There are many reasons why the invention of cinema was a gift to humanity. One of the more important ones: that even people who rarely have the opportunity to visit New York's theater district can watch the masterful, irresistible Nathan Lane at work enough often. He is familiar to film and television audiences through roles in "The Birdcage" or "Modern Family" as well as a voice actor in animated films such as "The Lion King" and "Stuart Little" plus various sequels. On Broadway, meanwhile, he has earned the status of an award-winning indispensable, whether in "Guys and Dolls" or "The Odd Couple," over the past four decades.
Bertram Eisenhauer
Responsible for the "Life" section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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The elemental force Lane, who is not exactly tall and, excuse me, a little on the chubby side, brings to the stage can be seen well in the film adaptation of Mel Brooks' unrestrained burlesque comedy "The Producers" from 2005; in the role of the cunning Max Bialystock, Lane had already whirled through theaters in Chicago, New York and London in 2001 and 2004.
But to appreciate Lane's qualities in the more intimate formats of film and television, one has to talk about his eyebrows, perhaps the most mobile part of his small crumpled face, which he likes to pull up until they are at a 45-degree angle, and which seem to pull the rest of his expression along, to a most pleasurable effect. But Lane also masters the mimic opposite, called "deadpan" in English, a – paradoxically – even slightly exaggerated lack of expression; it is often presented in a look directly into the camera, which seems to say: Oh, man, you don't have to comment on that, do you?
A feeling of understanding each other with the viewer
In such moments, this little king of secondary characters creates a feeling of we-understand-each other with the viewer. Lane is one of those performers you confide in. Especially in cinema, where narrative economy is required, directors also use it because they don't have to explain its characters in a big way; many of them are guaranteed to be popular figures. The decisive factor for Lane's effect is probably that with him, the gifted comedian, the funny always springs from characters who seem fully developed – and the joke is always imbued with a credible melancholic wisdom. This is a skill that only a few happy few develop from the comic subjects. In the Netflix film "Carrie Philby," for example, the psychotherapist played by Lane tries to make the young, hyper-intelligent title character a more sociable person. He counters her eloquent objections with a sigh and a gentle "you're such a naysayer"; To which she replied, "But no." And then they laugh with each other, and the viewer is there as if an accomplice.
Perhaps his most typical Nathan Lane role was played by Nathan Lane in 1996's "The Birdcage," the comedy about a gay couple who run a nightclub in Florida where one of them – Lane – performs as a travesty artist; when her (heterosexual) son wants to marry (a woman), the bride's arch-conservative parents have to be pretended to have a traditionally structured family. It could be that a movie like "The Birdcage" wouldn't be made today because people would say it reproduces gender stereotypes. To which other people would hopefully reply that these stereotypes have rarely been blown up from the inside in such a screamingly funny way. The two men – Lane, himself homosexual and married since 2015, and the now deceased Robin Williams, another funny sage – meet each other with such intimacy and naturalness that even homophobes are likely to fall silent. And Lane has several opportunities to let his art sparkle, for example when his "Albert" tries to appear "masculine" and therefore rehearses to go like John Wayne, the icon of Western virility – pure comedy gold.