Theorizing Film Acting

320 Pages·2012·6.06 MB·English

by  Aaron Taylor

ROUTLEDGE ADVANCES IN FILM STUDIES
Theorizing Film Acting
Edited by
Aaron Taylor
Theorizing Film Acting
Routledge Advances in Film Studies
1 Nation and Identity in the New 8 The Politics of Loss and Trauma
German Cinema in Contemporary Israeli Cinema
Homeless at Home Raz Yosef
Inga Scharf
9 Neoliberalism and Global
2 Lesbianism, Cinema, Space Cinema
The Sexual Life of Apartments Capital, Culture, and Marxist
Lee Wallace Critique
Edited by Jyotsna Kapur and
3 Post-War Italian Cinema Keith B. Wagner
American Intervention, Vatican
Interests 10 Korea’s Occupied Cinemas,
Daniela Treveri Gennari 1893-1948
The Untold History of the Film
4 Latsploitation, Exploitation Industry
Cinemas, and Latin America Brian Yecies with Ae-Gyung Shim
Edited by Victoria Ruétalo and
Dolores Tierney 11 Transnational Asian Identities in
Pan-Paci(cid:2) c Cinemas
5 Cinematic Emotion in Horror The Reel Asian Exchange
Films and Thrillers Edited by Philippa Gates & Lisa
The Aesthetic Paradox of Funnell
Pleasurable Fear
Julian Hanich 12 Narratives of Gendered Dissent
in South Asian Cinemas
6 Cinema, Memory, Modernity Alka Kurian
The Representation of Memory
from the Art Film to Transnational 13 Hollywood Melodrama and the
Cinema New Deal
Russell J.A. Kilbourn Public Daydreams
Anna Siomopoulos
7 Distributing Silent Film Serials
Local Practices, Changing Forms, 14 Theorizing Film Acting
Cultural Transformation Edited by Aaron Taylor
Rudmer Canjels
Theorizing Film Acting
Edited by Aaron Taylor
NEW YORK LONDON
First published 2012
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the UK
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© 2012 Taylor & Francis
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Theorizing film acting / edited by Aaron Taylor.
p. cm. — (Routledge advances in film studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Motion picture acting. I. Taylor, Aaron.
PN1995.9.A26T53 2012
791.4302'8—dc23
2011041097
ISBN13: 978-0-415-50951-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-12321-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by IBT Global.
Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Acting, Casually and Theoretically Speaking 1
AARON TAYLOR
PART I
Aesthetics: Understanding and Interpreting Film Acting
1 Acting Matters: Noting Performance in Three Films 19
BRENDA AUSTIN-SMITH
2 Living Meaning: The Fluency of Film Performance 33
ANDREW KLEVAN
3 Play-Acting: A Theory of Comedic Performance 47
ALEX CLAYTON
4 Performed Performance and The Man Who Knew Too Much 62
MURRAY POMERANCE
5 “Brando Sings!”: The Invincible Star Persona 76
GEORGE TOLES
PART II
Reception: Film Acting, Audiences and Communities
6 “Look at Me!”: A Phenomenology of
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight 93
JÖRG STERNAGEL
vi Contents
7 Is Acting a Form of Simulation or Being?
Acting and Mirror Neurons 107
WILLIAM BROWN
8 The Bond That Unbinds by Binding:
Acting Mythology and the Film Community 120
KEVIN ESCH
9 From Being to Acting: Performance in Cult Cinema 135
ERNEST MATHIJS
10 Acting and Performance in Home Movies and Amateur Films 152
LIZ CZACH
PART III
Culture: Film History, Industry
and the Vicissitudes of Star Acting
11 Story and Show: The Basic Contradiction of Film Star Acting 169
PAUL MCDONALD
12 The Screen Actor’s “First Self” and “Second Self”:
John Wayne and Coquelin’s Acting Theory 184
SHARON MARIE CARNICKE
13 Acting Like a Star: Florence Turner, Picture Personality 201
CHARLIE KEIL
14 Niche Stars and Acting “Gay” 210
CHRIS HOLMLUND
PART IV
Apparatus: Technology, Film Form and the Actor
15 What Becomes of the Camera in the World on Film? 229
WILLIAM ROTHMAN
Contents vii
16 Sonic Bodies: Listening as Acting 243
JENNIFER M. BARKER
17 Dance of the Übermarionettes:
Toward a Contemporary Screen Actor Training 256
SEAN AITA
18 Articulating Digital Stardom 271
BARRY KING
Contributors 287
Index 293
Figures
1.1 Nadia Sibirskaia in Ménilmontant. 22
1.2 Gene Hackman in The Conversation. 26
1.3 The donkey in Au Hasard Balthazar. 30
2.1 Camille. 34
2.2 The Philadelphia Story. 36
2.3 In a Lonely Place. 38
2.4 It’s a Wonderful Life. 40
3.1 The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin) auditions to be a clown. 49
3.2 Herbert H. Heebert (Jerry Lewis) is a LOUSY housekeeper. 53
3.3 Pontius Pilate (Michael Palin) plays to the crowd. 55
3.4 Maria Tura (Carole Lombard) remembers the goldfi sh. 57
4.1 Doris Day as Jo Conway McKenna, singing “Que Sera, Sera
(What Will Be Will Be)” for guests at an embassy in The
Man Who Knew Too Much. 62
5.1 Marlon Brando shifts the terms of “I’ll Know” from wistful
monologue to a smilingly goading direct address in Guys
and Dolls. 80
5.2 It is natural for us to be attuned to kindred manifestations
of possession in the star himself. 85
5.3 Mitchum’s unhurriedness comes from a reluctance to push
himself into the artifi ce of dramatic action. 88
6.1 Heath Ledger throws himself at the camera with his
interpretation of the Joker in this fi rst, transient and extreme
close-up in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. 99
6.2 Heath Ledger as the Joker threatens both Rachel Dawes
(Maggie Gyllenhaal) and his spectators in The Dark Knight. 100
6.3 The mask of Jack Nicholson’s Joker is thick and
impermeable, as if shaped in plaster: his make-up does not
fade and his smile stays on in Tim Burton’s Batman. 103
x Figures
6.4 The mask of Ledger’s Joker is thin and permeable, as if
painted in watercolors: his make-up fades but his smile
remains in The Dark Knight. 103
9.1 Acting about acting: Jean-Claude Van Damme as himself in
Friends. 136
9.2 Polysemous expression: Jean Seberg imitates Jean-Paul
Belmondo imitating Humphrey Bogart in Breathless. 140
9.3 Acting as intertextual reference. Spot the cameos in
this shot from From Dusk ‘till Dawn. 142
11.1 The look of loathe. 175
11.2 Sizing him up. 176
11.3 Tenderness with protection. 177
11.4 Pitt as Rusty. 178
12.1 Does he look at his partners or inward toward
his thoughts and fears? 194
12.2 Wayne nearly falls from his horse, off -balance. 195
12.3 Does Edwards seek water in the dry earth? 196
12.4 Wayne holds the canteen as if to steady himself. 197
14.1 Chris Cooper uses his eyes and lips to convey
Col. Frank Fitts’ mistrust and fear. Do his gay neighbors
“read him?” Do they know that he, too, is gay? 213
14.2 Catherine Keener’s stance indicates Maxine Lund’s
lack of attraction to John Cusack’s Craig Schwartz
in Being John Malkovich. 217
14.3 Playing Lana Tisdel, Chloë Sevigny’s mouth, eyes
and cradling fi ngers promise “phallic” bliss to
Hilary Swank’s Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry. 221
15.1 Jean Arthur in If Only You Could Cook. 230
15.2 Sherman’s March. 234
15.3 Rod Steiger and Marlon in On the Waterfront. 241
17.1 Mo-cap actor/producer/director Reuben Langdon. 260
18.1 Vectors of reference in Avatar performances. 279