Speaking with his hands [Spooks 9 spoilers]

Spring Break … a ton of stuff on my mind, and a whole week to think in the absence of constant deadlines and maybe write about it a bit. I’m feeling calmer already. Need to fanstravagate this afternoon so I’m ready for next week, but couldn’t leave out mentioning that I rewatched Spooks 9.1 last night. (Original reactions here; the ethics theme I noted regarding Harry and his resignation hit me just as hard or harder last night as it did in September.) This isn’t going to be a full scale re-review at this point; I know that my reactions to Spooks 9 were less negative than those of some people and I need to do a comprehensive re-watch and comment at some point, but this isn’t it, yet. Last night I just put the disk in the player in hopes of regaining a little bit of sanity (also watched the Spooks 6 disk I had and put it in the mail this morning. With luck I’ll be done watching the Spooks backstory by the end of March).

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Last night I was really noticing Mr. Armitage’s hands. There are two really nice hand shots in particular here:

On his way to assassinate Hussein Abib, Lucas North (Richard Armitage) discovers a woman he at this point thinks is a supercargo prostitute (Sophia Myles) lurking in the hallway, in Spooks 9.1. My cap.

There’s something really intricate about the way Mr. Armitage uses his hands to act — they alone, without his face, can signal gentleness, reassurance, but also violence, frustration, scorn. I think that’s why we see so many closeups of them in his work. I know that the North & South director was really focused on the use of hands as a social signal, but it’s striking how much of Armitage’s work ends up showing great pictures of his hands. The people who photograph him must be noticing this as well.

Here’s another:

Lucas North (Richard Armitage) offers the woman he now knows as Beth Bailey (Sophia Myles) an intentionally sarcastic contribution toward her trip back to London in Spooks 9.1. Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery

Later in the episode we find out that he’s supposed to have given her 50 euros — the same amount that he offered to her “pimp” onboard the Hanover Star to spend a few hours with her (and which I remain convinced is less than the going price). I’m sorry to say — underlining my ongoing disappointment with Spooks‘ continuity — that whatever he may be giving here there, it is not a 50 euro bill. (The fifty is orange. I’ve always been grateful that it’s orange because I experience mild synesthesia and see odd numbers as warm colors, and in my warped brain, 5 is orange. 5 is also an “unfriendly” number for me, but at least it’s not cruel and hostile, like 9.) Let’s be charitable and have it be a bunch of euro bills with a twenty or a five on the outside. Anyway, love the extreme prominence not only of the MCP on the thumb (I’ve discussed this before) but also on the index finger, which seem to enhance the vehemence of the gesture. Armitage really understands the blocking of his body, I think.

During the Moscow location shoot for Spooks 7.7, Richard Armitage discusses a shot with the crew. Source: Radio Times

I do, somewhat unusually, have something mildly critical to say about his use of his hands in one scene of 9.1. (I know, you didn’t think I could do it.) Lucas is not a hand speaker — that is, while we often see pictures of Mr. Armitage speaking with his hands, as here —

Richard Armitage, interviewed on the topic of the (then) new character of Lucas North, from the extras in the Spooks 7 DVD set. Source: Richard Armitage Net

— Lucas tends to do that only at moments of very extreme emotion. This choice on Armitage’s part — the decision to make Lucas in normal operation or even in slightly stressful situations very physically controlled — Armitage’s choice to ground Lucas’s physicality in extreme stillness that contrasts with a sudden capacity to spring into motion when needed, which results in a highly compressed gestural repertoire — has meant that Lucas’s appearances on screen generate a magnetic effect on the viewer, who is always asking herself, with a certain amount of suspense, “when will he move?” and “what will it mean when he does?” As a result, Lucas’s hand motions often generate shock or surprise in the viewer. Two examples of this that pop to mind immediately:

She’s just my girlfriend!” Lucas North (Richard Armitage) yells at Oleg Darshavin after Sarah Caulfield’s unexpected entry into Lucas’s flat, in Spooks 8.4. Source: Richard Armitage Net

Above, the hand flies up so quickly that it almost reads as a defensive gesture and in the original scene you can see the cameraperson and then the editor using the energy of that move to shift the shot toward Oleg. Or here:

Lucas North (Richard Armitage) insists to Sarah Caulfield that he’s going to intercept the man he thinks is a rogue CIA operative rather than shooting him, in Spooks 8.6. Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery

Here, the gesture is a sign of an unwillingness to hear further argument from Sarah or engage in it anymore — it almost says, “leave me alone.” In the end, moreover, Armitage’s ability to keep Lucas’s hands so still ultimately does him the favor of making Lucas’s classic hand-to-face for extreme distress signal much more effective.

Extreme distress, normal: Lucas North (Richard Armitage) reacts to Elizaveta’s explanation of the dilemma the FSB have put them in regarding Section D’s attempts to prevent a planned terrorist bombing in Spooks 7.4. Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery

Extreme distress, extreme: Lucas North (Richard Armitage) reacts to pressure from Vaughn regarding Albany in Spooks 9.7. Source: Richard Armitage Net

I think that I might tend to read hand-to-face as a gesture that’s too emotional to be completely convincing, except that Armitage uses it so carefully and sparingly, and keeps his hands in check elsewhere, that when his hands do move I am glued to the screen. So in 9.1, I was a bit confused when I saw this, during Lucas’s conversation with Harry after returning to England:

Lucas North (Richard Armitage) argues with Harry in Spooks 9.1. Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery

A few frames later. Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery

Don’t get me wrong, I totally fall for guys who talk with their hands; it is extremely sexy, indeed entrancing. It doesn’t make me respect Richard Armitage or his work less that I don’t feel the employment of Lucas’s hands works well in this scene. I just think that this was a point where this particular performance, or perhaps it’s just the shot of the scene chosen by the editor (who might have had a stiller option to choose from but didn’t take it) interferes with Armitage’s otherwise secure characterization of Lucas. Armitage appears not to be as completely “in” Lucas here as he usually is. Or maybe Lucas is just more upset in this scene than I read him being.

Finally, gotta say that this episode is extremely well edited, and that this became clearer when I could watch it on a television screen that was several feet away from my eyes (as opposed to on my computer screen, which is about fifteen inches away). In particular, really liked:

Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) stands after his poisoning of the previous Home Secretary, Nicholas Blake (Robert Glenister) in Spooks 9.1. My cap. The shot really shows Harry’s capacity for callousness once he’s made a decision in a nicely concrete way.

and this one:

Lucas North (Richard Armitage) signals his readiness to move to Dmitri as the latter walks by to “check out a ballast pump” in Spooks 9.1. Source: Richard Armitage Central Gallery. In this scene they edited in a quarter-of-a-second shot twice to signal the interaction between Dmitri and Lucas. Very effective in conveying tension. Also a great shot of Armitage’s face.

Wow, I can’t say how good finally getting to write something substantive about Richard Armitage made me feel today. Almost like the old Servetus …

~ by Servetus on March 13, 2011.