Undisputed talent and extraordinary versatility have made Geoffrey Rush One of the most esteemed actors of world cinema. From the brilliant and tormented pianist David Helfgott of “Shine”, which earned him theOscar for best leading actor in 1997to the memorable interpretations of the Captain Barbossa of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” saga of the Cult Disney, by the extraordinary speech therapist of Giorgio VI of England in “The discourse of the king”, up to the virgil Oldman auction ber nor “The best offer” by Giuseppe Tornatore, the Australian actor has tried so much in the author’s cinema that in the mainstream.
On the third day of the Festival, Rush received the Taormina Excellence Awardhe was the protagonist at the PalaCongressi of a masterclass and on the big screen in the film “The rule of Jenny Pen” by James Ashcroft, in Italian preview inside the official competition, after winning the prize for the best direction at the Fantastic Fest 2024.
A disturbing psychological horror and strong colors, in which Rush is Stefan Mortensen, a retired judge who must stop the elderly psychopathic Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), who sows terror and death among the guests of the retirement home in which both are hospitalized. A role that allowed the actor to play a character of his own age for the first time in the cinema: «When I started at the theater, at 20, we were a very young company and I had roles of elderly men – he told the meeting with journalists -. At 23 I played a 75 -year -old and was quite exciting. But in Ashcroft’s film I am a man of my age, who welcomes the challenge and confrontation with a very difficult situation, and wins it, despite his decline because of the stroke “.
Speaking of “big” films, we move on to the comparison with another giant of cinema, Giuseppe Tornatore, who wanted him for the role of Virgil Oldman in the film “The best offer”. “Tornatore came to Australia to meet me – he said -. I took him to all the best Italian restaurants and each waiter exclaimed: “I saw Tornatore!”. They couldn’t believe it was there. It was like a God. “New Cinema Paradiso” has had a huge emotional impact on many people, especially on Italians “.
But his relationship with Italian author cinema dates back to the golden age of Fellini, De Sica, Leone, Comencini, Bertolucci, Pasolini. “At 20 I already loved this extraordinary period started after the Second World War.” Today, with 53 years of career to the assets, he feels the freedom to choose according to his desires. And while excluding that it can be asked for a possible reboot of the “Caribbean pirates” (“I died twice. Maybe I could return as a ghost: a small role, a big salary”), claims to want to accept only stories about elderly people. “Stories on age,” he specifies, announcing that in the next film he will be an elderly father, in a very crazy comedy.
Rush returns to Taormina almost twenty years after a trip by ship with the family that had brought him to Sicily driven by the passion for the Shakesperian theater: «I wanted to see Messina, a city famous in Shakespeare, where” a lot of noise for nothing begins “. So we went from Taormina “. Welcome back, therefore, on the wings of the art of telling the scene.