Ryan Gosling as a shadowy stranger, Gary Oldman as a ventrilloquist's doll, Brad Pitt as a moth-obsessed freak -- these are just a taste of the bizarre-brilliant villains that the New York Times Magazine has collected as part of an unusual online video gallery: "Touch of Evil: Cinematic Villainy from the Years Best Performers."
This is not a simple stitch-and-play site; the magazine went out and shot 13 of the years biggest film stars in a series of short vignettes directed by Alex Prager. The clips include performances from Kirsten Dunst, Jessica Chastain, George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Glen Close and more.
"Touch of Evil" is not the first time that the Times Magazine has put together a star-studded video project. In 2010, the magazine commissioned a project called "14 Actors Acting: A Video Gallery of Classic Screen Types" which featured stars such as Matt Damon, Tilda Swinton, Vincent Cassel performing one-minute scenes.
"Touch of Evil" is the darker side of those screen types, with familiar tropes and fair number of homages to classic film villains. See if you can you spot the references to Conformist or Bonnie and Clyde.
What is the most exciting is that very few of the actors play to type. George Clooney isn't a dapper greying gentleman but a buffoonish general. Dujardin, who plays a mugging silent film star in The Artist, appears as a pit-bullish fighter in a vignette.