Acting and Performing in moving image media takes many different forms. This course examines a wide range of acting styles in international cinema from a historical perspective. In the first part of the course we will look at examples of American cinema about which a great deal has been written, and on which the discourse around film acting developed. We will then look at a variety of ways of thinking and writing about performance in different contexts and from different perspectives. Film performance is deeply intwined with celebrity culture and star studies; it is also linked to identity politics and performances of the self, and the politics and practices of casting, so the course will cast a wide net in order to bring all these modes of performativity together.
Acting and Performing are notoriously difficult to talk about because they are elusive and always enmeshed in storytelling, technologies, collaboration, and of course costume and miseen-scene. This course aims to help students talk and write about film acting, which is often a matter of finding the right vocabulary and identifying the performative aesthetics in any given media. Through writing assignments and class discussions students will develop a vocabulary to talk about acting and performance, and learn how to distinguish characters from the actors who create them.
Some of the films and excerpts shown in class from decades past contain scenes of social injustice that students may well find disturbing or offensive, including a number of instances of racist and sexist violence. We will be watching these films because they are also examples of important performances, and we will discuss them in detail in order to unpack the historical contexts of these films and their moral universes. Students are invited to express their discomfort with any screening privately with the instructor, or through an anonymous feedback portal.
Course Objectives
- To understand the different theories of acting that have been developed since the early years of cinema, and be able to identify and describe different acting styles that have emerged historically and globally
- To be able to describe a film performance in relationship to storytelling, character creation, mise-en-scene, costume, direction, and collaboration between actors
- To understand the basic dynamics that have underscored the star system and film celebrity
- To be able to use a critical vocabulary for acting and performance
- To understand the social justice and ethical issues involved in casting and performance
