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Top 10 Kenneth Branagh

Actor, writer & director Kenneth Branagh has been making an impression on audiences since the early 80s. During his career he's been nominated 4 times for an Oscar, and while he's not managed to take one home yet, there's still plenty of time. In celebration of the marvelous Mr Branagh, we chart his top 10 films.

Top 10 Films

Henry V (1989)

"We few, we happy few..." Powerful and passionate, Branagh's fantastic directorial debut is a double triumph. Behind the camera, he whips Shakespeare's war saga into stirring big-screen drama. On screen, he gives a star-making performance of charisma and steel. When the English arrows fly at Agincourt, it's muddy, bloody battle-cinema at its best.

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Dead Again (1991)

Having scored two Oscar nominations for Henry V, Branagh tried switching gears for this tricksy murder-melodrama that serves up double-roles for him and then-wife Emma Thompson. It kinda works – Branagh's plays a '90s LA private eye and a '40s German composer – even if the real-life couple never quite fizz on-screen.

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Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

Once again, Branagh slaps the dust off The Bard by casting Hollywood stars Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves in a screwball comedy that goes silly in Sicily. Romance, jealousy, treachery, secrets and lies... and Michael Keaton doing his best impression of an Elizabethan Beetlejuice. Suddenly, Shakespeare doesn't seem so dull.

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Frankenstein (1994)

Lurching energetically between campy romance and classic horror, Branagh's adap of Shelley's literary classic never nails the tragic grandeur but sure has its moments. All chest=hair and man-tights, Dr Branagh-stein gruesomely builds Robert De Niro out of body-bits – a monster who, this being KB, seems smarter than most English degree students.

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Othello (1995)

Please sir, can we have some Moor? It might be the first time a black actor played Othello on screen, but Branagh effortlessly robs the movie from under Laurence Fishburne. As evil lieutenant Iago, he's a frighteningly seductive schemer – almost convincing you that Othello and his bride /should/ be busted up...

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Hamlet (1996)

Clocking a whopping four hours, this was the first time anyone had dared bring The Bard's entire play to life on screen. Branagh goes for broke as writer, director and star: if his performance as the Danish king is a little flush, his all-star epic is as handsome as cine-Shakespeare gets.

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Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)

Startling true-life Oz drama about three aboriginal children, kidnapped and enslaved by the Australian government, who escape across the Outback. He doesn't get much to work with, but Branagh brings a tight-lipped English menace to his role as the colonial official executing a gobsmacking plan to "breed out" the country's natives. Eek.

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Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets (2002)

Quite simply the best thing about Potter's second big-screen adventure – apart from the Quidditch, maybe – Branagh boils the ham to perfection with a deliciously funny, preening performance as Hogwarts' professor Gilderoy Lockhart. There's nothing quite like watching Branagh skewering his own thespy image by admiring a self-portrait of himself painting a self-portrait.

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Valkyrie (2009)

He won an Emmy as a Nazi dreaming up The Final Solution in TV movie Conspiracy, but Branagh spun the Swastika's moral compass to help Tom Cruise plot to kill Hitler in Bryan Singer's Valkyrie. "If you look at [Major General Henning von] Tresckow's energy, he had an honesty that Branagh has," said Singer.

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Thor (2011)

Shakespeare to superheroes... Kenneth Branagh's Thor? It still sounds weird. But the thespy Brit filmmaker surprised everyone, framing Marvel's Norse hammer-hero as a comic-book riff on Henry V and delivering a solidly enjoyable 3D blockbuster. Aussie builder Chris Hemsworth probably has Kenny B to thank for his stout English accent.

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Jonathan Crocker