Madly, Deeply by Alan Rickman. Narrated by Steven Crossley, et al. Macmillan Audio, 2022. 19 hours (approx.).
Alan Rickman is an actor who, I imagine, is now best known for his portrayal of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. His breakthrough role, however, was as the villain in Die Hard. He came to my attention as the angel, Metatron, in Dogma. He has many more credits to his name and many awards, too.
Madly, Deeply is the publication of his diaries. Evidently, Rickman was a prolific diary writer, and this book is the distillation of more than a million words, according to the editor, Alan Taylor. The entries begin in 1993, well after Die Hard. Still, there are day to day accounts of filming many other of his great movies.
As noted, I was particularly interested in Dogma. I learned - among other things - how the angel wings he had to wear caused him terrible back pain. Also entertaining were his thoughts on the film’s “nude” scene, what he called cinema's first ever “full frontal, no frontal” shot (in director Kevin Smith’s conception, angels have no genitalia).
These day-to-day accounts of being on set are too brief and too few. Most of the entries are an exercise in the trivial: plane departures and random errands or chores. Had Rickman devoted more time to the on set stuff or to his critiques of other films and plays, Madly, Deeply would be a much more entertaining book.
But it’s not Rickman’s fault. Taylor says in the introduction, “We do not know whether Alan would like to have seen his diaries published …” Rickman was writing for himself, not for an audience.
This begs the question, why publish Rickman’s diaries? Life-long friend, Emma Thompson, offers one possible answer in her forward: “These diaries bring back so much of what I remember of him.” Indeed, for those who loved him, Madly, Deeply must be a treasure.
For the rest of us, the diaries could have been distilled down even further. Perhaps multiple volumes could have been issued, each dealing with a special subject: one for his films, one for his critiques, one for his personal life, etc. For now, there are helpful indexes at the top of each year that can guide readers to a specific topic. Filming on Harry Potter begins in late 2000, by the way.
Rickman has a way with words and observations that make even the trivial moments opportunities for improving one’s own writing. I detected a similar style in the works of Neil Giaman, giving credence to my friend’s suggestion that it’s a uniquely British way of looking at the world and writing about it. Woe to this American who’ll never get it!
Having read the portions that most intrigued me, I am not sure that I will finish Madly, Deeply. I am not a huge fan although I appreciate Rickman’s work, and I’m certainly not a close acquaintance like Emma Thompson. Life is short. Books are long. It’s time to move on. If I do finish it, it’ll be a vein attempt to acquire of the aforementioned British style.
Most readers will likely thumb through the pages, making use of the indexes to discover whatever it is about Rickman that captured their attention, and read about it. Few, I think, will read it cover to cover.