 |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
 |
|
A stunning figure well into her illness, Jini (short for Jennifer) had been the most influential figure in all six of her children's lives, especially that of Ralph, easily the most complex of the brood. She, it seems, understood his need to isolate himself from other children and indulge his mind in matters far beyond his years. She would have been the first to recognise that, in a way, her first-born son had inherited a fair share of her own dark temperament.
Ralph's sister Martha, recalls that as a child Ralph would go to parties and instead of interacting with the other children, 'He would go up to the hostess and very politely ask, "I wonder if you have any jigsaw puzzles I could do?"
Ralph's desire to carve out some solitude for himself is quite understandable, given the complexities of his childhood. He was the eldest of six children raised within a middle-class but decidely Bohemian family who were always on the move. His father, Mark, was a tenant farmer and later a landscape photographer. Jini, under her maiden name of Lash, wrote novels and poetry and seemed to dazzle everyone.
'I think my earliest memory is of my mother putting me to bed,' Ralph says in highly affectionate tones. 'My being disturbed in the night and her coming in and comforting me. I can remember going to nursery school and not liking the fact that I was seperated from her. I was very attached to my mother.'
Since her death three days after Christmas in 1993, Fiennes' life has seemed particularly turbulent; a rollercoaster ride of triumph and disaster. In the past five years, his performances have garned him two Oscar nominations, including one for Best Actor for the WWII epic The English Patient.
This passionate and tragic film, which took four years to make, will launch Sky's new movie channel Sky Premier. Fiennes' role is that of the mysterious, disfigured victim of an aeroplane crash, whose secret romance with a colleague's wife unfolds in hear-wrenching flashbacks. The epic tale co-stars Kristin Scott Thomas as his lover and Juliette Binoche as the nurse who tries to unravel his past while she cares for him in a disused Italian monastery.
Fiennes' magnetism appears to be as powerful off screen as on. During the filming of The English Patient, Binoche reportedly had to call her boyfriend every day from the set to reassure him that she was not having an affair with her on-screen patient; while Scott Thomas says he is the kind of man who makes 'you want to go weak in the knees so you can say, "Ooooh, catch me!"'
Fiennes has in fact had two main women in his life: ER actress Alex Kingston, his drama school sweetheart from whom he is now divorced, and Francesca Annis, the beautiful 52-year-old actress who played his mother on stage in Hamlet andwith whom he is currently involved.
Friends find it particularly ironic that after Jini's death, Ralph, 35, left his younger wife for the companionship of a more mature women. 'It's no secret that his mother was the most important woman in his life,' claims one of Fiennes' closest friends, another British leading man. 'It's quite conceivable that after her death he was subconciously seeking a replacement. I think Francesca offers him the security and understanding he needs.'
Kingston, his partner for 10 years, has largely remained silent about the seperation, though she recently admitted , 'Ralph has such a dark side, I am surprised our relationship lasted as long as it did.'
His sister Martha suspects that her mother's volatile behaviour had a tremendous impact on Ralph. 'We all witnessed Jini's derangement at times and I'm sure he absorbed it,' she says. 'I think Ralph has a dark side; he has an innate understanding of it, a very true understanding of human nature. He understands great distress and sadness. There is always a strange beauty in tragedy.' His sister Sophie agrees: 'Ralph has a disciplined mind; he is not as emotional as my mother,' she says, 'but he has a lot of understanding of darkness and pain - of the twisted, darker recesses of the human psyche.'
Ralph's dark nature may have led him to acting. "There were so many possibilities, so many things I wanted to do,' he recalls. 'But I thought: I love theatre.' The common thread in his notable performances - on stage as Hamlet and at the RSC in Love's Labour's Lost; on screen in Schindler's List, Quiz Show and The English Patient - is, notes one critic, a 'loneliness driven to extremes.'
That seems only partially correct; a good actor can portray loneliness without exuding the potent sense of darkness that is so prevalent in Fiennes' work. But directors have clearly discerned the murky depths that lurk beneath Fiennes' aristocratic exterior. The English Patient director, Anthony Minghella, describes his screen prescence as 'exciting and mysterious.' Robert Redford said he cast Fiennes in Quiz Show because he saw in him a 'haunted quality underneath the perfect shell.'
Steven Spielberg has spoken of a certain 'sexual evil' in fiennes that inspired his being chosen to star in Schindler's List. 'He's the polar opposite to someone like Tom Hanks, who doesn't have that dark side.' adds Chris Menaul who directed Fiennes in A Dangerous Man:Lawrence After Arabia. 'But that side is very interesting to watch, isn't it? It's what gives Ralph his unusual quality as an actor.'
That special quality has turned Fiennes into one of the country's most sought-after leading men. He was reportedly paid $4 million to play John Steed in The Avengers - in which he shows an unexpected flair for action and light comedy - and is currently in Europe shooting the drama The Taste Of Sunshine. As he grapples to contend with his increasing popularity, however, one still senses that he's struggling to come to terms with his recent loss.
That much was evident when he and the rest of the family tried to contact his mother through a medium. 'It wasn't done because we're all so distressed.' he points out. 'It was done out of a sense of natural curiosity. Whether or not it was my mother coming through, I don't know.' Still, when pushed, Fiennes borders on the side of optimism, perhaps simply because he must.
'She appeared to come through and, in a way, that made us feel that
wherever she was, she was very happy,' he says sincerely. 'I know that in
moments when I've been anxious or concerned, I feel that somehow there's
a presence or an awareness of her which has helped me through. Whether
that's just my memory or not, I don't know. But I believe she is present.
And maybe less present as time goes by.'
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
© EL STEPHO
Added to the RF Reading Room on September 7, 1998
EL STEPHO