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Death of Christopher Plummer

 A few thoughts on Christopher Plummer (for fans):

*My favorite thing about the movie "Sound of Music" is Christopher Plummer, not just because he is astonishingly handsome. (Marc jokes that he can breathe easy, now that Plummer is no longer in the world.)

*Plummer--trained to do Shakespeare--seems to have some ambivalence toward his movie-musical material, and he channels that ambivalence into his performance. In his first scene, he seems to feel superior to everything around him. (He called the movie "The Sound of Mucus," and sometimes, "S and M.")

*Watch the little details in that first scene. Before speaking, Plummer grabs a book from one child, adjusts the tie of another, and wordlessly corrects the posture of a third. He has half-concealed disgust toward Maria; he can't explicitly say that he finds Maria ridiculous, so he takes out his irritation on the little whistle he is holding. (He really abuses that whistle.) Then--at the climax, when Maria smartly asks about the Captain's own personal "pitch-signal"--you can feel the rage spilling out of Plummer. That slow turn! Great acting.

*Plummer was the oldest actor to win an Oscar, then, later he was the oldest actor to be *nominated* for an Oscar. He still holds both those titles. The list of movies makes me smile: "The Insider," "Knives Out," "Beginners," "All the Money in the World." I know people didn't love "Dragon Tattoo," but I (at least) have some fond memories of that one.

*How lucky we were.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJTRZI2HThU
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