Theorizing Film Acting
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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 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 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2012 Taylor & Francis The right of Aaron Taylor to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. 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 Acknowledgments This anthology has been gestating for a number of years and would not have been possible without the kindness, patience and invaluable support of a number of friends and colleagues. The project gathered momentum thanks to the initial interest of a number of thoughtful editors, including Shannon McLachlan at Oxford University Press and Annie Martin and Barry Keith Grant at Wayne State University Press. Special thanks are due to my colleague Bohdan Nebesio, who took me up on my suggestion to begin this project and helped establish much of the volume’s structural and organizational groundwork. It is largely thanks to his editorial experience and keen insight that the volume got off the ground. I have received excellent assistance and care from various editors and administrative assistants at Routledge. Felisa Salvago-Keyes was an atten- tive and generous editor. Erica Wetter and Charles Wolfe were instrumen- tal in fi nding the volume a home. Technical questions were handled with friendly aplomb by Julie Ganz and Joyce Lucas. A number of fi rst-rate scholars of fi lm acting should also be mentioned for their interest and participation in the volume during various stages of its development. I benefi ted greatly from exchanges with and contributions by Wheeler Winston Dixon, Elizabeth Marquis, Roberta Pearson, Johannes Riis and Carole Zucker. My own ideas about fi lm acting have also been informed by instructive conversations with several colleagues at the Univer- sity of Lethbridge, including Ken Allan, Peter Alward, Louise Barrett, Ron Chambers, Marek Czuma, Lisa Doolittle, Gail Hanrahan, Dana Inkster and Douglas MacArthur. I am especially grateful to Dana Cooley, who provided helpful responses to the volume’s Introduction, and to the Depart- ment of New Media in general for providing an ideal environment for the cultivation of this volume.