Thandie Newton at the 2006 Baftas, where she won best supporting actress. Photograph: Ian West/PA
What are the hugest performances in screen history? Daniel Day Lewis' in There Will Be Blood must be up there among the giants. It's insane, towering, monolithic but there are times when you just want him to stop, especially in that final act, when he utters the sure-to-become legendary and much-imitated "I drink your milkshake" line. It's a fine line between hammy and genius, is all I can say.
What others are on a par? I'm talking performances that dominate the screen, the film, the decade and pass into legend and even the vernacular. Napalm in the morning, that sort of thing ...
I talk to Irish actor Ciaran Hinds about working with DDL on the set of There Will Be Blood, and getting up close to the stuff of legend.
The film is also likely to result in Daniel being handed an award at this weekend's Baftas, and I look ahead to the event in the company of chief exec Amanda Berry. How could the event be improved? Wouldn't you like to see This Is England up against The Coens and Paul Thomas Anderson in a fair fight instead of in a separate British category?
Finally, I meet up with Nick Broomfield, who is quietly becoming one of Britain's most restless and creative film makers, moving from documentaries starring himself, to impressively kinetic real-life dramatic reconstructions. His latest is Battle for Haditha, about a massacre perpetrated by American marines in Iraq and there are a couple of scenes of death and destruction that rank up there with the most gruesome and shocking I've ever seen in a war movie. Maybe you've got some more poignant war scenes?
So: monumental performances, better Baftas and unforgettably powerful war movie moments - your thoughts, please ...
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