R.I.P. Rutger Hauer

[fabrisse]

Rutger Hauer stierf vandaag. Hij zal gemist worden. Uit om te kijken Ladyhawke. {I admit, I can't write that much Dutch without help from Google translate. I did it because my first thought was dat is waar niet.}

The Guardian's obituary includes Roy Batty's final speech. It mentions his Dutch films with Paul Verhoeven -- I love Soldier of Orange -- but no one mentions Ladyhawke.

If you have a chance to watch Soldier of Orange, with subtitles the voices are important, it's about the German invasion of the Netherlands at the beginning of WWII and one person and his friends coming through the war. It has a great moment where some Dutch military stop them and check to make certain they're not German by asking them to pronounce "Scheveningen." There's also a scene where I thought my brain had turned off from translating the Dutch. It took me a few minutes to realize they'd switched to German.

But still, for me, Ladyhawke is his top role.

Comments

[siderea]

Ah! Yeah, his acting in Ladyhawke was tremendous. It's such a melodramatic role, and he commits to it utterly, with this gloriously medieval aching earnestness. Like the director's note was, "Okay, so, you're so passionately, intensely in love with a woman you can't have, other men around you start spontaneously weeping for you. Annnnnnd action!"

[fabrisse]

Exactly! Lord Byron wishes he wrote something that romantic, and I really don't think anyone other than Rutger Hauer could have played the role that perfectly.