Bob Birch: You want the convention to be a circus.
Francis Underwood: Oh, Bob, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but politics is no longer just theatre, it’s show business. So let’s put on the best show in town.
Larry Pine and Kevin Spacey in the political TV drama House of Cards (2013 – ). Set in the White House, it centres around the ruthlessly ambitious power couple of Francis and Claire Underwood. I’m currently on series 4 so no spoilers please if you’re ahead of me.
After seeing his trailer for Nine Lives when seeing The Secret Life of Pets and The BFG earlier today, it got me thinking about the film’s main star. Two-time Academy winner Kevin Spacey has long been considered one of cinema’s true greats. I’ve been lucky to see the great man up close in his one man show Clarence Darrow where his acting was sublime. He may have been focused on his theatre work and his role in House of Cards in the past few years, but he still has a fine Hollywood CV. How many of the six films below do you know? Do you have a favourite performance?
1. (1990s)
2. (1990s)
3. (1990s)
4. (1990s)
5. (2000s)
6. (2000s)
Answers below
Zoe Barnes: We’re in a very grey area. Ethically, legally. Which I’m okay with…
Francis Underwood: I just love this painting, don’t you? We’re in the same boat now, Zoe. Take care not to tip it over, I can only save one of us.
Kate Mara and Kevin Spacey in the political drama House of Cards (2013 – ), which tells of a scheming Democrat desperate to become American President.
Who is Keyser Soze? He is supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power. The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. And like that, poof. He’s gone.
Verbal Klint (Kevin Spacey) in the hugely thrilling The Usual Suspects (1995). Winner of an Academy Award for Spacey as well as for Best Original Screenplay, it features one of cinema’s most famous endings.
Alex Raphael 