6) Torture: Part Two – A Fish Called Wanda
It is arguable that Kevin Kline has never had a performance to match his own particular brand of psychopath in A Film Called Wanda. He excels as Otto, his juddering madness and bursts of delight and aggression are a kaleidoscope of crazy which works, as writer John Cleese puts it perfectly, in the scene with poor old Ken and his fishtank.
Kline’s delight in the nonchalant torture is counterpointed perfectly in Palin’s stuttering mixture of English defiance in the face of unassailable odds and a thick streak of cowardice. As the torture goes on, and the stakes become personal (and then aquatic), the shifting of power becomes almost hypnotic and in a triumph of editing we are carried on until the bitter end. The film is one of the strongest from the team post-Python and the companion film Fierce Creatures is worth a look, though it rarely hits the stratospheric brilliance of this film.
