Ralph Fiennes is 55 years old today, and, “to celebrate”, I am compiling this very subjective list of his 5 best performances. Fiennes is a fine actor, very versatile and open to challenging roles, be it a romantic hero in a drama, a disturbed individual in a psychological thriller, a villain in a historic adventure film, or simply a caricature of a man in a comedy. In no particular order:

 1. Count Almásy – The English Patient (1996)

Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient was both a critical and box-office success, and will remain one of the most beautifully-rendered dramas ever. Part of the credit for this should go to its stars, and Ralph Fiennes played Count László de Almásy (a role which landed him an Academy Awards nomination). This was a tricky role, because the hero was so imperfect. He is a multi-lingual cartographer, but, because of his origin, he is almost a man shrouded in mystery. We learn that, as a person, he can be rather selfish and socially withdrawn, and, as a lover, devoted, but also impulsive. He learns his lessons as circumstances in his life take a turn for the worse. Fiennes gives a memorable performance as that man, and his romance with Katharine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is probably one of the screen’s most heart-breaking.

2. Amon Goeth – Schindler’s List (1993) 

Portraying a Nazi criminal in any film is not a walk in the park, and if it is Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and the Nazi criminal is psychopathic Amon Goeth (Goth), the task must have been truly hard. Fiennes embodies the very definition of inhumanity, mercilessness, evil and ruthlessness in this role. His villain becomes a man truly feared and hated, which makes for a nice contrast in this film with often more humane methods and modes of doing things coming from another German, Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson). Fiennes’s performance rightly gave him his Academy Awards nomination in the category of the Best Supporting Actor. His performance was said to be “creative and fascinating”.

3. Dennis “Spider” Cleg – Spider (2002)

This was a great, thought-provoking film which got into my list here, and part of the attraction is Fiennes’s nuanced performance, portraying a damaged, eccentric individual haunted by his past and afraid of the future. Mystery deepens with each scene, and, probably only Christian Bale with his performance in The Machinist (2004) could be compared to the performing commitment here, and also to the sheer shock of the revelation at the end. It may appear at first like this is a David Cronenberg film through and through, but Fiennes’s screen charisma and eccentricity make it feel like it is almost all the actor’s own creation. 

4. Voldemort – The Harry Potter Franchise 

Ralph Fiennes became the Voldemort for millions and millions of Harry Potter fans. Almost unrecognisable because of his disguise, he embodied famous antagonist so well, it was almost unbelievable. The voice was silky smooth, sometimes hoarse (the hissing is spot-on) and the whole demeanour of Voldemort was there to behold and marvel at.

5. M. Gustave – The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) 

Just to demonstrate how diverse an actor Ralph Fiennes really is, in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, he is a comic hotel concierge who is simply joyful to watch. From his immaculate wit to his overall presentation, the character may appear like a perfectionist-gone-wrong, and, it looks like this role was written just for him. Fiennes’s forte has always been eccentric characters, but, in this film, he arguably takes this concept to a whole new level and creates someone unforgettable. “I don’t know what sort of cream they’ve put on you down at the morgue, but…I want some” (M. Gustave).

Did you also know? Ralph Fiennes is one of the patrons of the annual Russian Film Week event, and studied Russian to perform in a Russian-language film Two Women (2014), which was based, in turn, on a play by Ivan Turgenev. This does not conclude Fiennes’s amorous relationship with Russia-based films, and he also starred in a film Onegin (1999) alongside Liv Tyler, which is a film adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s poem Eugene Onegin, and now also directs (and stars in) a film titled The White Crow (2018) about “Rudolf Nureyev’s defection to the West” (IMDb).