Namárië

Como fan de la obra de Tolkien, me veo en la obligación casi moral de escribir este post.
Nos ha dejado tristemente Christopher Lee, actor (ahora ya) legendario de la vieja escuela y de un tiempo dorado del cine y de un Hollywood ya casi olvidado. Poco a poco quedamos huérfanos de esa época del 7º arte (pero nadie vive ahora para recordarlo que diría Galadriel). Lee trabajó en cientos de películas de todo género y condición, interpretando un sin fin de personajes carismáticos y queridos por el público (incluso los villanos, él era un grandísimo intérprete de personajes malvados, no lo olvidemos).

Poca gente sabe que Christopher Lee además de fan de la obra de Tolkien desde siempre, de hecho es la única persona involucrada en las adaptaciones de Peter Jackson, que conoció al profesor en persona. (Beleg y yo nos enteramos más o menos cuando se hicieron las primeras películas). Estos son los fragmentos que he encontrado al respecto de ese encuentro casual.

 “I met him with a group of other people in a pub in Oxford he used to go to, The Eagle and Child. I was very much in awe of him, as you can imagine. We were sitting there talking and drinking beer, and someone said, "Oh, look who walked in." It was Professor Tolkien, and I nearly fell off my chair. I didn't even know he was alive. He was a benign looking man, smoking a pipe, walking in, an English countryman with earth under his feet. And he was a genius, a man of incredible intellectual knowledge. He knew somebody in our group. He (the man in the group) said "Oh Professor, Professor..." And he came over. And each one of us, well I knelt of course, each one of us said "how do you do?" And I just said "Ho.. How.. How..."
 Lee was the only LOTR cast member to actually meet Tolkien, who passed away in 1973, before several of the film’s stars had been born. 

Lee read the books when they originally were printed in the ‘50s, and instantly became a devoted fan. 

What Professor Tolkien achieved is unique in the literature of my lifetime. Indeed, in my opinion, he had reached the peak of literary invention of all time. Nothing like it has ever existed, and probably never will. —Christopher Lee

Lee, de familia aristócrata, además de actor y cantante, también participó en la II Guerra Mundial donde se alistó voluntariamente. Comenzó como piloto, pero acabo interviniendo en misiones que aún hoy día siguen clasificadas como secretas. Se rumorea que podría haber sido espía contra los nazis o algo parecido.
Su voz inolvidable y poderosa se ha apagado, su alargada figura y porte siempre eminente y honorable ya no se pasearán más entre nosotros infundiendo miedo y respeto a partes iguales. Pero su recuerdo siempre permanecerá plasmado en todas esas películas. O en los discos de metal sinfónico en los que colaboró ya en sus bien entrados 80 años. Digamos que Lee era un hombre peculiar y se atrevía con todo.

Hoy Sir Ian McKellen escribió en su facebook personal el siguiente texto de despedida del que ha sido a fin de cuentas un compañero de trabajo durante varios años, y un amigo. La carta en sí misma es una genialidad y merece la pena leerla. Lo cierto es que cuando la he encontrado en el muro, no he podido dejar de sonreír y sentirme triste a la vez mientras la leía.

Christopher Lee, CBE, CStJ (1922-2015)


When I arrived in New Zealand to start filming as Gandalf, in the first week of the 21st Century, Peter Jackson held a dinner for some of the cast. I was happily next to Christopher Lee who I had known of throughout my actor-admiring life. He'd been cast as the white wizard Saruman but his opening line to me was: "I've always thought I should play Gandalf. I read 'Lord of the Rings' every year - sometimes twice."
He then treated me to a snatch of the black speech of Mordor and I felt inadequate. Not that that was Chris's intention: he was 78 and well practised in the art of gentlemanly rectitude. The epitome of "tall, dark and handsome" kept any inner demons for his acting Dracula, Frankenstein's monster and, once, as Sherlock Holmes.
It's what made his Saruman so effective. With his long beard and white robes, he had the air of a stern yet benign Pope that belied his ambition to rule Middle-earth, with cruelty and spite.
Between our facing-off on the set, he could easily be persuaded to reminisce. After all there were over 200 films on his CV and a couple of singing albums. His earliest intention was to be an opera bass., Touchingly he was a little nervous at the outset. "Peter made me do my first speech 10 times!!" I told him not to worry as the previous day I'd had to repeat a scene 27 times. His dark eyes widened and glinted but he didn't complain again.
Peter was tickled to have his Hammer Horror hero as the villain and devised a spectacular death to acknowledge his vampiric past - falling onto a spike which pierced his dastardly heart. Chris didn't much approve and I think the episode can only be seen in the extended Director's Cut.
An odd pity that he didn't work in the theatre, nor direct a film, like his idol Laurence Olivier who had Chris as a spear-carrier in his film of 'Hamlet.' But he was justly proud of the span and success of his career in movies and when knighted must, like all of us, have been pleased to share a title with Sir Larry.
The last time Saruman and Gandalf filmed together was 'round a table in Rivendell but while Galadriel, Elrond and I were in the Wellington studio, Sir Christopher's interjections were filmed in London some months later. You can't tell. In movies, all is not as it seems.

Yet when he joined the "Star Wars" cast he said he did all his own stunts without benefit of a stand-in. That certainly wasn't true of his gravity-defying fight with Gandalf. I suspect he just wanted to declare he was in old age fit for purpose. He needn't have worried. His acting prowess never declined.

  -- Ian McKellen, June 2015

(McKellen, otro grande del cine, también me preocupa su salud, sobre todo desde que comunicó, poco antes de que yo me fuera de Londres, que tenía cáncer de próstata. Aunque él ha dicho que a su edad lo más posible es que no sea "mortal" ni se propague, pero el miedo sigue ahí)

Saruman el blanco, el que fuera el líder de los Istari ha cruzado el mar y ha vuelto "al Oeste", al viejo Valinor del que viniera, hace mucho mucho tiempo. No se me ocurre una mejor manera de despedirle que decirle: Namárië

Pippin- Nunca pensé en este final.
Gandalf- ¿Final? El viaje no concluye aquí. La muerte es otro sendero que recorreremos todos. El velo gris de este mundo se levanta y todo se convierte en plateado cristal. Es entonces... cuando se ve...
Pippin- ¿Qué, Gandalf? ¿Qué se ve?
Gandalf- La blanca orilla, y más allá la inmensa campiña verde tendida ante un fugaz amanecer.
Pippin- Bueno, eso no está mal.
Gandalf- No, no desde luego.

(Me he emocionado un poco a mí misma escribiendo todo esto, seré baka!) T_T