Alan Rickman. You may recall him as Hans Gruber from the first Die Hard film. More likely you remember him as Professor Severus Snape from the Harry Potter franchise.
You may not remember his lesser roles. He chewed up the scenery as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Kevin Costner’s version of Robin Hood. I’m pretty sure more casual fans will be unaware of his roles in Bottle Shock and CBGB.
In Bottle Shock, the true story of how Napa Valley became a player on the world’s wine stage, Rickman plays Steven Spurrier, a British ex-pat and wine snob who concocts a scheme in the form of a blind wine tasting contest comparing California wines to French. Chris Pine and Bill Pullman also star. It’s a charming little film that I have watched many times. It does a great job of creating 1980’s Napa (I lived not far from there for a long time). Rickman has some very funny moments. If you’re a “wino” like me (I love “wine” movies like this one and Sideways), you’ll find this one very entertaining.
CBGB is another true story. This one is about the “Godfather of Punk,” Hilly Kristal (played by Rickman). Kristal is—for lack of a better term—a loser, living in NYC. He buys a seedy dive bar and calls it “CBGB” (Country, Blue Grass, and Blues), but (at least in the film anyway) never features a single artist from any of those genres. Instead, his first act is a punk band called Television. As an interesting side-note, I hear their song called “Marquee Moon,” which is featured in the film on the Classic Alternative station on Amazon’s music streaming service (here’s a live version of it on YouTube: Television – Marquee Moon (Live) 1984). From there, things take off and we see a who’s who of Punk and early Alternative bands from the late 70s and early 80s including Talking Heads, Blondie, Patti Smith, The Ramones, and The Police, among others. Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley of Harry Potter fame) plays a member of The Dead Boys, another seminal punk band that Kristal himself decides to manage. If you like little indie films and are generally just a Rickman fan, you’ll like this one too. All the more if you love Alt music like I do.
I was deeply saddened when we lost Mr. Rickman. He was a superb actor and his contributions to American cinema will endure forever.
Credit to respective owners for the images used in this post.
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