With his habitually sombre expression, mournful eyes and
brainy-looking cranium, Ganz was never going to be a Hollywood star.
But as an actor who works with under-stated, restrained gestures, he
has brought a quiet humanity to the films of those visionary directors
wise enough to use him. He was touching as Jonathan Harker in Herzog's
Nosferatu, and ideally cast as the eternally watching angel in
Wenders' Wings Of Desire. But perhaps his greatest performance to date
is in Angelopoulos' Eternity And A Day, where he plays a dying poet. With
his hair gone, and an Old Testament prophet-style beard, Ganz brings
real dignity and authority to the role.
