Today is the birthday of Pierce Brosnan, he is 56. Happy Birthday, Mr Brosnan.

The first time I saw Pierce Brosnan was back in 1995. “Goldeneye” had just been released and everybody wanted to know who the new Bond was. Pierce Brosnan was the guest on a UK TV programme “TGI Friday”. The host introduced him, and immediately played a clip from Goldeneye. The scene was set in a sauna, with Bond indulging in some repartee and rough sex-play with Famke Janssen’s scantily-clad Russian assassin, whose speciality was crushing the life out of her victims with her super-strong thighs. The scene was sloppily salacious and frankly very old Bond, too reminiscent of Roger Moore being beaten up by gimmicky women villains. The clip ended, and the TV host implied that Brosnan had seen Famke Janssen’s breasts in the scene. He laughed and said “Well you know how it is, you’re a boy, you look.” This with a slight shrug, he changed the subject.

It was the reply that intrigued me. Honest, respectful to his co-star, dryly funny, but somehow private. He clearly was not going to go into ego-playtime even when offered the opportunity. This actor made me want to see Goldeneye. But in the 10 years since I am not sure I have found out that much more about Pierce Brosnan. He talks about being transplanted, at the age of 10, from rural Ireland to urban London and being an outsider. Like many men who are outsiders, he is emotionally reticent and, for a movie star, shy about himself. All movie stars say they are shy private people, but I think this is mostly bullshit. I think Pierce Brosnan is the real deal.

And since Goldeneye I have been a Brosnan movie-watcher. I am going to use the occasion of Mr Brosnan’s birthday to talk about his movies. Because if he will not talk about himself, his movies do say a lot about him.

A word about this article. It is long. When I started it I had not thought about the body of work that Pierce Brosnan has produced since 1995. However I wanted to really look at his movies and that meant writing about a lot of them (thirteen to be exact). It was not a difficult task, for even at the outset I could see that he was a versatile actor and that his movies span a number of genres. I hope that you find the article good enough to read to the end and that you enjoy my thoughts on an actor who I think is very interesting and very different.

Goldeneye

Goldeneye was a huge success, and for me it was because Brosnan gave Bond back his arrogance, his certainty, his surety. Brosnan was a fit young actor and he took over the movie, every move fast, sure and confident. The arrogance that Connery had was back, along with a dash of cruelty for its own sake. Brosnan also gave Bond a brio, a joyful lust for smashing things up that made Goldeneye such a thrill-ride. Brosnan moved Bond back to being physical and manly.

Bond, a tank and lots of destruction....

There was one other key factor. Brosnan played Bond as ambivalent. The Bond dry humour was now mordant, a far cry from the patrician “I say old boy!” of Roger Moore. It was no longer clear whether the dry humour was funny or just plain cynical. His humour was now as much triumphalism as wit. Brosnan played Bond as slightly bitter but still a loyal assassin with a job to do. Bond was now as implacable as the Terminator, with Brosnan playing him as a man whose superbly-controlled anger will take him past any enemy.

Bond with Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen)

If Connery was the iron-fisted and slick personification of post-war British power and Roger Moore was the British upper-class at war, Brosnan was the spy for the uncertain Nineties. Sworn to duty but too sophisticated to be unaware of the contradictions of his role, he reconciles it all in a manly way, by taking action. Brosnan gives us a glimpse of the inner workings of Bond and after that we could not be complacent, could not relax, because we had to be alert for more surprises from the cynical spy. Goldeneye was a marvellously perceptive and assured performance, especially from a first-time Bond.

Tomorrow Never Dies

Brosnan made Bond his own in Tomorrow Never Dies. Several small things made for a very assured performance. Brosnan made Bond more arrogant, more assured. He did this by making Bond still, a centre of power. He did it by taking away all unnecessary physical action and by making Bond imperturbable in the face of a situation. Once again it was about uncertainty. Roger Moore would raise an eyebrow and make a comment to show he got it, and the comment showed that he had preserved his Brit sang-froid, and was unmoved. Brosnan subtly narrows his eyes to show he’s got it and has a poker-play expression which can change instantly to amusement or outright fury. There was this sense that mayhem could kick off at any second.

Brosnan’s physical presentation of Bond changed. Bond became more deft, balanced, his actions quick and careful. There was a now a kind of master Samurai sense about him, that he could see four moves ahead and was simply anticipating the battle.

And Brosnan shows us how a secret agent loves,…very carefully. His encounter with his lost love Paris Carver (Terri Hatcher) is notable for the tenderness, the soft look, the gentle touch, that are absent from his more casual couplings. And then Brosnan takes Bond to a new place. When Bond comes across Paris’ murdered body, he opens the man up, in a way we have never seen before. It is not just the loss, but the meaninglessness of the death, the finality, the loss of future. This is a small scene but its key to Brosnan’s Bond. Brosnan makes Bond mourn like a real man mourns and it makes the audience feel closer to him.

Paris Carver (Terri Hatcher) and Bond

And of course, this unleashes in Bond the anger necessary to destroy the villain Elliott Carver. Brosnan plays Bond like a man who has an internal switch, which, once activated, he will stop at nothing.

Changing the game….

I believe that the next movie, though a commercial failure, paradoxically showed what a great actor Pierce Brosnan is.

Grey Owl

Moving from mystery to eco-statement, Grey Owl was Richard Attenborough’s bio-pic of the life of an Objibway Indian/Scottish half-breed fur trapper who became one of the first champions of the native environment (in this case the Canadian wilderness) and a huge celebrity in England and Canada. The mystery lay in the fact that Grey Owl was in fact an Englishman who had been adopted into the Ojibway tribe, and is eventually exposed as such.

Brosnan gives us a gruff, mostly humourless man, who is ill at ease in the white world. Once again there is a kind of stillness, a zen in which Brosnan cloaks the character. Brosnan builds a man of utter simplicity, who undertakes each task with total concentration. This is a wise man, who judges the world in his rare utterances. Where Bond had arrogance, Grey Owl has power, and native wisdom. Brosnan does power very well and his Grey Owl is an imposing figure.

Once again it is the small moments in Brosnan’s performance, gem-like scenes where he lets us into the inner character. There is a wonderful moment early on in the film, where Brosnan is acting as a guide for a young woman he does not particularly like (but will eventually fall in love with) and takes her to his adopted Ojibway tribe. The chief starts promoting Grey Owl as a husband, to his evident discomfort. The small tics, the nervous glances that give Brosnan away, are beautifully done.

Archie Grey Owl and Anahereo at their wedding

There is a deliberate rhythm to Brosnan’s Archie Grey Owl. When he is in his place and his power he is fluid, deliberate and spare, with no wasted movement. However, as his secret starts to overwhelm him, his actions begin to stutter, his guilty pauses get longer, sentences that start out calmly explode into anger. Brosnan’s performance grows and grows, and he shows us the immensity of his guilt growing with it. The tension in the man becomes tangible and heart-wrenching as Brosnan increasingly bares the two halves of Grey Owl’s soul. The progression from (supposedly) simple woodsman to troubled eco-celebrity is marked by Brosnan progressively showing the depths of this man’s emotional pain.

This is a masterful performance, Brosnan is the film, because the subtle complexity of his performance outclasses every other aspect of this film.

And back to Bond..

The World is Not Enough
This is a great Bond movie, mythic, manly and with a sense of real danger. This one works so well because it taps into one of Brosnan’s great strengths, the ability to play men who are both powerful and troubled. In The World is Not Enough, Bond is compromised by his failure to save the life of a British industrialist (and friend of M). He is further compromised by M’s use of him, to spy on a woman who may be endangered by Bond’s actions. Once again, Brosnan shows us a man who lives on the edge, showing us the little signs of a man who is getting closer and closer to being a merciless killer, but never overplaying those emotions.

A tougher, more deadly Bond

What is so great about this movie is that Brosnan gets the tone perfectly right. This is a very real menace (stolen Russian nukes to be detonated in a major city) and Brosnan’s Bond has never been harder or more deadly. But this is also Bond, and Brosnan is truly funny here, the jokes and quips are perfectly timed, delivered in that slightly menacing tone. The sight and situation gags are done perfectly and Brosnan is as slick as hell in doing them. Here Brosnan gives us the Bond he had always promised us, the mature, cosmopolitan sensualist, a man in great physical shape, who happens to be a killer.

Masterpieces and changes
For me Brosnan really hit his stride with The World is Not Enough and I think this emboldened him to become even more creative. His next movie was a risky undertaking and turned out to be a masterpiece.

The Thomas Crown Affair
A re-make of the original Thomas Crown Affair by Pierce Brosnan’s own Irish Dreamtime productions, this is a superb movie that knocks the original into a cocked hat. This version plays out an art-heist that is colourful, exciting and fun. Brosnan plays the head of a Mergers and Acquisitions boutique bank, whose rogue alpha male superiority leads him into pulling heists.

One of the problems with the original was that Steve McQueen did not understand who he was playing. In the romantic and action scenes he was fine, in the scenes where he plays Crown as a businessman he was embarrassingly bad. The truth is actors rarely understand how to play businessmen. They play them well when they play them as greedy, as stupid, as unable to relate to other people. They do know how to play them positively, as gamblers, risk-takers, fighters and winners.

Having worked in Mergers and Acquisitions myself, my assessment is that Brosnan’s Thomas Crown is pitch-perfect. Early on there is a wonderful scene, where Brosnan strides confidently across the floor of his boutique bank, left hand in his pocket. He slips from one conversation to the next and as he nears his office he stretches out his right hand and says to the guy sitting at the next-to-last desk “Give me good numbers Jimmy”. Gesture, timing, tone of voice, posture are all perfect, the complete high-risk banker. Brosnan is just as good in all his other scenes. He clearly understands who this man is and he shows us, the audience, all the little facets of character that make this man the successful Alpha male he is.

Thomas Crown and Catherine Banning (Rene Russo)

Brosnan really inhabits this role. He has often been considered the successor to Cary Grant and here he shows the qualities that got him nominated. He is funny, suave, sophisticated and charming. Playing a rich banker gives him the chance to play wealthy and cultured and he does it with silky ease. He is a classic body-shape and the clothes in the movie (bespoke tailored by Campagna of New York) are perfect on him, he has the sensitivity and sensibility to understand the importance of those tailored suits.

And this movie is a feel-good movie, there is no violence, the real world is somewhere outside, along with Mergers and Acquisitions.  Brosnan dominates the movie, yet the scenes are with Rene Russo as his love interest/adversary are balanced, intimate and beautifully paced. Brosnan is a generous co-star as he shares the screen with Russo. And Brosnan plays off Russo, perfectly in character. There is a pivotal moment where the masterful, successful Thomas Crown has to admit to Russo that she is the first woman to visit his secret Caribbean home. By doing so, he loses a skirmish in their battle of wits and admits, by implication, that their relationship is more than just sex. He plays it with just the right amount of confusion and embarrassment.

The Thomas Crown Affair was notable for the passion of its love scenes

And Brosnan plays Crown as a manly man, successful, a solitary risk-taker having the adventure of a lifetime, who is suddenly confused by the appearance of love. This movie was Brosnan acting as a classic Hollywood movie star and he did it to perfection. Audiences loved it.  For me it is a favourite film.

Deliberately messing it up….

The Tailor of Panama
This was the movie that told us that Brosnan was never going to be content to be an action hero. It starts with Andrew Osnard MI6 (Brosnan), being exiled to Panama in disgrace. So I thought it was going to be a kinda Bond spy movie….

Well, everybody gets it wrong sometimes, including me. The Tailor of Panama is a truly black comedy about British and American interference in other countries. And Andrew Osnard is a truly evil man, even by spy standards. Amoral and self-obsessed, he invents a wholly imaginary conspiracy against the Panama Canal, with the intention of rehabilitating himself with his boss and getting back to a plum posting.

Osnard intimidates Harry the Tailor (Geoffrey Rush)

To do this he finds vulnerable and foolish people and uses them without mercy. He intimidates, blackmails and threatens these people in order to make them do his bidding. Brosnan holds nothing back in the role, is truly frightening, completely evil. Osnard watches these people like a cat watching a mouse, takes pleasure in their pain and then you can see him calculating how to inflict more. He is intelligent, articulate and with a quickness and a savagery that scares the life out of his victims. Brosnan finds a cruel, sadistic part of himself and has no compunction about unleashing it onscreen. His face does the work here, the smile becomes a sneer, the twinkle in the eye becomes a glare. There is no concession to his earlier hero persona at all, he takes a hammer to it in this movie and clearly has a great time doing it.

Osnard seducing Harry's wife (Jamie Lee Curtis)

Along with a wonderful cast he makes a movie so blackly funny, you have to laugh or you would cry. An unexpected departure for an actor who clearly had something to say.

Die Another Day
Next came Die Another Day, Bond is betrayed, to the North Koreans. Brosnan gives us a Bond who is not only vengeful but paranoid, slightly world-weary and short of patience. There is a new ruthlessness about Bond and Brosnan plays him as a man who wants satisfaction, whose impatience shows in his abruptness and his short fuse. And it’s time for Bond the hedonist, who meets his like in CIA agent Jinx (Halle Berry). As Bond, Brosnan throws himself into sex with Jinx and their sex scene is passionate, athletic and feels very real. This was Brosnan’s darkest Bond, his thinly veiled anger being acted out the set of his shoulders, the light in his eye and the tone of his voice. In many ways this was Brosnan’s Bond at his most real.

The duel from Die Another Day

When Daniel Craig made Casino Royale, a lot of nonsense was talked about James Bond, by newspaper journalists who had no understanding of Bond or his story. Like many men I have long been a James Bond fan. I loved Casino Royal and thought Daniel Craig was a tough hero. But the real Commander Bond? The archetypal Bond of Fleming’s books?

Brosnan was the better Bond. Sean Connery defined Bond and consequently cannot be beat, but Brosnan comes a close second.

Evelyn
I have to be honest; I did not want to see Evelyn. I had heard that it was sentimental, set in fifties Ireland (a period in English history defined by poverty and parochialism) and about a trial, none of which interested me. But my wife, that gorgeous girl, told me it great and she was surprised, given my appreciation of Brosnan, that I was not interested in it. At the time I was absorbed by Brosnan the action hero, worried that he had descended into soap opera.

I was an idiot. Evelyn is a wonderful movie and I am happy to tell you why.

Evelyn is the true story of Desmond Doyle, an Irish painter and decorator, who, in fifties Ireland, has the misfortune that his wife leaves him. His three young children are taken into care by the Catholic Church, acting at the behest of the Irish government. Desmond loves his children and this working-class man pits himself against the state to reclaim them.

Brosnan is marvellous as Desmond Doyle, he gives a breathtaking performance. His Doyle is a loving father, irresponsible and charming. Brosnan already had that part down pat, the cheeky grin, the quip, the smooth charm. But he goes much deeper into the character, playing Doyle as a frightened, desperate man. Brosnan gives us a man who simply cannot be still, whose courage comes in sudden bursts. He switches emotions so quickly, so that we can see Doyle go from a courageous speech to shrinking with fear, looking around furtively for an escape from the consequences of his own courage. Brosnan hoods his eyes, bites his lip and draws furiously on a cigarette, eloquent in fear and frustration. But when Doyle talks of his love for his children, his voice is calm and clear, full of love and conviction. Brosnan gives Doyle a voice from the heart, a conviction that will move the planet on its axis.

Desmond Doyle singing for tips

But above all of this, it is the painstaking care and respect that Brosnan shows for Desmond Doyle’s life that makes this such a marvellous performance. If Doyle acts like a fool, Brosnan shows that it is lack of knowledge that makes act that way, that he has a quick mind and an honest heart. He never coarsens Desmond Doyle or insinuates he is less of a man for growing up in poverty. Rather his Doyle is very honest about his life, has an innate pride in himself (for all his fear) and knows that his children are his life.

And Brosnan makes Doyle grow through the movie. His speech becomes calmer, his actions more considered and we thrill to his new-found self-esteem and urge him on in his fight to get his children back. Yet even in the final climactic scene when Desmond Doyle fits with everything he has got, the fear is still there. And I had to ask myself how do I know that? Watching that scene again, I realise that Brosnan had kept Doyle’s frightened quick breathing whilst adding in all the other physical changes that showed Doyle’s growth. Though it is almost imperceptible, you can hear Doyle’s fear as he fights for the breath to reclaim his children. The scene and the acting is simply magnificent.

The more I see Evelyn, the more I see what a wonderful movie it is. It is a Frank Capra movie for our time. Full of struggle, but respectful of ordinary people’s lives, it manages to be fun, uplifting and joyous at the same time. Simply wonderful.

After the Sunset
After the Sunset continued the rounding out of Pierce Brsosnan’s movie persona. Set on a Caribbean holiday island, After the Sunset is a lightweight romp that advertises itself as a heist movie but quickly turns into a comedy. The joke is that Brosnan is a master jewel-thief who is smoking hot at heists, but it soon becomes apparent that he is a bit of loss at anything else. So it was a disappointment for us Thomas Crown fans, but the more I see the movie I realise that it has a lot going for it.

The first of these is that Brosnan plays jewel thief Max Burdett without ego. He happily plays sloppy and stupid and lets Salma Hayek’s fiery Lola play off him for laughs. There is a laugh-out loud scene where Brosnan’s Burdett meets the Island’s crime kingpin, Henri Moore (Don Cheadle) who tells Burdett that he has developed a life philosophy based on the songs of the Mammas and Poppas. The scene cuts to Brosnan driving his car, listening to “Go where you wanna go”, nodding his head like an idiot, with that earnest puzzled look on his face. Perfect.

Burdett and Agent Lloyd in trouble.

It also gave Brosnan the opportunity to play out his dry sense of humour to great effect. This works so well in a scene with his nemesis, Agent Lloyd of the FBI (Woody Harrelson);

Lloyd: Just because you’re British you don’t have to hide your feelings.

Burdett: I’m Irish, we tell people how we feel. Now Fuck Off.

Timing and delivery were dry, delivered with relish. Watch it and see.  The battle of wits between Burdett and Agent Lloyd is truly great fun. 

Like Grey Owl, After the Sunset is less than the sum of its parts. But Brosnan gives us a character we can care for. Once again he is the movie.

Matador
Brosnan made Matador after the Eon productions told him that they did not want him for a fifth Bond. If Matador was not Brosnan’s revenge movie for being denied a fifth Bond, I will eat my hat.

Julian Noble is a hit-man with delusions, a “facilitator of fatalities” as he puts it. Sleazy, unwashed, with a vile little moustache and nasty clothes, he has a taste for booze and young girls. Unwholesome does not even begin to cover it. Brosnan revels in the role, deliberately making Noble as offensive as possible. And it is non-stop, just when you think it cannot get any worse, he gets that little bit more provocative, Julian’s tone gets just that bit more self-justificatory and whiny. And Brosnan so obviously loves doing it, he revels in playing a human Gollum.

Julian Noble, sleazy hitman.

Julian is burnt-out and starts to suffer panic attacks at the precise moment when he is meant to be killing someone. One night Julian meets Greg Kinnear’s businessman in a bar in Mexico. Brosnan is hypnotic as he befriends the businessman with all the sleazy charm he can muster. Julian is obviously soul-deep lonely and Brosnan plays this as a switchback of bluster and blubbing. He starts by being macho and loud, switching in a second to being plaintive, weak and whiny, then back to bluster. Brosnan has always had the ability to hold two opposites in a character and here he uses that gift to its fullest extent. If there was an ambiguity in some of his previous roles its ambiguity squared here. And Brosnan inhabits this unflattering role to its fullest extent. Matador is quite simply one of his finest performances.

a maelstrom of buddy-buddy embarassment

Brosnan acts out Julian’s loneliness. There is an outrageous scene where he walks through the lobby of a plush hotel clad only in a tiny pair of speedos and black ankle boots. The clientele are appalled but any reaction is better than no reaction as far as Julian is concerned. Thomas Crown it is not. And the other side of the coin is the Brosnan charm, which he deploys to the full as he tries to wheedle Greg Kinnear into being his only friend.

This is a car-crash movie, you are fascinated and horrified at the same time, you cannot look away. The worst thing is the Brosnan charm. You can actually see yourself becoming buddies with the monster that is Julian, and then shudder at the thought. And it is not the plot, or the action, it is simply this incredible monster that Brosnan has built. A performance built of courage, insight and great acting talent.

Having made the break with conventional expectation…..

Seraphim Falls
Brosnan has talked on the record about how he had failed to get roles because he was considered too handsome, too pretty, how Matador and Julian Noble was his answer to that.

In Seraphim Falls he goes to what is for him an unexplored movie style, the western. The movie opens with a cowboy, heavily bundled in furs, cooking a rabbit in a snowy forest. He looks up and we see a hairy, bearded man and realise its Pierce Brosnan. His face looks as if carries all the sorrows of the world. He stands and looks around at the snowy vastness of the Ruby Mountains of New Mexico. All is peaceful; the only sound is the crackle of the fire. As he starts to kneel to his food, a shot ring out and he falls to the ground.

And it is a pretty shocking opener for a western vengeance movie, a chase though the wilderness of America. Brosnan is being tracked by Carver (Liam Neeson), who is obsessed with killing Gideon (Brosnan). Is Gideon the good guy or the bad guy? Should we want Gideon to live or Carver to catch and kill him?

Gideon and Carver (Liam Neeson)

In a way Seraphim Falls is the measure of Brosnan’s work as an actor. A few years earlier we would have assumed that Brosnan is the hero. But now, after The Tailor of Panama and Matador, we just don’t know. I think that he has always calculated his screen persona to have this effect. I think he revels in finding ways to keep it fresh.

Brosnan plays Gideon as a man burdened by a terrible guilt. Once again, a lot of his interpretation is in the physicality of the character. He walks as though pursued by something he cannot shake off. He is always looking inward and his conversations with others are notable for the degree to which he is detached and simultaneously holding some inner dialogue.

Gideon

And here the rage, the power, is in him from the beginning, a rage to live. Gideon wants to live and flees from Carver. Brosnan plays him as a wild animal of man, a soldier, a killer, a mountain man. Gideon is resolute, almost silent, his face locked in a grimace of anger, guilt and a confused desire to survive. Brosnan gives him the walk of some homicidal soldier, marching along, part killer, part beast. And yet when he speaks, his voice is educated, measured and knowing, a soft growl. The voice does not belong to the body; it belongs to another man, another time. This is one of the deliberate contradictions that keep us watching Gideon.

Brosnan plays Gideon as a dried husk of a man, tough as leather, driven onward only by his own indomitable will. He stares but does not see, he kills competently, without remorse, he moves on. Yet, in the company of a simple farming family he weeps with such anguish that that we share his pain, yet we still do not know why he cries. In any other actor this would become tiresome, but this is what Brosnan does so well. His performance is calculated and magical; he shows us how the strength of a man can battle with his inner pain and still function. We understand that Gideon is tied to Carver in some fatal way, but we do not know how. He invites us to come see the crisis, the battle of the self, and like every hero’s journey, we are drawn to know the answer.

With respect to Liam Neeson’s measured and powerful performance, this is Brosnan’s movie. There are long stretches where there is only Gideon and the landscape. We stay with the movie because Brosnan progressively reveals the growing desperation of Gideon, the increasingly desperate stare, the cracking voice, the confusion in him as he recedes from humanity and cannot really understand what people are saying.

Without Brosnan, Seraphim Falls could be just a western chase movie. He elevates it, by giving us a character study that enthrals us, as his story unravels.

Butterfly on a Wheel (“Shattered” in its DVD release)
…is a mystery within a mystery. Gerard Butler (the 300) is Neil Randall, a corporate high-flyer and Maria Bello is his wife Abby. They have a wonderful life, a designer home and a beautiful baby daughter, Sophie. Suddenly a violent psychopath appears in their life. The psychopath is Tom Ryan (Brosnan) a mystery man who tells them he has kidnapped their child and will kill her if they do not do as he says. He then proceeds to wreck their lives.

Tom Ryan is the absolute concentration of anger, hatred and cruelty. Holding their child is frightening enough but it swiftly becomes clear that Ryan is only just this side of sane, and Neil and Abby’s fear that they might tip him over the edge, increases the tension ten-fold.

Tom Ryan taunts his victims

This is a Brosnan master-class. There is no gradual build-up, just an outpouring of anger, hate and control at a colossal level. From the moment he appears on screen, Pierce Brosnan gives a blistering performance of great intensity. Some off this we have seen before, the quickness of an animal, the inhuman stare, the sadistic enjoyment of another human’s plight. Some of it is new, like the unnerving Irish voice, cold, measured but about to slip over the edge into ranting madness. He makes Ryan mercurial, changing mood on the young couple in a split second. Hell, this is scary stuff; you really do not know what is coming next. If Brosnan was evil in the Tailor of Panama and Matador, he was redeemed by the fact that those movies were black comedies. Here he is pure evil, the personification of death, or is he?

Neil and Abby want to know why this man is persecuting them, and for different reasons so do we. Tom Ryan clearly has a motive, but what could it be to drive a man to these extremes of hate? The clue is in the duality that Brosnan plays so well, Ryan is another character under tension from two extreme and opposite forces, and the revelation of these explosive energies is the climax of the movie.

There’s a powerful intuition about Pierce Brosnan’s acting. “Butterfly” is frenetic, high energy, it unfolds at a very fast pace. Brosnan matches it; he is scary because he is fast, physically and mentally quicker than Neil and Abby, outwitting them at every turn. In so many of his movies Pierce Brosnan understands the tempo, the pace and the timing that will make the movie a success. This is one of them.

Married Life
This movie just passed me by, I don’t know how it was marketed, maybe my attention was elsewhere. But I was intrigued by the concept of the movie and glad I caught up with it.

Married Life is set in 1949, and initially centres on a relationship between two friends, two businessmen, stockbrokers I think, in upstate New York. The milieu is the professional middle-class and the requirement back then was for men to dress well for work. So the early scenes are all beautifully cut suits, fedoras and brightly-polished shoes, in bars of polished brass and glossy cherry wood. Pierce Brosnan is one of the few modern movie stars who understand how to wear clothes well, and in that respect alone he is right for the part.

Brosnan is Richard Langley, a handsome, elegant bachelor who is a very successful ladies man. His best friend is Harry Allen (Chris Cross), who is known to be very happily married to a lovely wife. The movie opens with Harry telling Richard that he is having an affair with a young beautiful blonde, Kay Nesbitt (Rachel McAdams) who he loves. Unfortunately, as their lunch ends, Harry chooses to introduce Kay to Richard, who is instantly attracted to her. In that moment, in a very genteel, imperceptibly quiet way, all their relationships start to go to hell.

Richard Langley, man about town.

This is a subtly drawn, intelligent and wryly funny story of a group of friends, whose secrets are exposed and who have to deal with the resulting chaos. It needs actors who understand how to discipline themselves, play their parts like a jazz ensemble, not over-emote. In a stand-out cast, Brosnan is the best, the living heart of the movie. As Richard he has the task of stealing the love of Kay and betraying his friend Harry. But Brosnan refuses to play the role as a conventional cad. His Richard is considerate, softly-spoken and ever so slightly duplicitous. Brosnan’s ability to portray worldly confident men serves him well here, because he simply inhabits that friendly confident grin, the considered aside lightly delivered. Nothing is too visible, too showy, he acts with the lightest of touches.

It is also a cerebral role, with Richard delivering the 50s style narration that holds the movie together. Once again he has a role with two contradictory pulls, though without the intensity of previous roles. Richard is a man and without making a fuss about it the movie delineates the difference between fifties men and modern new age men. Richard is puzzled by his sudden attack of love but rather than spend time analysing it he goes after what he wants, Kay. Brosnan plays Richard as an essentially good man, who will not stop until he has got what he wants. It is the way that Brosnan plays out the set-backs, the embarrassing moments, the final betrayal that gives this film so much of its enjoyment. Watching Brosnan derail Richard’s smoothness, panicky pauses as he tries to say the right thing, the relaxed slouch as he (internally) frantically backpedals is a delight.

Richard Langley and Kay Nesbitt (Rachel McAdams)

The role of Richard suits Brosnan down to the ground, with its style, thoughtful action and quiet good humour. He tackles it with love, verve and quiet dedication. This is an actor at the very top of his game, who knows how to produce an original screen presence and evoke many emotions in the audience, as he leads his character to the story’s culmination. In the final analysis Married Life is a character study, a quietly intelligent movie that asks some very searching questions about being married. Pierce Brosnan gives us a character that is truly worthy of the movie. This is not Bond, not Desmond Doyle, but it is virtuoso acting.

The story up till now…..

So here I am, with my view of Mr Brosnan’s movies. I have been slightly partial and missed out a couple of movies from the last ten years. I have missed out Mamma Mia. I admire Pierce Brosnan for having a punt at it, much as I admire any man who has a go at anything outside his comfort zone. But as a role I do not think it tells us anything about the actor.

A personal plea…

Like many men, I rate the Thomas Crown affair as one of the greatest movies of all time. Also, like many fans of the movie, I have been waiting a long time for Thomas Crown 2. I do not know about all you other men out there but I want that movie. So please Mr Brosnan, make the movie soon!

Anyone who has stayed with me through this long piece will have guessed that I am a fan. But writing this has made me see Pierce Brosnan’s work more clearly and I think it is truly worthy of appreciation.

He is a movie star but more importantly he is a superb actor. He is a great actor because he understands how to give us a character. He does not burst onto the screen and emote for 2 hours. He builds a character, showing him to us bit by bit, building a person and, in the end, we see that character as he does. If some movie stars are one note, Pierce Brosnan is a symphony.

In all of his films he shows an enormous respect for his roles and for the audience. This would not be enough if he did not fill them with life. But he always gives energy to his characters, a truth that makes them very real. But it is his discipline, his hold on the integrity of his characters that make him a superlative actor. He builds characters for us to see and marvel at and that is the one true and best thing that an actor can do.

Thank you very much for your movies Mr Brosnan, they are much appreciated and greatly enjoyed.

Reference Information

Here are movies discussed in the article, in the order in which they appear:

Goldeneye

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

Tomorrow Never Dies

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

Grey Owl

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

The World is not Enough

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

The Thomas Crown Affair

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

The Tailor of Panama

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

Die Another Day

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

Evelyn

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

After the Sunset

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

Matador

Get it in the UK here and the US here. 

Seraphim Falls

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

Butterfly on a Wheel

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

Married Life

Get it in the UK here and the US here.

It was the birthday of Tinto Brass this week, Italian film-maker and sexual provocateur. Tinto Brass is famous for his soft-core porn movies, from Salon Kitty in 1983 through to Mon Amour in 2005. Though he is now 76, Mr Brass is hard at work on a new film Ziva, about a lonely light-house keeper’s wife. A very happy birthday to Mr Brass, with my best wishes for many more.

I first encountered Tinto Brass when his movie The Key was released in England (1984). The Key was set in wartime Italy in the 1940s and is the story of an older man who has lost his passion for his younger, very sexy wife (the wife is played by the beautiful and sensual Stefania Sandrelli). By chance his lust is re-ignited by seeing his wife dance with their son-law to be and he begins to fantasise about an affair between the younger man and his wife. Invigorated by this idea, he starts to plot an affair on their behalf, with lust and total mischief in mind. Of course nothing works out as planned. All of Tinto Brass’s interests are there, passion and lust and the impossibility of controlling it, voyeurism, the innocent sexuality of beautiful women, a lust for life against the cold embrace of death.

So there was a lot more to a Tinto Brass movie than I had expected. More than just porn, he had something to say, real characters to say it with.

Stefania Sandrelli in The Key

Tinto Brass started out as an avant-garde filmmaker, making surreal, impressionistic movies. Sometime around 1970, he decided he really wanted to make erotic movies. It turned out that he was good at it. In 1975 he made the controversial and sexy Salon Kitty, loosely based on a true story about Nazi sex orgies. It was a huge success in Europe.

Salon Kitty gave Brass the chance to explore one of his favourite themes, passion, lust, life resisting death. The Nazis, being the personification of death, served as the perfect metaphor. For Brass, sex and lust is the energy of life and war, fascism is the death force. For Brass, Salon Kitty is about the insanity of the army of the dead trying to control life. Brass returns to this theme again in later movies like the Black Angel, an obsessive affair between an Italian noblewoman and an amoral SS captain. Brass makes his movies lusty, virile and a celebration of sex and a denial of evil.

But not to make this piece too serious. Tinto Brass is mostly about fun, pleasure and sex. In fact most of his movies are works of mischief and lots of fun. In his movie Cheeky the beautiful Yulia Mayarchuk is the innocent abroad, the irresistible nymph who upsets everyone’s orderly lives.

Yulia Mayarchuk in Cheeky

In All Ladies Do It, Claudia Koll bursts out of being a stuffy housewife to become a temptress and drives her husband to distraction in the process. In his most recent film Mon Amour, a beautiful wife watches as her husband loses his passion for her and her response kicks off a chain of events that are sexy as they are funny.

Anna Jimskaia in Mon Amour

And this is Tinto Brass’s biggest gift. Sex and lust (and he deliberately mixes the two up) are uncontrollable, he says. Many of his protagonists start out from the same place, they think they have sex under control, it’s a minor activity, a decorous arrangement with a partner. Suddenly, a little lust creeps into their lives and Bam! The whole applecart is upset and in the process beautiful sexy women lose their clothes.

Brass’s heroes are the men who know that sex is important, to be celebrated and lust is to be given full rein to. There are the lovers, as Italian and studly as you might expect. Casual, powerful, elegant and hungry, the lovers are Brass’s alter-ego in every movie. There are the husbands, who Brass looks on favourably. They may start out confused and behind the curve but when they discover their manly sexy selves, everything ends well.

But you have got to watch Brass’s movies for the women. Brass adores women. In fact he can hardly bear to wrench the camera away from them. The camera lingers over these beautiful women, clothed, unclothed, talking, walking, making love, throwing crockery. I really enjoy the way Brass films women getting dressed. He knows that women dress to look sexy and he catches every bit of that primping and sexiness on film. It’s a reverse strip-tease that he never tires of showing us. And everything he does in his movies conspires to celebrate women’s beauty.

In a way, it’s not quite porn, or at least not as we know it, Jim. Porn often conspires to rush past women’s bodies. Somehow it becomes flick the camera past the face, breast, bottom, leg, start the action. Porn often races to the vagina because it thinks that is all we want. One of the ironies of porn is that some of its women are truly beautiful but the camera never stops to look at them or ask them their story.

Tinto Brass is the movie poet of women’s bodies. He lingers on their mouths, their lips, lets us see their breasts, bottoms, legs. Critics say that Tinto Brass is obsessed with bottoms and there is no movie of his that does not have a cavalcade of beautiful bottoms. But it is more than that. Colour, composition and lighting are all used to make his actresses’ skin look luminous, their bodies irresistible. Every part of them is revered. In Brass’s movies women are lush, yielding and sexy.

And he does it all for men, so he tells us. He celebrates lust on our behalf. Tinto Brass knows that lots of men like to look. And he is unashamedly a voyeur. So his movies become stories of catch-and-release, women preening in mirrors, lovers peeking round doors, forbidden photographs that turn up at the wrong moment, an errant gust of wind that lifts a skirt to show long legs, seamed stockings and a suspender belt. And no-one does sexy underwear on beautiful girls as well as Tinto Brass. God Bless him.

Serena Grandi, promoshot for Miranda by Tinto Brass

I also like Tinto Brass because he respects men’s fantasies. Often movies (apart from porn) seem unable to just show men and women enjoying each other. Sex in movies is pretty much politically correct these days. Tinto Brass is happy to tell all the stories, the guy who gets lucky with the French maid, the party that turns into an orgy, the student who just cannot resist her mature professor. However what makes these movies so interesting (and enduring) is that they have real characters. For Tinto Brass, sex and eroticism is a way of revealing character. When lust and love enters the life of a Brass character, he or she acts in ways that show us who they really are.

And Tinto Brass is happy, these are fun movies. Mostly, Tinto Brass movies are sexy, sophisticated farces. He is a very smart man and there is always more to had, in the story and the show. The movies are filed with visual tricks, clever references to other movies, an artist’s love of colour and light (Brass is in love with water, it is his most-used metaphor). But the message of the movies is clear, being clever is trivial, sex is all-important.

As usual, Mr Brass sums it up best himself. Here are some pictures of Tinto Brass presenting his philosophy of life.

Tinto and Cast

Director on set

It may be that this man has the best job in the world…….

Happy Birthday Mr Brass.

Further viewing:
Here are my five favourite Tinto Brass movies and one compilation set:

Improper Liaisons

Improper Liaisons is a series of shorts which includes one of my absolute Brass favourites, The Last Subway (La Dernier Metro? Really? I know…..). A beautiful young woman, a young man and a striptease, but not quite what you might expect. Marvellous, life-enhancing and very sexy.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

The Key

Stefania Sandrelli is beautiful and tempted by her son-in-law, Frank Finley is her satyr of a husband. How much trouble can you start by taking polaroids of your sleeping nude wife? Answer. A lot.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

Cheeky

Julia Mayarchuk is the blonde innocent who, between losing her clothes and accidentally construing double-entendres, is pursued by men and women intent on making love to her. My wife likes this one, says it is funny and sexy, and I second that recommendation.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

P.O. Box

As Tinto Brass became more famous, many Italian men mailed their fantasies to him, asking him to turn their stories into film. Being the egalitarian that he is, Tinto Brass did just that. This is Brass at his most voyeuristic but with a kindness about sex that other moviemakers cannot seem to find.

Get it in the UK here and the US here

Mon Amour

Dario is a writer with a commission, a chic flat and a beautiful wife, played by Anna Jimskaia. However Dario has neglected his wife, the passion is gone and Marta (his wife) finally snaps. Mon Amour has a sort of breakneck comic pace, some acid humour and girls gone wild. If Mon Amour has a moral I guess it is that if you have a beautiful wife, you gotta make love to her at every opportunity.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

The Tinto Brass collection

This is a good compilation to start your Tinto Brass collection. The eight movies in the collection are Paprika, Private, Cheeky, Black Angel, The Key, Miranda, All Ladies do it, Frivolous Lola.

Get it in the UK here and the US here

More interesting style news from Bamford. Their appreciation for men’s style extends beyond ecologically aware clothes and custom-made Rolexes (we wrote about them here) to the great marques of luxury automobiles.

Bamford are the exclusive retailers of the limited edition of Gunther Raupp’s “Ferrari 25 Years of Calendar Images”. Gunther Raupp is the photographer of luxury cars, none more so than Ferrari. Raupp first approached Enzo Ferrari with his photography over a quarter of a century ago and Enzo Ferrari was so impressed that he made Raupp the official photographer of the Ferrari calendar. Raupp is also a certified Ferrari aficionado and owns Ferraris.

Bamford are a natural fit with Ferrari and selling this collectors presentation edition of Raupp’s photographs shows how broad and worldly Bamford’s style is. The photographs are of course beautiful and beautifully presented by TeNeues (the publisher) in a luxurious heavy photographic paper with a stitched binding. There are 219 colour plates, along with technical details of each car featured. The foreword is by Piero Ferrari (Enzo’s son) and is of course endorsed by Ferrari. Each of the fifty copies comes with a signed, numbered photoprint, which is stamped with the Ferrari seal. The limited edition is priced at £1,600.00. To complement the launch there is also an exhibition of the original photographs in the Ferrari Gallery (Maranello, Italy) until the 9th of March.

Bamford are selling the collectors edition of “Ferrari 25 Years of Calendar Images” at their flagship store in London’s Sloane Square. The full address is Bamford and Sons, 31 Sloane Square, London, SWI, tel 020 7881 8010. For further information on Bamford their website is here.  With only fifty copies for sale, I suggest you go and view this book, it is a truly stylish presentation of one of the greatest automobile marques in Europe.

Ferrari 25 Years of Calendar images, in presentation box

The annual men’s issue of Surface magazine is now on sale. Surface is an American style and design magazine, based out of Los Angeles. Even by the standards of modern style magazines, Surface is one of the most visually striking and most colourful. So it is an easy and entertaining read.

So, this issue takes an old-school punt at defining what men’s style and menswear will be this year.  So it features colours (lots of greys and cobalt blue), activity (sportwear) and homelife (manly furniture).  Surface manages to fit a lot into eachs issues.  Included in this issue:

• An article about American perfumier Behn Gorham, whose Byredo perfumes use a limited but powerful group of elements to create “minimalist” (I think they mean simple) perfumes.

• An article on Block-cut furniture, heavy solid geometric shapes that suit a masculine sensibility.

• A round-up of men’s sandals.  Good one this, because men’s sandals are frequently overlooked in wardrobe articles.

• A slightly futuristic fashion shoot of modern solid-colour two-button suits from brands like Jil Sander.

For me the highlights are:

• A heavily illustrated article on ten emerging menswear labels, which includes Pudel, the Anglo-Scandinavian casualwear brand, who are producing some very cool stuff for younger men.  Pudel are here and they have an online shop.

• A really good fashion shoot of cotton summer suits, dressed down with t-shirts and knitwear.  Includes some very colourful Gucci summer suits, with some good ideas on how to wear them, accessories etc.

Surface is not widely available in England.  I bought my copy in Magma, at the Covent Garden branch

Enjoy.  

Today is the birthday of Michael Mann the movie director, so here is a piece on him that I have wanted to write for a long time. I hope you enjoy it.

I first heard of Michael Mann when I watched Miami Vice in the Eighties. I was taken by Mann’s heady cocktail of rock music, beautiful exotic locations and violent action. But it was more the ensemble, less Mann’s vision, that was exciting.

Then I saw Manhunter. Manhunter was a great movie, dark, captivating, I could not pull my eyes aeay from the screen. Manhunter was different, no formula cops, no crooks with bizarre plans for robberies that were clearly going to fail. In Manhunter you never have a clue to where the story is going. It was and is, a magnificent achievement. Over the years since it was released it has become a landmark film, critically praised and has a big following amongst movie buffs.

Then in 1995 Heat came out in London. Then, like now, London was in the grip of an ice-storm. I went to see Heat at a midday show the day after it’s UK premiere. I must have been one of 10 people in one of the biggest cinema in London. I sat in the front row. The climactic gun-battle left my ears ringing and the characters were etched on my memory

So I have always been a fan of Michael Mann’s movies. He has a lot to say about men and masculinity. Here is my take on his movies, and be warned, there arew some spoilers in here.

Mann’s men
Michael Mann’s men have a terrible secret. They know how the world works. They see the world as an unashamedly savage place, where peace and security are an illusion. This gives them power and it gives them identity. They know who they are and are certain about their power and place in the world. They show themselves to the world as confident men. Ion a way this is incorrect, because they are beyond confident. At some point in their past (which we are not privileged to see) they became confident and absorbed that into themselves. They are Alpha Males, they operate in their area of competence, they know they are right, they are heroes and leaders and killers.

From the earliest movies we see how this works. In Thief, James Caan’s master safecracker knows the secret is to never give in to the feelings of fear and he has trained himself to live that way. His joy is in his competence as a thief, he is self-admiring. His gratitude is to the older criminal (Okla, played by Willie Nelson) who taught him the secret of life.

We see it again in Manhunter, where William Petersen’s serial killer tracker FBI agent is quietly authoritative and wise.

William Petersen as Will Graham in Manhunter

The other policemen are variously loud, harassed, coarse. Petersen’s Will Graham character is physically smaller, quieter than the others, yet he has a strength and a knowing that makes him more powerful than his colleagues.

In The Last of the Mohicans, Nathaniel is a white man brought up by the Native American Mohican tribe. He is the ultimate Alpha Male, he has the strength and earth-wisdom of the savage and the cerebral understanding of the white man. He exudes power and like many of Mann’s heroes, he enjoys it. He lives for the hunt, be it man or animal.

Dancing with the Devil
Mann’s men cannot be ordinary, they cannot be men who are plucked from obscurity and who show bravery out of their ordinary selves. They are powerful men and so they can only go for the big prize, to define society or to defy it. Harvey Mansfield in his book Manliness talks about manly men and amongst the capabilities he attributes to them are a willingness to stand for justice and a desire to seek danger and risk. Mann’s men risk everything, because that is the only thing that makes them feel alive. It is all about the competition and rarely about the prize. Mann’s movies are epic, stories of giants amongst men, small movies could not contain them.

So Mann’s men are there for combat, danger and victory. Will Graham in Manhunter knows he is the arbiter of justice, the protector of the innocent and puts his life and family at risk to destroy a terrible serial killer. In Collateral, Tom Cruise’s hitman is the centre of the world, as he sees it. He is on a one-man crusade to live his life by his rules and that means killing people. He knows he has the power and has only contempt for those who do not know how the world works. The difference between Will Graham and Cruise’s Vincent is empathy. Will Graham feels for others, Vincent cannot, and cannot understand goodness and the “straight” world

In the Keep, Mann’s Nazi horror movie, he makes dancing with the devil the literal truth. A crack Nazi platoon are sent to a Romanian castle where “partisans” are killing german soldiers. A Jewish scholar is brought to the castle under duress, to decrypt an occult inscription at the secen of the murders. He knows that he will be killed as soon as he succeeds in his task. He discovers that a demon haunts the castle and is killing the soldiers. As the demon grows in power, he offers the scholar a choice, side with him, help him kill the Nazis and make him stronger still. The scholar has to choose between his own death and releasing something truly evil into the world. As he enters into a perilous alliance with the monster, he is truly dancing with the devil.

In Heat, we get to see both sides of the coin. Al Pacino’s lieutenant Vincent Hanna is the prefect Mann protagonist. As head of the LA Robbery-Homicide team he takes on the most dangerous, violent robbery gangs. He lives for his job, for the chase. He has a family but they are almost incidental. What “keeps him sharp” as he tells us is talking down crime gangs, the bigger the better.

In De Niro’s boss robber Neil Macauley, he meets his match. In fact it is not too far from the truth to say that Hanna is thrilled when he realises that Macauley is a worthy adversary. Hanna tracks Macauley relentlessly and almost catches him in an early robbery. Macauley in turn sets Hanna up and outsmarts him. Heat is clever and quick and as a viewer you cannot afford to turn away from the screen for a second, the contest between the two men is captivating. It may be the greatest clash of equals ever seen on the movie screen.

In a reckless moment Hanna decides to up the ante and make himself known to Macauley. They meet in a coffee shop and in some terse dialogue define themselves as Alpha Males and agree what we the audience already know, it will be a duel to the death.

The face-off in Heat

Here is the scene:

Vincent: So you never wanted a regular type life?
Neil: What the fuck is that? Barbeques and ballgames?
Vincent: Yeah.
Neil: Regular type life, like your life?
Vincent: My life? No.. no, my life’s a disaster zone. I got a stepdaughter so fucked up because her real father’s this large-type asshole. I got a wife, we’re passing each other on the down-slope of a marriage — my third — because I spend all my time chasing guys like you around the block. That’s my life.
Neil: A guy told me one time, “Don’t let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner.” Now, if you’re on me and you gotta move when I move, how do you expect to keep a… a marriage?
Vincent: That’s an interesting point. What are you a Monk?
Neil: I have a woman.
Vincent: Yeah, what do you tell her?
Neil: I tell her that I’m a salesman.
Vincent: So, if you spot me comin’ around that corner…You just gonna walk out on that woman?
Neil: That’s the discipline.

Vincent: You know, we are sitting here, you and I, like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we’ve been face to face, if I’m there and I gotta put you away, I won’t like it. But I tell you, if it’s between you and some poor bastard whose wife you’re gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.
Neil: There is a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? Cause no matter what, you will not get in my way. We’ve been face to face, yeah. But I will not hesitate. Not for a second.
Vincent: Maybe that’s the way it’ll be…Or, who knows?
Neil: Or maybe we’ll never see each other again.

But they know they will see each other again.

The climactic bank robbery in heat is one of the greatest shootouts ever filmed. No-one does a shoot-out as well as Michael Mann. In his movies both good and bad guys pack some serious weaponry.

The bank takedown - Heat

Tough lives and good friends
Michael Mann’s heroes are not alone. This is not the maverick cop who lives out of a bottle of scotch. This is mean to be the real world, so each of them has their group. In Miami Vice, Crockett and Tubbs have their battered veteran of a boss, and the sexy but deadly Elizabeth Rodriguez as their latino gunslinger backup. Even Rico Tubbs wife is part of their crew, another cop.

In Manhunter, Will Graham’s profiler/detective is managed by the solid and fearless Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) and he is backed up by the crime teams at the FBI academy at Quantico. In Last of the Mohicans, Nathaniel’s bond is with his adopted Mohican brother Uncas, and his father Chingachgook.

In Heat, once again we get two for one. Al Pacino’s police lieutenant has a tough, fearless group of policemen working for him, while De Niro has his professional thieves, loyal and ruthless.

This is one of the things that makes Michael Mann great, even his secondary characters are very real. He builds a believable world for his heroes and invites us into it. What man would not want to take command of such brave loyal men and set out to victory. Their camaraderie stirs us up, bolsters our confidence and makes us want to go out to battle.

Women and the great escape
For everything there is a price. There comes a point for every man when they can no longer dance with the devil. They get lose something in themselves, they get too old or they lose their appetite for the battle. Mann’s men have never experienced this but they know the day will come and their only hope is to go out on a winning streak.

Women are the hope of Mann’s heroes. Women are drawn to Alpha Males and in these movies the heroes meet or are with some spectacular women. But the lives of these men make their relationships tumultuous and fragile. In Heat, Lieutenant Hanna’s marriage is crumbling due to his obsession with “the real world” of crime and gangs. In Thief, James Cann’s master safecracker desperately wants a wife and a family, so he goes about building one in the only way he knows, with singleminded determination. However he does not know how to keep that family safe from the violent world he lives in. In Last of the Mohicans, Nathaniel falls in love with Cora Munro (Madeline Stowe), a strong woman who understands frontier America. Yet the worlds they come from are light-years apart and the future of their relationship is doubtful. The only true victor in Mann’s films is Will Graham’s FBI profiler Will Graham, who has a loving and brave wife, but he is trapped in the battle with one of the most evil men America has ever spawned, and his marriage and family are directly in the firing line.

Kim Greist as Molly Graham - Manhunter

Heroes
What draws men to Michael Mann’s films is the recognition and admiration of his men. We admire his masculine, courageous men and are drawn to their stories. Every Michael Mann film is a chase, where man have to show every part of themselves, expend every bit of courage and strength to achieve their goals. The movies are tragedies, in the true Shakespearean meaning of the word.

I love that these movies are epic, manly and exciting. They tell stories men want to be in. In Michael Mann’s movies, every man gets their chance but when he does so he finds the world is unremittingly hostile. So he has to beat it.

And the glory of these movies is that he does.

This post was prompted by something I read on a finance blog, http://cityunslicker.blogspot.com/ The writer predicts that a large number of magazines will fold this year, as a result of the US and European credit crunch. Already Conde Nast have closed Mens Vogue and others are under threat.

It made me think about the magazines I read and I thought that this was an opportunity to express my admiration and support for them. These are not all clothes magazines but the common thread that joins them all up is they all contribute something to being a man, and to my personal style. I hope you like the post. Please feel free to comment with recommendations for magazines that you enjoy. I am always on the lookout for new and entertaining magazines to write about.

Here goes;

Fantastic Man
Originated by two Dutch iconoclasts, this is the magazine that should have failed, but is instead the men’s magazine that all others aspire to, or should. Full of meaningful complex articles about real men, Fantastic Man celebrates men of every style and stripe.

Mostly shot in black and white, the underlying theme of the magazine is what makes a man. Influences include the English idea of a gentleman, European worldliness, a sense of culture and a dry editorial humour. All this adds up to a modern take on the philosophy of what a man could be. Their clothes shoots are striking and original, as they shoot real men, mature men, not models and not young men. They are really good on photographing and presenting high-end clothes and you really get to see how the clothes hang. If you buy no other, buy this one. Total style.

Man about Town
MAT is a relatively new magazine and comes out biannually. I was not taken with the first issue but am really impressed with it now (Issue 3 is on the newsstands). It is by far the most informed men’s style magazine, and has the best understanding of classic brands and their history. Its articles are long, informed and really well-written.

Their interviews are rare treats. They avoid the usual tired subjects (footballers, pop stars) in favour of powerful, creative men who have something interesting to say. They are making the media, television and movies their stomping ground and doing it better than anyone else. Their clothes shoots are good, with some original brands included amongst the usual subjects. Issue 3 also has a magnificently erotic nude photoshoot of Helena Christensen, by Solve Sondsbo.

Buck
Buck is new. It focuses on street style and modern European menswear. It is a one-stop shop for articles and pictures about modern designers like Dries Van Noten, Neil Barrett, D-Squared and other brands that you need to be young, slim and cool to wear. Early days (Issue 2 is on the newsstands) but this is a slick, quick and lively magazine. It covers the clothes and styles that other magazines don’t and does that well, with knowledge and passion. Buck is simply and pleasingly presented and is an easy read. A magazine to watch, it will be interesting to see what they grow in to.

Details
From the new to an oldster. I have always liked Details because it is so useful. Unlike some mags, Details photographs men’s clothes clearly and precisely, so you can see what the deal is. They also provide the details you need to browse and buy. One of the things they do really well is that they put together “looks” combinations that work on real men, unlike magazines who let stylists produce combinations that would only work at a fancy-dress party. Details never forgets that it is a style service for men. Each issue is packed with invaluable information.

Paradis
The mission if you chose to accept it, is to take a men’s erotic magazine completely upmarket. Paradis do this by using good writers, clever illustration and a sophisticated French view of lust. They have staked out modern art (on which they cannot be bettered), historic military personalities and pop culture as their subjects, which they do really well. Their erotic photographs are superb, shoots by famous photographers, often featuring models and actresses you never expected to see nude, in very revealing poses. They do clothes well and men’s jewellery and perfume better than the clothes magazines. Erotica for the grown man. And great style.

Paradis has more attitude than Daniel Craig complaining about how difficult it is to be famous. In the case of Paradis, attitude is a good thing.

L’Uomo Vogue
A limited audience for this one because it is written in Italian. However it constitutes a master-class in good clothes and how to dress well. It has an unerring instinct for European men who have style and interviews them accordingly. One of the main reasons for buying it is the bi-annual style guide, which is a complete catalogue of upscale menswear brands.

The Chap “A journal for the modern gentleman”
A bit of an acquired taste, the Chap takes the view that style and elegance are in the man, not the clothes. That manly style is about a structure, discipline and grace that can be learnt. The polar opposite of the chav and the hippy, the Chap is a man who is competent in the world, knows how to succeed at the game of life and is a true individual. The Chap is basically a modern version of the English gentlemen. Think John Steed of the Avengers, with a modern political sensibility.

The Chap makes fun of itself, in a rather self-effacing British way. For all of that, the humour is razor-sharp and witty. And hidden within the magazine are small articles which really make a man think about who he is, how he lives his life. Interesting and different.

Objekt “Living in style”
Because style is not just clothes. Objekt is a magazine of modern living filled with streamlined, minimal house design, both interior and exterior. Objekt is the work of Hans Fonk, a Dutchman obsessed with modern design, who has never met a plain white room that he did not love.

If you want to know how to design your home with style (without paying for interior designers) this is the magazine to buy. Men who aspire to elegance in all areas of their life can buy this magazine and simply steal from it as many ideas as they wish. Beautifully photographed, with houses and interiors from all over the world, this is design porn for the worldly man. Seriously, this is a great mag and will improve the visual style of your home.

Monocle
Because a real man knows what he is talking about. Monocle is the brainchild of Tyler Brule, who created Wallpaper magazine back in the 80’s and which became the style bible for the 90’s.

Monocle says it is “a briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design”. It commissions articles from the best writers in the world on all of those topics. An issue is likely to have an article on modern Salvadorean politics alongside one on the resurgence of craft industries in Europe. The music reviews will have Japanese pop next to Finnish folk-metal. Clothes photoshoots always include a range of brands (Japanese, Scandinavian) that rarely get a showing in English and American magazines. Packed with facts and hugely entertaining, each issue can be profitably read many times.

This is the worldly man’s magazine. It is intelligent, does not talk down to its readers and is dedicated to bringing the best information to them. As print magazines die and web entities take their place, Monocle is the way of the future for the hard-copy magazine. It’s breadth and depth of coverage, it’s smart and cultured design and it’s devotion to its readers means that it is building an unassailable position in the marketplace. Very smart and very stylish.

AnOther Man
And this magazine really is about clothes. AnOther Man has the best menswear photoshoots of any men’s style mag. They get a wider range of clothes, better photographers, a better understanding of what they are displaying. Their interviews with menswear designers are insightful and perceptive. They have a rare ability to show modern and classic designers in combination without making one look staid and the other look wacky. They check all the menswear boxes, interviews with actors, articles on art and movies, but buy this one for the clothes. A great mag and a visual treat which, right now, is at the top of its game.

So, if the credit crunch continues to bite, these are the magazines I will continue to buy. As men of style, which magazines will you continue to support?

There can be no better way to celebrate Burns Night than to go to a Scotch Malt Whisky tasting.

Here are two taking place this coming Sunday 25th January and Monday, 26th January:

The first is held by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society at their clubroom in Greville Street, London.  The tasting takes place at the civilised time of 14.00 till 17.00 on Sunday 25th.  Non-members are welcome.  Tckets are available here

The second is run by those walking encyclopaedias of malt whiskey, the chaps at the Whisky Exchange. We wrote about them here, and are still in awe of their knowledge and enthusiasm. The event takes place at Vinoplis at London Bridge, London and starts at 19.00. You can book tickets on  020 7940 8300  or through the website here

Like many Englishmen of Scottish descent, I will be celebrating Burns Night with a good Scotch malt whisky. Here is a short guide to both Burns Night and 10 malt whiskies that I favour. At the end of the post I have added 5 specialist shops where you can buy good Scotch whisky. If you cannot get to these stores, have no fear, they have excellent web sales services, as detailed below.

Burns Night
Burns Night is a celebration of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, and takes place on the 25th January. Born in 1759 and died in 1796, Burns was the poet of the Scottish countryside and its people and no man did more to create the romantic vision of Scotland that we have today. Rabbie Burns had a hard and difficult life. He was of a hard-working but poor family and hunger and sickness oppressed him all of his life. I can only admire a man who endured all that and still managed to produce poetry, journals and commentaries. He was also a man who really enjoyed bedding the ladies, as you will find out if you read any of his biographies. For those of us who do not know his work well he wrote “Auld Lang Syne” with which we sing in the New Year. We remember him for his poetry and the Scots are rightly proud of him.

Burns Night Suppers
A Burns Night supper is a convivial, yet ceremonial gathering of friends. There are several stages in the evening, as follows:

In Scotland the guests are often piped into the room or hall by a live piper. However at most suppers the guests are piped in to recorded traditional Scotch music.

The host or chairman makes a short speech of welcome and toasts Robert Burns (Scotch whisky, of course).

The party then recite the “Selkirk Grace”, a short grace before dinner, which Burns is reputed to have written. The text is below:

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.

The traditional Haggis is then piped to the table and Burn’s poem”To a Haggis” is recited, to a whisky toast.

Supper should then commence and further entertainment can added as the meal proceeds. Typically this is recitations of Burns poems, playing traditional Scottish songs and of course more toasts, which will of course consume more whisky.

Traditionally, a Burns Supper ends with a rendition of “Auld Lang Syne”

Scotch Malt Whisky
Malt Whisky is one of a man’s great joys. One of the marks of a stylish man is that he knows enough about malt whisky to get by in company. The varieties of taste, the interesting and varied histories and the individual character of each whisky make this a fit subject of interest for a worldly man.

Think about it. Somewhere in Scotland, a real craftsman painstakingly distilled a malt whisky into a cask, loved and cared it for a year and at the end of had produced a whisky that is unique,…and probably beautiful. And you are going to buy it for a few pounds (or dollars). Drinking malt is a fine luxury experience and a cheap one at that. It is easy to start, find one you like and go from there.

Drinking malt whisky
When it comes to drinking malt whisky I am a classicist. I like my malt in a whisky tumbler with just a drop of water. And I mean a drop, just enough to release the aromatics and oils of the malt, to bring out the flavour. I cradle the tumbler of whisky in my hand until it is at body warmth and the whisky is warmed. Perfection.

The only other thing you need is a good glass. Here is my favourite whisky tumbler, from my favourite glassmaker, Dartington.

The glass is here. If you are a romantic man, buy two. Your best girl will be bowled over by the loving symbolism of it, trust me.

Ten Malts and where to buy them
Here are ten malts I like. They are a good range, from the light to the heavy, in no particular order. I have not added the year of distillation because this is a short post, but my usual experience with malts is the older the better. The gentlemen at the stores listed below will advise you on years and “expressions” as particular distillations are called.

Isle of Jura
One of my favourites and a favourite of guests at my house. By the standards of Islay whiskies, of which this is one, Jura is very lightly peated. Still there is enough smoky peat flavour to give Jura a slightly salt-sweet flavour. A good malt for beginners because even the young distillations are quite smooth, with a slightly malty, caramel flavour. It is light and lingers in the mouth without being overpowering.

Blair Athol
A fruity, malt, with a dry aromatic finish with just a hint of the sherry casks it was matured in. Though that may sound a little light, it isn’t and Blair Athol has a strong finish. Blair Athol was the malt of choice of my father, it was his “sociable” malt that he drank with other men. If was drinking in family, he would drink Ardbeg, which is a very different proposition (see Ardbeg below). Blair Athol is beloved by the Japanese, though I do not know why this malt in particular. However it does account for why there is not a lot of this whisky available and its price is a little higher as a result. A “fine” malt whisky, which you could offer as an after-dinner drink to non-whisky drinkers.

Glen Ord
A bit of an acquired taste, Glen Ord is a malty, heathery, minty whisky with a lot of bite. It attacks on the tongue and is a complex strong whisky and very full-bodied. The aftertaste alone lets you know you have a real whisky on your hands. But stick with it and it has some very fine flavours in it. Not a whisky for everyday but for special occasions. For me, there are times when I want to be alone in my own company. Those are the times I drink Glen Ord and I really enjoy it.

Laphroaig
I do not know what it is about Laphroaig but it inspires the most fanatical loyalty. Men swear by it. In an earlier stage of my life I would drink no other malt and was forever singing its virtues. However I am recovered now…as long as I am not offered any.

Soft and fruity mixed in with the salt taste of the sea, Laphroaig charms the tongue and is a sweet and peaty taste. It has a loose, slightly oily texture and has a slight salty, peaty aftertaste. Though that may not sound attractive, combined with its refined and complex flavours it is a wonderful taste. I think it bypasses the thinking brain and goes from taste-buds direct to pleasure centres. Try it and, after a few, you are likely to find it addictive.

Glenmorangie
Glenmorangie is the best-selling malt in the world, so I do not have too much to add. I will say that it’s light, heathery taste makes it a good drinking whisky. I like it as a malt for pubs and bars and a very good one.

Oban
Bring on the big guns. Oban is heavily perfumed, smelling of honey, caramel and malt. It is sweet, big in the mouth and very distinctive. Once you have tried Oban you will remember it. In my experience this is a good whisky to give to men as an after-dinner drink. It looks like a malt whisky should and has a dark brown colour that goes perfectly with its dense, firm taste.

Bowmore
Well, if Laphroaig is addictive, Bowmore is more-ish, in that “just one more…” way. Sweet, malty and soft, smelling slightly of sugar and spirits, it is incredibly easy to drink. It has a full taste in the mouth and a smoky aftertaste. A bottle of Bowmore does not last any time at all in the Van Rijn household, it is one of our all-time favourites. If you are going to give it to friends, make sure you have enough for refills.

Ardbeg
Whisky monster! The perfume of Ardbeg hits you as soon as you pop the cork. A sweet peaty smell that will permeate the air. This is an immensely peaty whisky with a tang of leather, a slight taste of baked bread and an underlying sweetness. The taste of it will fill your mouth up. I am really not sure how to characterize this whisky but somehow it has become a favourite of mine. A favourite in the Van Rijn family and a big drink for those times when you want or need one.

Macallan
Macallan has been called the writer’s malt, so it is appropriate that I mention it here. The English writer Kingsley Amis, used to say that he kept a bottle by his typewriter and took a nip for inspiration at regular intervals. However Mr Amis was a great storyteller, so this may simply be apt invention. For a long time Macallan was also considered the connoisseur’s malt, so it was (purportedly) the drink of the man of style. Writers looking for a short-hand indicator of style would have their character drink Macallan.

Macallan is a strong, rich silky mouthful with great tastes of toffee, sherry, brown sugar. It is full-bodied and lingers in the mouth for a long time. I always think of Macallan as the taste of celebration and feel very honoured when I am served it by friends.

Springbank
Tastes fruity, fresh and dry, with the scent of plants and a fiery whisky taste that is mellower in older vintages. Wonderful light, complex, fresh taste. A reviver, morale booster, glad-to-be-alive drink. For launching ventures, spiting in the eye of your enemy, embarking on passionate love affairs. True style in a glass. Currently my favourite whisky.

A Scotch malt whisky book
David Stirk’s book is a well-illustrated guide to Scotch malt whisky. He explains the process, varieties of whisky and how they differ. He lists all the whiskys. Great for the novice, maybe a little too simple for anyone else. A good first reference and I am indebted to him for his list and guide to the actual distilleries.

Get it in the UK here and the US here   

Where to buy Malt Whisky in London
In recent years, the number of specialist stores selling Scotch malt whisky in London has increased. More power to their elbow, I say. Here are five I like.

 The Whisky Exchange
The Whisky Exchange is in Vinopolis, the wine museum, near London Bridge, in London. I had never been there until recently and was wholly unprepared for what a great experience it was going to be.

The Whisky Exchange must have the largest floor space of any whisky store in London. They have yard upon yard of shelves of malt whisky. There is a “sweet spot” within the store on which it is possible to stand and your entire field of vision is filled with malt whisky!

Here is the photo to prove it.

(click to enlarge the image)

While I was gazing at whisky heaven, I was approached by Matt Swinfen, one of the staff at Whisky Exchange to see if I needed any help. When I said no he said: “Enjoy the wallpaper….” Superb line! Had to quote him.

This is the place to go if you want to explore Scotch malt whisky. The front of house “team” (Matt Swinfen and Duncan Ross) are walking encyclopaedias of malt, being both impressive and very helpful. Their motto is “we try to give the type of service you got thirty years ago”. For my America readers, one of the things they do well is ship malts to overseas clients, a service in which they have lots of experience. For my city readers, this is the perfect antidote to the depressed markets. From your patch, the Whisky Exchange is five minutes from you, across London Bridge. Go see.

The Whisky Exchange does so many things exceptionally well, see their website for the list of services.

Details:

The Whisky Exchange

1 Bank End, London Bridge, London SE1 9BU

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7403 8688   

www.thewhiskyexchange.com

Milroys of Soho
Milroys is a London institution and is where I learnt about malt whisky. I owe these gentlemen a huge debt of gratitude for their knowledge, quiet service and sheer style. Over the years their advice has been vital to me, it was Milroy’s who first advised me to buy Blair Athol for my father, just one of their many pieces of wise counsel. My wife buys gifts for me from them and likes their service and their suggestions a great deal.

(Click image to enlarge)

I love this shop, for me it is part and parcel of having style. Every man should visit Milroy’s once, because to do so gives you an immediate understanding of connoisseurship and English style. If you are visiting England then Milroys is worth a visit, it is part of the true English experience.

Like the Whisky Exchange, Millroys have a lot of experience in shipping to other countries. But what makes Milroys so wonderful is the service. If you are a novice at malt whisky, need advice, then you could not be in safer hands. If you are at all knowledgeable then you probably go to Milroys for the quiet pleasure of doing so.

The manager at Milroys is Phillip Kirk and he is both hospitable and a wizard of whisky. Every “wee dram” that he has given me to sample has proven to be from magnificent whiskies.

Milroys website also sells their malts. It excels partly because of their expert tasting notes. Have a look see.

Details:

Milroys of Soho

3 Greek Street, London, W1D 4NX

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7437 2385   

www.milroys.co.uk

The Vintage House
Another London tradition and one of the finest malt whisky collections in London. Vintage House have an extensive collection of malts bottled by individual bottlers. Independents bottle single casks of years of their choosing. This means that they produce some very individual malts which are rare and have a very individual taste.

(click image to enlarge)

Vintage House have small room where, behind glass, there are hundreds of malt whiskies. It is a browsers delight. The staff at Vintage house provide a knowledgeable, breezily cheerful service and can tell you all you want to know about malt. They have over 1,400 malts in stock, so you are sure to find one you want.

Details:

The Vintage House

42 Old Compto Street, Soho, London W1D 4LR

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7437 2592   

www.sohowhisky.com

Royal Mile Whiskies
Royal Mile are an Edinburgh company, with a shop in London. They won Whisky Retailer of the Year 2003, 2004 and 2006, and have established quite a track record. They offer smart, thoughtful service and whenever I am in the store I see them patiently advising newcomers to malt whisky.

(click image to enlarge)

They stock a wide range of malts and also stock some of the best books about malts. Their tastings are very good, often being cleverly themed. Their most recent tasting was of whiskies from distilleries that have closed, with the opportunity to buy these now rare whiskies.

Details:

Royal Mile Whiskies

3 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7436 4763   

www.royalmilewhiskies.com

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
If you enjoy Scotch malt whisky, then this is the club for you. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is both a group of like-minded enthusiasts and an independent bottler of malt whisky. They bottle and sell single-cask single-malt whiskies from over a 120 distilleries at remarkably competitive prices. They have club-houses in Edinburgh and London (the London clubhouse is pictured) where members can buy a dram of any of the society’s whiskies or indeed buy a bottle. They have restaurant, which sells wine to accompany dinner, as well as malt.

Scotch Malt Whisky Society Bar, London (click to enlarge)

Membership is £100.00 per year, which gets you a presentation case of malts, membership in London and Edinburgh, the right to buy their exclusive whiskies, the socity’s magazine and lots more. This is a great price and to be honest, I think they are giving it away.

Details:

The Scotch Malt Whiskey Society

19 Greville Street, off Bleeding Heart Yard, London EC1N 8SQ

Tel:    +44 (0)20 7831 4447   

www.smws.co.uk

Drinking Whisky
I like drinking whisky late at night. Music on, low, lights likewise. Something sophisticated, melodic and soulful playing quietly. Here are three of my choices:

  Frank Sinatra: The wee small hours of the morning
From the Capitol years, when Frank Sinatra did some of his best work. Sad songs elegantly sung.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

  Antonio Carlos Jobim: Stone Flower
Immaculate romantic Bossa Nova. Slow, yearning, manly and sexy songs from the master at his peak.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

  Michael Brecker: Nearness of you: The Ballad Book
Quietly atmospheric, intense and sensuous jazz. Never loud, always skirting the base rhythm, Micheal Brecker’s masterful sax draws you into his mood.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

Drinking Scotch malt whisky
There is one other thing I know about malt whisky. Women who drink it are sexy. I drink malt with my wife, who has developed a taste for malt under my tutelage. We drink together late at night, in the surroundings I described above, music playing, lights low. We drink after dinner parties, returning from engagements, celebrating the end of a long day.

It is one of the times that we share together and the whisky makes it special. We have our own malt classes. Hers is cut Edinburgh crystal, which sparkles with a golden glow, as the whisky catches the candlelight. It is beautiful, as she is. Mine is a big, chunky heavy modern tumbler, a man’s glass. All very appropriate.

I look at her, long legs, long dark hair, green eyes, that slightly lopsided suggestion of a smile. She sits there, Ferretti frock, killer heels, drinking whisky, looking at me over the top of the glass, with those emerald eyes. She is very beautiful and these are some of the times I truly feel blessed.

Enjoy Burns Night.

John.

Yesterday was Cary Grant’s birthday. He has been gone a few years now (he died in 1986) but we always celebrate it here at What Makes A Man because for us he defines manly style. Last year we wrote about his movies and his personal style. That article is here. This article is a day late, but we treasure his memory.

This year I am going to write about what I learnt from Cary Grant. I have learnt many lessons from Mr Grant and here are ten of them. To help readers who enjoy his sense of style I have also added a guideline on the clothes he wore so well.

No1 Clothes are the raw material of self creation
As an adolescent Cary Grant was poor and badly educated. However he had a passionate desire to make something of his life and realised that he could start to inhabit the world he wanted to be part of by wearing the clothes of the lifestyle he aspired to. In doing that he was right on the money.

Implicit in choosing clothes well is the understanding that you create yourself. I learnt from Mr Grant that I need to know who I was going to create, when I dressed. We all take in lots of information, every second of the day. In one minute a person takes in over 3,000 pieces of information a second, most of it visual. However the brain can only process 800 pieces of information a second. So we all end up absorbing a lot of information that we react to at an instinctual level. When you meet another person they make an assessment of you in the first eight seconds. Before you open your mouth. Studies show that it takes a huge amount of effort to change that first impression. Clothes help you make the impression you want.

From clothes came other things. To live the life I wanted I needed to understand wine, good manners, how to write, amongst a host of other things. I chose clothes carefully and saw the effect my clothes had on people. That gave me the confidence to grow other areas of life.

Clothes will always be important, you can use that.

No 2 The importance is in the details
Cary Grant once said “It takes 500 small details to add up to a favourable impression”. He was famous for knowing his job in intimate detail. Stories abound of him supporting his co-actors. He could do this because he had mastered his own part and had competence to spare. When I dress I think about the event and decide what is appropriate. If I am meeting someone for the first time I research them. I want to get to know them and it is easier to do that if you have some clues. All the details add up to success.

No3 Confidence is sexy
Clothes are not sexy, a confident man in good clothes is sexy. Cary Grant carried himself well, was comfortable in his own skin. Good clothes help. When I had my first Kilgour of Savile Row suit made I was used to wearing Italian suits and the Kigour felt a lot stiffer. However after I wore it the first time it felt like a second skin. Now I always wear it when I want that extra bit of assurance.

However it is not just clothes, a man needs to be able to present himself confidently when meeting people. Cary Grant worked at being able to express himself gracefully but equally importantly he also worked at actively listening. He was gracious and looked for good in people. He genuinely liked people and was interested in their lives.  He also actively managed himself, always presenting himself with confidence.  He knew that people had an expectation of him, he lived up to it.

It took me the longest time to learn to listen rather than talk, but I think I am getting it.

And the clincher is women. All my female friends who are dating say the same thing, a man who is sure of himself is sexy.

No 4 Know your style
What style suits you? Do you look good in classic English suits? Romantic Italian suits? Are you a natural man, look good in chunky cable-stitch sweater and corduroys? Cary Grant worked this out long before style and image consultants existed.

Image consultants use a number of style “types” to determine what clothes suit a man. A “classic” type man looks good in classic English-cut suits. A “romantic” type man looks good in those curved softer shoulder Italian suits. Cary Grant was mostly a classic type, which explains why he looked so good in English-cut suits.

You can have this, find a style and image consultant, get them to assess your body shape, style type and get them to tell you what clothes are good for you. It will be one of the cheapest investments you ever make.  Here is one I recommend, they do very good work.

Otherwise do as Cary Grant did, experiment, shop for clothes carefully, look for what suits you. If you are in doubt, take with you someone whose judgement you trust, until the time comes when you trust your own.

No 5 Stay Fit
No amount of good clothing will disguise the fact if you are overweight. The brutal truth is that you cannot look good with a fat belly. It also tells other people a lot about you, primarily that you do not look after yourself. Are fat men good in bed? No. Do women know this? Yes.

Watch Grant in “It takes a Thief”, his Hitchcock caper movie. He swims onto the beach at Cannes and the camera catches his body in a mid-distance shot. He was fifty at the time and superbly fit. He worked at it, but not obsessively.

Some of the other benefits of staying fit is that you look younger and you have that extra vitality which makes you quicker, sharper and more agreeable to be with.

No 6 You are entitled to aspire, to re-invent yourself
This concept will not come as a surprise for American readers of What Makes A Man. Cary Grant started dirt-poor and ignorant. Rather than accept it, he began a life-long journey of self-improvement. It was not easy, he talked about being neither Archie Leach (the poor Bristolian boy) or Cary Grant and being suspicious of both. However he never gave up and he became the person he wanted. We can all leave our pasts behind, it is not easy and there are times when we slip back, but it can be done, it just takes hard work. Cary Grant is an inspiration to all men.

No 7 Classy is good manners and a pleasant personality
Actually what Cary Grant said was that a man can go a long way with good manners and a pleasant personality. I also find that good manners and a willingness to smile and enjoy another’s company really helps you get along in life.

I was on nodding acquaintance with a very stylish salesman who worked in a menswear store in Bond Street. I cannot mention his name and if you read on you will see why. I was a customer but not in the same league as some of his other customers, who were very wealthy indeed. Whenever I was near the store I would pop in to chat with him. He had a fantastic eye for colour and could put together superb combinations of clothes, in a way that most men cannot. I often complimented him on his style sense. It seems to me that a key part of good manners is to appreciate people for their skills, rather than maintain a “cool” distance.

I went to the store during a sale and he served me. I had already chosen one suit when I realised that the suit he was wearing would suit me perfectly. I told him this and he said “yes, it would”. The suit was not in the sale, in fact it was not even on the racks. I was disappointed; the suit was perfect for me.

I mentioned it again while the first suit was being marked for alterations. He looked at me and said, “wait here and have a cup of coffee”. Twenty minutes later he came back with a suit over his arm. He simply said “I found the suit in your size and it is the only one in the sale”. I of course bought it and it was a great suit, made me look great. I did not seek to take advantage of our cordial relationship but I did benefit from it. Manners always help.

No 8. Strive with all your might for what you want.
Cary Grant met his fifth wife, Barbara Harris, when he was 72. She was 26. When they first met, she was reluctant to spend time with Grant, there was clearly a gulf between them both of age and lifestyle. However Cary Grant courted her ardently. Like so many other achievements in his life he put every effort into wooing her. It took time, but in the end she could not resist him. She fell in love with him, they married, and altogether they had ten years of happiness together. Some people never have ten years of happiness. They did because he strove to win her, against all conventional wisdom.

No 9 Enjoy what you do.
Lots of actors complain about what they do, the public are too invasive, they do not get to make the movies they want, their personal lives suffer from the constant travelling, etc. Cary Grant loved what he did, there are countless tales of him turning up on set on his day off, of volunteering to help co-stars learn their lines, of him building friendships with crew, writers and directors.

You know how it is when you do not love what you do, the long days, the glacial clock that never seems to move. When you love what you do you are although more alive, more connected and happy.

N0 10 Have a lively curiousity
Cary Grant enjoyed life. For the whole of his life he learnt. He kept clippings files of information about subjects he wanted to learn about. He cultivated new acquaintances outside of his field, who served as his experts on all sorts of subjects. Like many men,in later life, he wanted answers to the big questions, why are we here? Where do we go? He explored psychotherapy, mind-expanding drugs and Taoism. Curiousity about the world keeps you alive, gives you new worlds to explore when the ones you know are stale and unrewarding.

Thank you, Mr Grant

For me Cary Gant was the very model of a man. Masculine, stylish, intelligent, personable and kind. He gave us a way of being that many of us emulate, consciously or unconsciously. I say he is best remembered not as an actor but as a real man, who did much good in the world. So this year, as every year, thank you for everything Mr Grant.

Cary Grant style
Below are some brief notes on the clothing brands that Cary Gant used to wear. Each note has a link to that companies’ website. It is a further tribute to Grant that, with his timeless sense of style, most of the companies he bought from are still trading today.

Kilgour
One of Savile Row’s best tailors, Kilgour make a classic English suit, padded shoulders, moderately drawn in waist. However there is a slight Italianate curve in a Kilgour suit, making their cut fractionally softer than most other Savile Row tailors. Once you have had one of their bespoke suits make for you, you will not want anything else.

Turnbull and Asser
Jermyn Street shirtmaker whose ready-to-wear and made-to-measure shirts are amongst the best in the world. Their cottons are of excellent quality and the finishing (stitching) of their shirts is beautiful.

Anderson and Sheppard
One of the oldest Savile Row tailors with a timeless classic style. The Anderson and Sheppard suit has a wider shoulder, a soft drape to the cut and a long narrow and very flattering silhouette.

Hawes and Curtis
These English shirtmakers have changed a lot since Grant’s day and now specialise in serviceable ready-to-wear shirts.

N. Peal
Sell the finest cashmere in England. They operate on a level above other knitwear makers with inventive designs and colours, all exclusively designed for them in sumptuous top-quality cashmere.

Cordings
The English gentlemen’s country outfitter par excellence. Masters of corduroy, tweed and canvas, their clothes are classic, stylish and hardwearing. Like many other men of good taste, Gary Grant bought their distinctive raincoats.

Brooks Brothers
The American classic. Brooks Brothers have a magnificent range of off-the-peg classic suits. Their suit cut is slightly more narrow in the shoulders than an English suit and complements the taller man (Cary Grant was 6ft 2in.). Unbeatable value and deep-in-the-bone style.

Aquascutum
Masters of the slim, rakish English-cut suit. Just now returning to the glorious style of their hey-day, when Cary Grant was a customer, under the inspired leadership of Kim Winser. Their ready-to-wear suits are imaginative and modern and they have a very classy Bespoke service.  Understated British style.

Ok, so it is freezing (officially) here in England, the economy is in the doldrums and everyone is concerned with how their year is going to work out. Apprehensive and watchful would be the best description.

So here is one of What Makes A Man’s solutions. Bossa Nova. I cannot get to South America right now but I sure can evoke Rio with some classic Bossa Nova.

Bossa Nova from Brazil, just saying it evokes so many feelings and images for me.

As a musical form it evolved out of Samba, the dance music of African-Brazilians. Bossa Nova kept the warm rhythms of Samba but took out the heavy percussion that characterised traditional Samba and gave guitar and vocals the leading roles.

The original Bossa Nova sound was centred around the classical guitar and in most Bossa Nova, the guitar always plays the rhythm, the foundation of the tune. Bossa Nova kept the Samba’s sexy beat 3-2 beat but lightened it and by adding piano, created a more sophisticated musical form that was custom-built for cool, elegant vocals. In one sense Bossa Nova stripped out much of the Samba rhythm, then overlaid what was left with a smooth instrumental sound that could carry a more sophisticated song. The Bossa Nova sound was (and is) lush, romantic, sexy and cool.

The Bossa Nova Movement

The Bossa Nova “movement” was born in 1958 and only lasted six years, but the musical form has expanded, mutated and grown since that time. The “new” Bossa Nova of recent years has elements of pop and dance in it, which I really like. It can do this because the rhythmic foundation lends itself to integration with other popular music forms.  Really, Bossa Nova is cool, in the same way that Jazz is cool. It is a complex musical form with fluid, interwoven instrumentals. It gives the artist room to interpret the song in original ways. Part of its longetivity is that it always sounds fresh. EuroTechno and Chill-out sounds have drawn heavily on Bossa Nova, often layering their orchestration straight onto a Bossa Nova beat.

I like Bossa Nova. I like that it is happy music (for the most part). I like the romantic sound of the strings and the funky enveloping sound. I can dance to it. For me Bossa Nova evokes Latin America, sunlight, dancing and sexy women.

I like the fact that the men who sing it sound like they have lived some. Like me, they have some miles on them and, when they sing of lost love, I believe them. Their voices are knowing, romantic and masculine, cosmopolitan and worldly.

For Brazilians to have “Bossa” when doing something, is to do it with masculine grace and style. And as a man, we can ask for no more. Bossa Nova suits the man of style and this is why you are reading this, no?

Music and Style

For a man of style Bossa Nova is useful. Here are some ways in which you can use it:

Summer Parties
You know that moment, it is early evening, the party is just getting going. People are drinking, the garden/patio/clubhouse is filling up, but no-one is quite ready to dance. Now is the time for Bossa Nova, it gets everyone in the mood.

Single Seductions
Rock is too noisy, Jazz too damn complicated, Soul too meaningful. You want music while you kiss your favourite girl, champagne in hand. Bossa Nova is romantic, girls love it, it puts them in the mood, makes them feel that the two of you could live out a romantic fantasy…..

Dancing
Bossa nova has such a reliable rhythm, anyone can dance to it. Once you catch the beat you are ok and any man can look half-way decent, dancing to Bossa Nova.

Chill-out
Summer evening, sun going down, drink in hand? Bossa Nova, especially the classics.

 Background Music
I am listening to Antonio Carlos Jobim while I write this. I love this job.

So here are 12 of my favourite Bossa Nova albums, from the classics through to an album released last year. This is a snapshot of the music that is complementing my life at the moment. It is not a definitive Bossa Nova listing (way too long for a post), it does not even include all of my favourite artists. It is just those albums that lift my ears and my heart right now.

Antonio Carlos Jobim: Stone Flower
Antonio “Tom” Jobim was one of the originators of Bossa Nova and by all accounts a man who lived for music, though he had big appetites for both drink and women. Anything by Antonio Jobim is good but Stone Flower is magnificent. Made in 1970, his voice and style had matured, but he was still a young man, at the peak of his powers. Standouts on this album are his version of “Brazil” where the deep, melodic vocals simply outclass anyone else who has sung this song. However the best thing on the album is the title track. Clever guitar harmonies and a colourful string arrangement meet a hard bass line and becomes a moving and complex love song.

 Get it in England here and in the US here

Sabrina Malheiros: New Morning

This is “New” Bossa, stripped down and re-sung for the modern era.  The sound is a little less lush, the percussion is sharper, but the guitar still leads and the piano still lends a romantic tone.  This album has pin-sharp production and Sabrina’s jazz-inflected vocals sing out in total control over the orchestration.  This album has a host of pop and rock influences and the songs will bring a smile to your face and a sway to your hips.  This is hi-energy Bossa and so good.  There is also a Bossa Nova cover of Carole King’s “Its too late” and it is very fine. 

 Get it in England here and in the US here        

Caetano Veloso:  The definitive collection

In the seventies Caetano Veloso took the core of Bossa Nova and really worked it, changing the form to see what it would do.  Along the way that has meant marrying Bossa rhythms to rock and pop, to peeling Bossa back to it’s Samba origins and several other adventures.  He is often less the romantic Bossa singer than the funky Samba singer.  However you can still hear Bossa there, because first and last Veloso’s instrument has always been the classical acoustic guitar.  And you know, some of these songs are pure Bossa, love songs, brass sections, strings, girl choruses and a true lightness of heart.  These are songs to make your day feel good. 

  Get it in England here 

The “Definitive Collection” album is not available in the US.  For our US readers can I suggest “The best of Caetano Veloso” here 

Charlie Byrd/Stan Getz: Jazz Samba
Charlie Byrd, like other Jazz guitarists, saw the affinities between Jazz and Bossa Nova. He and Stan Getz recorded Jazz Samba in 1962 and it became the definitive Bossa Nova album for the United States and Europe. Byrd and Getz treated Bossa Nova with the respect it deserved and result is tight, lyrical and captivating. It still sounds fresh today with its cultured interpretations of Desafinado and One-Note Samba.

 Get it in England here and in the US here    

Luciana De Souza: Duos, New Bossa Nova
This woman has the richest deepest sexiest voice. She is the daughter of Walter Santos, himself a Bossa Nova composer, has a classically trained voice and leans to the jazz side of Bossa Nova. On Duos she covers songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Caetano Veloso, so it is a classic voice singing classic songs. Her voice is by turns passionate, sad, exhilarating and tender. These are songs of love and loss, for late nights and cold days.

The New Bossa Nova has covers and duets of and with American artists like Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Leonard Cohen. Re-interpeted as Bossa Nova tunes, her wonderful strong voice breathes electric life into older songs like the Beach Boys “God Only Knows” and Michael MacDonald’s “I can let go now”. Her ability to hold a note is marvellous and she makes rich, glorious music.

 Get them in England here  and here

 Get them in the US here and here

Marcos Valle: Carioca Soul
A teenager during Bossa’s early years, Marcos Valle became one of the music’s most enduring stars, especially during the eighties and ninties, mixing pop and soul influences into the classic 3-2 beat. Still around after a long and varied career, Valle has tried all sorts of variations on the Jazz Samba. For me he is the most Brazilian, a master of the Samba beat, but also the most showbiz, with lush strings and an almost rock piano. Putting together a Marcos Valle collection is a labour of love but at the moment I am hooked on Carioca Soul because it includes “Nova Bossa Nova” with its urgent rhythm and soulful vocals. It is cool and modern simultaneously and just makes you want to dance.

 Get it in England here  or in the US here

Pure Bossa Nova:  The classic songs

This one is in here because, well I really like it, it includes some of great songs. It includes songs by people we have not even mentioned like Joao Donato, Sergio Mendes and Gal Costa.  It spans a really fruitful period in the music’s history with songs from the early seventies through the eighties and is full of zippy funky songs.  These are tune stuffed with light and breezy brass orchestrations and clever piano.  Real dance floor music.  It is also here because though it is not a particularly well-known album, it is the one I would recommend to anyone looking for a starter Bossa Nova album.  Infectiously happy, full of classic crowd-pleasers, it is an easy set of songs to get into.    

  Get it in England here and in the US here

Marisa Monte:  Memories, chronicles and declarations of love.

Marisa Monte is a popular singer in Brazil, where she is classified as a MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) singer.  MPB is one of Bossa Nova’s successors, and describes a musical tradition that draws on Samba and Bossa Nova, adding elements of jazz, pop and South American folk.  “Memories, Chronicles” , is the “new” Bossa Nova of recent years, none more so than the stunning opener “Amor I love you” which is classical Bossa guitar with some of the most heartfelt vocals I have ever heard.  The album spans Choro (pre-Samba bahia folk music) Samba, Bossa Nova.  Her electric Samba “Nao Va Embora” is urgent and sexy and goes straight to your dancing feet. 

This is not music for purists but it is really joyful and soulful.  Also I really need to declare an interest here.  This woman is truly beautiful to look at.   She is not pretty but has a dark beauty that somehow manages to be both elegant and sexy.  Her eyes are liquid pools of deep, dark brown, she has a wide sensual mouth and thick black hair.  Think of the archetypal Brazilian woman, dark, beautiful, sexy and full of life.  This is her. 

 Get it in England here or in the US here

Stan Getz: Bossa Nova
Another classic. Bossa Nova was made for Getz and for a while he personified the sound in America. Getz’ sax is variously languorous, spiky and plaintive as it weaves in and out of the complex arrangements of these Bossa classics.

This album features a wonderfully romantic and classy Corcovado (you will know it for its opening line “Quiet nights for quiet stars”). The vocalist is Astrid Gilberto and this one of her best. Whenever you play it, it takes you to a starlit night, love and romance.

There are so many classics on this album, a sparky but sexy version of So Danco Samba, a Desafinado which is late-night seduction. Play this when you are having a romantic evening at home, wine and candles, lights down low.

 Get in England here or in the US here

CeU: CeU
Ceu is new. She is the best-selling Brazilian pop music phenomenon of 2007. Huge in South America, she is busy taking over Europe as we speak.  Coming from a Samba, Choro, Bossa Nova tradition, her music has elements of everything from rock, jazz, soul and early Brazilian folksong. Her composition is inspired, tight, modern and intricate. She has a strong, sexy expressive voice that dominates her upbeat songs. Samba rhythms and a fat bass sound dominate much of this album.

There is some great songs here, in the tracks Bobagem, Samba Na Sola and others. The album does what the New Bossa Nova promises, update Bossa Nova for today.

 Get it in England here or in the US here

Vinicius De Moraes: Favourites
Well, along with Antonio Carlos Jobim, he created Bossa Nova and at the moment he is the perfect antidote for winter blues.  Here are the lush orchestrations, trumpets and tombones, girl choruses, the 3-2 beat, everything that we expect. Songs such as “Deve Ser Amor” have it all, and more. However Moraes also wrote many of the classic guitar Bossas, romantic, cool, poetic. They are here too on this comprehensive compilation. This is definitive Bossa Nova.

 Get it in England here or in the US here

Milton Nascimento and the Jobim trio: Novas Bossas

I have always liked Milton Nascimento for his ability to interpret lyrics and the sheer energy he puts into a song.  His amazing tonal range is shown at its best on this album, where he interprets classics from Jobim and De Moraes.  The sad songs were never more poignant than here, the happy songs never more full of life.  This album was recorded last year with Jobim’s trio. It has beautiful production values and it really shows.  There are some classic interpretations here, especially De Moraes “Medo de Amar” and Jobim’s “Caminhos Cruzados”.

If I was going to buy just one Bossa Nova album I would buy this one.  It is passionate, modern and yet incredibly respectful of the songs. 

 Get it in England here and in the US here

Here ends the tour

Looking at this post, I can see that some of the music here detours a little into Samba, Jazz and Pop.  But that is the nature of Bossa Nova, its a very flexible and accomodating sound.  For me it is the sound of having fun and of course I can….Blame it on the Bossa Nova.

I am sure that many readers have their own Bossa favourities.  Send me a comment and I will be happy to post your lists.  I am always interested new recommendations for all types of Latin American music.

Thanks and an appreciation 

Like everyone I find my music through all sorts of sources.  But I found Luciana Souza and Marisa Monte through the John Rain thrillers by Barry Eisler.  John Rain, Eisler’s American-Japanese assassin is not only a martial artist who loves Jazz and Malt Whisky, but is also a man having a love affair with all things Brazilian.  Luciana Souza and Marisa Monte are both recommended, directly and indirectly, in the John Rain novels.  So my thanks to Barry Eisler for introducing me to two wonderful singers.  If you have not read Barry Eisler’s novels I recommend you do so.  He writes beautiful and is a captivating storyteller.  He has a very elegant website and the link to it is here.