV1 arts programme, on Sunday 29 January.

- by Terri Paddock

You can also go here

http://www.whatsonstage.com/dl/page.php?page=awardsreal&yr=2006

and vote for Alan in the online voting :)

posted in Alan Rickman - 2 replies

Evening Standard Theatre Awards

SnapesMistress — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 16:12:32 GMT

Alan attended the Evening Standard Theatre Awards on Monday evening.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/articles/20888272?source=Evening%20Standard

The Royal Court Theatre, where My Name is Rachel Corrie, the play Alan directed earlier this year ran, won as Special Award to celebrate its 50th anniversary for making and changing theatrical history. Billy Elliott won Best Musical and Harriet Walter won best actress for Mary Stuart.

Alan at the event

http://www.rexfeatures.com/thumb/562069bn.jpg

posted in Alan Rickman - 7 replies

LA Times interview with GoF screenwriter

SnapesMistress — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 15:14:07 GMT

*exerpt*

Steve Kloves confirms again he will indeed be back for the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He speaks about the death of a much beloved character in Book Six, and the pivotal role of the character of Severus Snape, and the actor who portrays him, Alan Rickman.

"...Not that he is always surprised by the turns in Rowling's plots: The death of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore at the end of "The Half-Blood Prince" did not surprise him.
"This is a coming-of-age story for Harry," he says. "And at some point he has to make the journey alone. Which he can't if Dumbledore is around to protect him." But he has no idea whether Professor Severus Snape is guilty of murdering the beloved Hogwarts headmaster. He is happy that Snape plays such a large role in the sixth book, mainly because he loves writing for Alan Rickman, who plays the professor.

"It's hard because if you look at the books, Snape really just sort of hovers, as a threat, more than actually does something," Kloves says. "And Alan is just a wonderful actor. He always says the lines exactly as I write them, including the ellipses. I have never met an actor who could act out ellipses, but Alan can."

posted in Alan Rickman - 6 replies

Snape teaching article on MSN

SnapesMistress — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 21:33:04 GMT

*cross posted to Potter Uber Tribe*

*cross posted to Alan Rickman Tribe*

Severus Snape: One teacher’s hero
This ‘Harry Potter’ professor has a smirk and a withering glare for students

COMMENTARY
By Mary Beth Ellis
MSNBC contributor
Updated: 12:42 p.m. ET Nov. 9, 2005
The most terrifying moments in any professor’s semester arrive at the end of it, when we are required to place instructor evaluation sheets before our pupils. Then the administration makes us leave the room while the pupils tear us into little tiny bits, which means we’re not allowed smile encouragingly from behind the Podium of Power, or pace the desks to see what the students are writing, or brandish cupcakes, or for that matter small firearms. I usually go out in the hallway and drink.

I wish I could handle the situation more like Severus Snape might. There would be none of this smiley-smiley “I’ve enjoyed teaching all of you” business for Snape, who would deliver unto all one final glare before retiring to his dungeon for a relaxing evening of poking baby kittens with a stick.

And when the evaluations were compiled, Professor Snape wouldn’t open the horrible manila envelope with the anything approaching the nausea I do (although at Hogwarts, such documents are probably delivered via — I don’t know — a four-headed panda with a rooster tail that explodes on human contact.) Instead, there would be Bach on the stereo, red-pen corrections of all abused grammar in the “turn this paper over to make additional comments” section, and in general a great deal of smirking.

Yes, I must apply mad props to Snape, who is a far snappier dresser than your average professor. I don’t know what Dumbledore was paying Severus, but it was apparently enough to keep him in the latest offerings of the Johnny Cash Collection. I myself often fling open the classroom door looking like a person who just fell out of an episode of “Little House on the Prairie” or a Cyndi Lauper video or both. But Snape, here’s a man who dressed for occult success; you can’t swing an appointment as an instructor in Defence Against Dark Arts when you’re trolling the halls in a teal cardigan and loafers. It’s all black, all the time, which must have made laundry day a simple affair. (“I’m doing another load of darks — anybody want to throw in a cape? No? Turtleneck?”)

Snape of the Super Sized withering glare
Snape does not suffer student excuses lightly. As opposed to me, who last semester nodded in sympathy when a student called to announce that he could not turn in his final paper because, quote, “there was a homicide at my apartment complex and the police aren’t letting anybody in or out.” Snape would not nod. Snape would want the crime scene photos for the yearbook.

My students receive a happy, free-of-charge smile face sticker on exams scoring 95 percent or above, whereas if you scored an A with Snape, you might be rewarded with merely a medium-sized withering glare rather than the usual Super Sized one. I have much to learn from his methods, as I doubt that Snape is often besieged with students screeching at him that of course they should have gotten an A on this essay, as they have gotten As on every single possible evaluation since gaining the ability to breathe independently. Their mothers scored 100 percent in Lamaze classes! Thanks to their own excellence as a fetus! None of this would work on Snape, who majored in Being Sinister and seems to fear the sun and all its evil, melanin-producing properties.

Then again, a Potions Master can manage things likely out of the reach of your average English teacher; for one, it has not yet occurred to me to settle disputes with my department chair via jets of deadly green light. The whole episode — this business of killing off the headmaster — cannot look good on the Professor’s resume. Who’s he going to use for a reference now? Voldemort? And how might one reach a person who cannot be named? Does he also have a daytime phone number that cannot be named?

I imagine Hogwarts had some sort of COBRA arrangement for this type of situation. I have no idea what kind of benefits Snape was pulling down before he likely voided his HMO’s teleportation rider by vanishing midair, but good luck filing a claim, sport.

So Blue Cross and Blue Shield might not want to have much to do with Snape, and I suspect he prefers it that way. Snape is not what you would call a “people person”; he is more of a That Guy At the End Of the Bar who sinks into the same Scotch on the rocks for four hours and won’t smile and won’t dance and won’t play pool or even boo at the refs screwing up the Notre Dame game. The man is a brooder, and more power to him. Teachers who brood rarely receive repeat customers on Parent-Teacher Conference night (“Your Billy is a full-blown moron, I’m afraid, and deserves nothing less than spontaneous combustion … are you crying? Fifty points from Gryffindor!”) I doubt Snape has many visitors during office hours, and that … is totally okay with him. More time to sharpen the kitten-poking sticks.

This is not to say that Snape doesn’t care about his students’ education, in a sarcastic, uncheerful, I-hate-you fashion. He’ll even save a life here and there, as long as you don’t try to hug him or talk to him or walk within a five-mile radius of him afterwards.

But why all the hatin’, Snape? Fan speculation includes the usual psychological analysis: Bad childhood, massive crush on Harry Potter’s mother, massive hatred for Harry Potter’s father, wound up with Brett Favre as his starting quarterback in the Hogwarts office fantasy league.

I say it’s something far more painful and obvious: The poor man has greasy hair. You just can’t live happily like that. Invest in some Pantene Pro-V, Severus. You’ll feel better in the morning, sun or no sun.

posted in Alan Rickman - 5 replies

Alan not at GoF London premere

SnapesMistress — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 17:15:37 GMT

The attendee list has been released of who is expected on the red carpet for the London premere of Goblet of Fire, and Alan is not listed as attending.

Shirely and I are both hoping he is already here in LA filming Nobel Son :)

http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=11555

posted in Alan Rickman - 3 replies