Happy Birthday Leo: DiCaprio's Top 10 Performances
Today Leonardo DiCaprio turns 45. We celebrate our greatest contemporary actor with his 10 best, wonderful, performances.
Leonardo DiCaprio turns 45 today. We decided to celebrate him with a top 10 of his best performances. It was not easy, since in his long career - which began in 1991 with the unknown film Critters 3 - he has made more than ten wonderful performances. Therefore, excluding some of them was a pain. Suffice it to say that he has collaborated with directors of the caliber of James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and above all with Martin Scorsese, with whom he has formed a professional partnership since 2002, considering him his mentor. The actor - we recall - obtained 6 Oscar nominations, winning in 2016 for Revenant. So we wish our favorite environmentalist and one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema.
Here is the top ten. Happy birthday Leo!
10. Titanic (1997)
These are just some of the phrases taken from Titanic that have entered the common language. It is therefore not an easy operation to understand the impact that DiCaprio's performance had on the film that brought romantic comedy into the new millennium, becoming a generational cult destined to indelibly mark the history of cinema.
Let's try to contextualize: after taking part in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, which earned him the Best Actor award at the Berlin Film Festival, DiCaprio accepts the role of Jack Dawson. He is the ideal actor: the role of Romeo has him made a real teen idol and in Titanic he would have starred in a conceptually similar film: “The idea was to bring Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic”. (James Cameron about the structure of the film).
The choice soon turns out to be spot on. DiCaprio has finished his apprenticeship, he is a real actor and uses the film on the famous ocean liner to prove it to the world.
In just under three hours, Leo stages a truly surprising climax of love. Gestures, posture, intonation of the voice: all intrinsically linked to the emotional sphere. It manages to have an empathic grip on the remarkable audience. The excellent chemistry with Kate Winslet (see also Revolutionary Road) helps, in addition to a brilliant script and direction, capable of enhancing her performance.
Titanic dominates at the Oscars, Di Caprio is not even nominated. The Academy's elitism and intellectual snobbery does not agree to reward an actor who, despite his dazzling skill, is perceived as not being "accessible".
It matters little. As Cesare said, “Alea iacta est, The die is cast”. Soon his agent's phone will ring: on the other side of the handset Martin Scorsese. For the Oscar we will have to wait a long time, but the important thing is another: at just over twenty-five, Leonardo DiCaprio has already taken over Hollywood.
9. Revenant (2015)
1823, North Dakota. Trapper Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), betrayed by his companions, deprived of his dearest possessions and loved ones, fights against death to avenge his existence: the killing of his son Hawk, carried out by John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Hugh Glass, now already dead, strips off everything to expose his torture, his intimacy, his truest and most profound pain, in a journey through the prohibitive challenges that are placed before him by nature, in which even the his physique is put to the test, but kept alive by the tenacity of his soul.
Inarritu puts Leonardo DiCaprio at the center of everything, pivot and soul of the film, who performs a considerable technical work (think of the heavy furs worn for months, the harsh climatic conditions to which he underwent, the decision to really fit inside of a carcass) and leads us perfectly into the physical suffering of that man, as Richard Harris did before him, in 1971, with White man, go with your god !. With DiCaprio we enter the life of a character who struggles like (and with) a grizzly, for an unrivaled thirst for revenge, fed by a pain that transpires for the entire duration of the film. All within the magnificent scenery of nature, silent, helpless in the face of human evil and which accompanies the individual on his journey, observing him.
Revenant is a film based on sensations, on the silence imposed by nature and the lack of dialogue, in which DiCaprio, who has long deserved that Oscar, wins like a Revenant.
8. Try Catch Me (2002)
Joining Try to Catch Me means experiencing a piece of American history. In addition to representing one of DiCaprio's best performances, the film is first of all a Steven Spielberg cult. The story tells of Frank William Abagnale Jr., a character who really existed and is still remembered as the greatest forger in American history. The story is a "cops and robbers" story: Carl, an FBI agent, all the while chasing this deceiver called Frank without being able to catch him. Tom Hanks and DiCaprio enhance each other by acting side by side, communicating to the viewer a "friend-enemy" relationship: underneath there is also a fascinating aura of complicity between a representative of the law and a criminal. Not an illegal complicity, but a mutual understanding, an emotional connection; a connection that however does not prevent the characters from doing their job: to each his own. “You run away, I run after you”. This is the touch of class of the film. Note of merit, therefore, even to the most experienced Tom Hanks.
DiCaprio had not yet reached the apex of his artistic and above all human maturity; this is why it is so credible in playing first of all a boy upset by his parents' divorce, afraid and with an urgent need to escape and raise money especially for his failing father.
In reality, DiCaprio hints at how insecure Frank is: after getting into trouble, he realizes he can't go back, but he can't escape forever either. When he lives in the terrible French prison he explodes his suffering through coughs, long hair, uncared for appearance and a wax worthy of the Frankestein monster. Here, at this point, the maturity of an actor with immense potential begins to emerge; an actor who, however, had only partially detached himself from the more “adolescent” roles of Titanic and Romeo + Juliet. Thanks to Spielberg, however, he was turning the page. Try to Catch Me represents a watershed in his career.
7. Revolutionary Road (2008)
Watching Sam Mendes's film means entering the downward spiral of the perfect, if false, ideal of the American suburban middle class. Revolutionary Road is a perfect domestic drama that is particularly effective thanks to the protagonist couple formed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, then wife of the director.
11 years after the glorious Titanic, the couple returns to prove themselves. The result is a perfect alchemy between the two actors that almost entirely governs the entire film. In the roles of hypothetical Jack and Rose survivors of the naval accident, DiCaprio and Winslet reach a complete interpretative maturity in this film that succeeds in the enterprise of bringing down the veil of illusion. The roles of the two intersect and support each other so much that they become "our neighbors".
A gateway to his more recent histrionic roles, DiCaprio plays the role of alcoholic, smoker and womanizer Frank Wheeler. A character who is deliberately ambivalent and particularly stratified. In fact, even for the construction of the film, which plays a lot on the ideal / reality duality and on sudden changes of pace, DiCaprio dispenses us with one of his most subtle interpretations. Far from wanting to create aesthetically iconic moments (Ã -la The Great Gatsby to be clear), DiCaprio's skill is given completely in the small details.
To give voice to that inner repression, which is the main figure of the character of Wheeler, DiCaprio uses all the expressive range in his possession. Repentance, anger and the awareness of the failure of our Frank / Leonardo manage to transpire not only from the most evident gestures of anger, such as screams and gritted teeth, but even from simple repeated daily actions. For example, one could guess the momentary mood of Mr. Wheeler even just by the way DiCaprio handles and smokes his beloved cigarettes!
6. Happy Birthday Mr. Grape (1993)
Happy birthday Mr. Grape was one of the very first interpretations of a young Leonardo DiCaprio and also one of the most complex. This role led to him being nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 1994 Oscars.
The actor plays Arnie, an autistic boy who is cared for by his older brother, played by Johnny Depp. The family in which he lives is a window of continuous difficulties: the father committed suicide seven years earlier and since then the mother has become obese, they barely live in a dilapidated house and only the older brother works to be able to support the family's expenses. .
The thread of the narrative continues showing the difficulties on the part of the brother to look after Arnie, up to his eighteenth birthday, which according to the doctors would have been impossible but which is so much hoped for and awaited by the Grape family.
This is the culmination of the story, the event that makes the family more integrated into the country, which initially sees Arnie as a problem given his mania for climbing on the rain gauge of the city but who ends up accepting it.
Dicaprio shows right from the beginning of his acting career the ability to get into the role and play it naturally, making us become attached to the character.
The difficulty of this part lies above all in its delicacy. To learn its gestures, the actor spent a few days in a clinic for mentally retarded adolescents, managing to master them masterfully.
The film manages to show a glimpse of life that distances itself from the reality of many of us and succeeds fully, thanks above all to the interpretation of DiCaprio.
5. The Departed (2005)
As often happens, DiCaprio gives the best of himself led by Martin Scorsese. Leo would have deserved the Oscar for his portrayal of Billy Costigan, a police officer infiltrated in the Boston underworld. The Departed is a film that is based on dualisms and double plays: Matt Damon is a reliable and precise agent on paper, a flagship of the department, while Billy hails from the suburbs, does not make a good impression in appearance and to earn the trust must go beyond its limits. He is basically a good guy who believes in justice, but throughout the film he is forced to behave like a villain in Costello's mafia organization. Matt Damon, "the good guy", does the exact opposite of Billy: he's an infiltrated mole and works for Costello. Dualisms and position exchanges in a film with a perfect narrative rhythm with an unpredictable ending: it is one of the most classic films by Maestro Scorsese in terms of writing, it works very well on the twists and turns and develops in three more or less precise acts.
We talked about going beyond the limits, in fact. Like Billy, DiCaprio also puts all of himself and goes beyond his limits, entering with all his shoes in one of the most intense and all-encompassing roles of his career. It tells of a character forced to act for better or for worse. His character is professional, but at the same time DiCaprio gives credibility to a perfect infiltrator: a hothead, a guy in therapy with a past in prison. Only DiCaprio, through movements, insecurities, fears and sudden mood swings, could portray the character of Billy Costigan so well. A very wide emotional range: DiCaprio is first insecure, then afraid, then determined and courageous; sometimes shot down and exhausted by dangerous months in the enemy's house.
4. Once upon a time ... in Hollywood (2019)
"That was the best acting I have ever seen in my whole life": in one of the most beautiful moments of Once upon a time ... in Hollywood, the child actress Trudi addresses these words to Rick Dalton, the declining actor played by DiCaprio, whom he thanks with tears of melancholy joy. The two and forty hours of Tarantino's latest film could be condensed in these few moments, capable of restoring all the feelings that lie behind the nostalgia for another era.
This is DiCaprio's Rick Dalton, the personification of nostalgia: his for his golden years, Tarantino's for Hollywood in the 1960s. But nostalgia is the sadness of the memory of a past happiness, and these two feelings coexist in the character, with all their emotional variations. And Di Caprio perfectly manages to return them all. Poised between the tragic hero and the comic mask, Rick, thanks to his exceptional interpreter, makes you laugh, and a lot, in the grotesque ending, and it moves when he is moved by what is perhaps the first purely sincere compliment he has ever received .
Although in our opinion the one in Once upon a time ... in Hollywood is not the best interpretation of DiCaprio ever, it remains one of the richest, if not the richest, with which the American actor manages to show all the different sides of his recitative verve. So much so that when the nominations for the Academy Award for Best Leading Actor are announced on January 13th, his presence among the candidates is taken for granted, and he is even one of the favorites for the final victory. After breaking the curse in 2016 that seemed to haunt him and prevent him from winning the Academy Award, could DiCaprio get his second statuette?
3. The Aviator (2003)
We open the podium of our ranking with Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in The Aviator, a biopic on Howard Hughes by Martin Scorsese from 2004. The title is the first biographical work of the long career of the New York Master and this should already make us reflect on how much the figure of Hughes fascinated the author. A producer, director, aviation enthusiast with a heavy and severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. Scorsese paints everything using the typical colors (obviously revisited) of the 1930s / 40s cinema, bringing us into the obsessions of this man with a unique visual strength. Above all I would like to mention the scene of the photographers' flash bulbs which, when incandescent, shatter. A few moments that remain indelibly impressed.
The Aviator takes us into the life of a Texan billionaire, inside his passions and his defeats, offering several parallels with Welles' masterpiece, that Fourth Estate that was really inspired by the figure of Hughes. A further page on the American dream, however, seen from the eyes of a man paralyzed by the fear of living inside a plane that he will not be able to take off.
DiCaprio is flawless in giving life to a new (non) Scorsesian hero, starting from the side of the young Don Giovanni up to the point where the strength of his pathologies leaked out (and then exploded). Perfect in being that Howard Hughes symbol of an America dirty, sick and wounded and yet so damn great. It should not be forgotten that The Aviator was a fundamental part of Di Caprio's career in definitively coming out of the vicious circle born with Titanic and Romeo + Juliet who risked chaining him to a too limited type of role. Honorable mention also to the fantastic Cate Blanchett who succeeded in carrying out an impossible mission: to stage Katharine Hepburn without being a mere imitation. Gorgeous and, rightly, Oscar-worthy.
2. Django Unchained (2012)
Forget the little boy who tightens Rose's life on the Titanic and imagine a rich and racist middle-aged man with decayed, tobacco-blackened teeth. The metamorphosis that Leonardo DiCaprio went through to play the villain Calvin Candie in the film Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino) is so radical that it can only be considered one of the best.
We see DiCaprio transform into a cruel Mississippi landowner who regards his black slaves as property on a par with the sugar and cotton fields. It forces men to fight each other (the so-called fights between Mandinkis) and if the women are good-looking, it exploits them as prostitutes.
Leonardo recounted how difficult it was to immerse himself in a character that he himself deeply despised and even went so far as to wonder if Calvin Candie was too bad because of the high amount of violence and the use of racist language.
The support of Jamie Foxx and Samuel L. Jackson helped him overcome this difficulty. The first encouraged him to see the lines from the point of view of Calvin, therefore of a slave owner, the second encouraged him: "Get over it, motherf —- r. It's just another Tuesday, motherf —- r. " (which paraphrased in softer terms would be: don't think about it, for us it's a common thing.)
An anecdote related to this interpretation has also gone down in history. It particularly concerns the filming of Calvin Candie's laborious racist speech based on phrenology. DiCaprio kept crashing and around the sixth take he slammed his hand on the table hitting a glass. The broken glass cut off his hand but he continued undaunted: “My hand really started to spill blood all over the table. I wanted to continue. It was more interesting to watch Quentin and Jamie's reactions than to check my hand. " Needless to say, after the scene, all those present congratulated him with a standing ovation.
1-The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
At the top of our ranking there could only be another work from the award-winning Scorsese-DiCaprio company. We are obviously talking about Leo's performance in The Wolf of Wall Street. In what still represents Martin Scorsese's greatest commercial success today, Leo plays Jordan Belfort (who will appear in a cameo in the film's finale) the real Wolf of the title or a Broker, still considered one of the best in the history of Wall. Street.
The director stages a black comedy with no redemption for its characters, a film about immoral vultures not too far removed from the gangsters seen in its classics but socially more accepted. A film on the extreme phase of consumerism and arrival where the director does not discount, does not allow you to empathize with the characters (unlike some of his previous films) and stages everything through an orgy of tachycardic and unstoppable images. At the center of it all we have Jordan Belfort: corrupt, corrupting and corruptible, a jester leader of a gigantic show that has enchanted a world and a society bewitched by his nothingness, a modern emperor who once fallen does not think of anything but starting over.
