Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014)

[Sonmi451]

What I find most remarkable about Phillip Seymour Hoffman was that as great as he was there are so many films that you forgot he was in, then remember and say, ''man was he great in that". That might at first glance seem like a knock but I think it's a testament to how great he really was, that unlike other 'greats' he never overwhelmed the screen with his performances. He was always in character, never Phillip Seymour Hoffman great actor.

Who would've thought we'd lose PSH before PBH.

I'm going to kick myself when you tell me but who's PBH?

That is so spot on. I am watching him right now in A Late Quartet (not a great film), and you almost forget he's there, in the way that he is so utterly immersed in the character. As an audience member you actually sense that he is genuinely feeling whatever his character is feeling. Of course, this is the mark of any truly gifted actor, but I think PSH may have been able to do it more convincingly than anyone I have seen. I wanted to write that in the present tense, I still can't believe he is gone.

[FrauBlucher]

For me, Hoffman was almost always the stand out in all the films where he was part of an ensemble, and there are many.

[lacritfan]

Cameron Crowe appreciation

[Sonmi451]

I came upon this rather fascinating and prescient conversation PSH had with the philosopher Simon Critchley at the Rubin Museum a little over a year ago. If you haven't seen it, it's highly recommended.

"Pleasure is not happiness. I kill pleasure. I take take too much of it and therefore make it unpleasurable. Like too much coffee and you're miserable. I do that to pleasure often. There's no pleasure that I haven't actually made myself sick on. And so I look at pleasure and kind of get scared."

[flyonthewall2983]

Thanks for sharing that. I got way more of a sense of how he operated as an actor than a lot of things I've read on him lately. It also made me appreciate The Master much, much more.

[Sonmi451]

Yes, The Master is my favorite film of this century, and he really emphasized what I always felt, that its premise of cult/scientology is surface at most. And his explanation of the scene where he and Joaquin Phoenix are rolling around on the ground is both beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.

[dadaistnun]

Jim Healy, former Assistant Curator at the Eastman House, has posted a brief remembrance of Hoffman at the GEH website. I found this passage particularly touching:

The next month, Phil came back to Eastman House to present a documentary he appeared in called The Party’s Over. We talked afterward and he answered audience questions. I don’t remember much else about the evening, but my pal Bruce Bennett was there, and he reminded me that a teenage kid stood up and tried to explain how much Phil’s performances meant to him. He struggled in finding the right words and he finally just asked Phil if he could have a hug. Bruce remembers Phil as being “totally moved and disarmed and surprised by all the emotion clumsily and honestly pouring out of this young guy who clearly didn’t get to express his feelings too often” Phil quickly replied and said “yeah, sure, of course” and the two embraced. Bruce says, “People forget how much personal impact actors can have. I don’t think anyone’s ever asked to hug [Paul Thomas Anderson] because of a camera move he blocked or a line of dialogue he typed.”

[j99]

I'll remember him for four films in particular: The Master, Synecdoche, New York, Capote and Doubt, but he brought a gravitas to everything he appeared in. He'll be badly missed.

[Joe Buck]

I'm still bummed out about this and probably will be for a long while.

Juggling two jobs and a baby I have limited time in front of the TV at the moment but I'm trying to rewatch as many of his works as I can. So far got though "The Master" and "Capote". I have another 21 of his films on DVD standing by ready to go.

I first took note of Phil in Boogie Nights like most everybody else did, though I actually saw "Leap of Faith" in the theater but didn't see it again for so long afterwards that I never realized he was even in it.

As strange as it sounds, the film where I finally stopped and realized Phil's genius was "Along Came Polly". Without Phil this is typical Ben Stiller rom-com tripe. But Phil takes his supporting character and runs with it. It's still one of my favorite performances by him and brings a smile to my face when I think of him announcing he has "sharted" and shooting hoops with such comic futility. I think he reminded me a little too much of myself maybe. At any rate, it was clear that this man could do just about anything on the screen.

So from that point on I went out of my way to see everything the man did, buying random pre-viewed DVDs with his name on them from Hollywood Video's sale table, and in just about every case I was rewarded with a pleasurable and meaningful experience.
"Before The Devil Knows Your Dead", "The Savages", "Owning Mahowny", "Love Liza".... it was awe-inspiring to watch this man work.

I will always cherish the performances he gave us and grieve for those poor children he's left behind. I wish he could have found a way to prevent this horrible ending.

[bearcuborg]

As strange as it sounds, the film where I finally stopped and realized Phil's genius was "Along Came Polly". Without Phil this is typical Ben Stiller rom-com tripe. But Phil takes his supporting character and runs with it. It's still one of my favorite performances by him and brings a smile to my face when I think of him announcing he has "sharted" and shooting hoops with such comic futility. I think he reminded me a little too much of myself maybe. At any rate, it was clear that this man could do just about anything on the screen.

I had the same reaction to that movie. "Let it rain!"

I haven't seen or read the Hunger Games movies, but I read they're going to CGI the rest of his scenes, so I guess we'll see more Hoffman.

Hopefully it's better than that Jabba the Hut job Nancy Merchand got in the Sopranos.

[Roger Ryan]

...Hopefully it's better than that Jabba the Hut job Nancy Merchand got in the Sopranos.

It'll probably be more like a "Bobba Fett" job where Hoffman's likeness will be relegated to the side of the frame just to remind you that his character is supposed to be present.

[domino harvey]

Drake is "Disgusted" that Rolling Stone pulled his cover to honor Hoffman instead

[mfunk9786]

Someone made an absolutely remarkable montage of Hoffman's entire [released; available] film career

[kinjitsu]

John le Carré on Philip Seymour Hoffman