The triple Oscar winner has retired from the profession twice – and returned twice. Ahead of Anemone, directed by his son Ronan, we gorge on Day-Lewis’s back catalogue
The movie of the Broadway musical of Fellini’s 8½ is one of only two duds on the Day-Lewis CV. Surrounded by dazzling female actors (Nicole Kidman, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren), he ends up making heavy weather of Guido, the bewildered auteur caught at a creative impasse. A light touch eludes him: he’s no Marcello Mastroianni, that’s for sure.
John Schlesinger’s bisexual love-triangle drama gave Day-Lewis his film debut at the age of 14. He is briefly shown sauntering along a row of parked cars, scratching the paintwork with a broken bottle. The delinquent behaviour, the insouciant look, the south London setting: this could be a teenage snapshot of Johnny from My Beautiful Laundrette.
Ten minutes or so of screen time doesn’t give Day-Lewis much chance to make an impression as the debonair ex of young Nanou (Imogen Stubbs). He finds her in France, where she has fallen in with a would-be terrorist, but says “au revoir” shortly after. Still, he looks Delon-level dashing in a raincoat.
Like Sunday Bloody Sunday, another hooligan cameo for Day-Lewis. He gets dialogue this time, all of it racist, as he tries to intimidate the young Gandhi, played by Ben Kingsley. Movies in which Day-Lewis played a more prominent role have attracted no shortage of Oscar nominations, but Gandhi is the only one of his to have walked off with the best picture prize.
