Return to Intro. to Film syllabus
Updated 30 October 2006
ENGLISH 114: INTRODUCTION TO FILM, Fall 2006
Section 3: Thursday, 6:00-9:30 p.m.,
Professor Larsson
Week 9, October 26
6:00-6:10
Announcements, review of Quiz 4
6:10-7:00
Review, discussion of Cinematography and Touch of Evil
7:00-7:10
Break
7:10-9:30
Acting in film
TEST 2 NEXT WEEK (Quiz 5 postponed until Nov. 9)
Bring a full-sized (8 ½” x 11”) Scantron sheet and a number 2 pencil
20 questions
§ Chapter 3: Mise-en-scene
§ Chapter 4: Cinematography
§ Films: The General, North by Northwest, Touch of Evil
§ Several questions will refer to a short film clip shown in class, dealing with such elements as
o Lighting
o Staging and composition
o Camera placement
o Camera movement
48-Hour Film Contest (IMPACT)
For details, see http://www.boredboard.org/
Acting in Cinema
Good acting?
Bad acting?
Critieria depend on changing defininitions and expectations by audiences, actors and directors.
What is the actor trying to do, in the context of the film as a whole?
How well does he or she do it?
Orson Welles as Actor
Hank Quinlan (Touch of Evil) vs. Charles Foster Kane (Citizen Kane)
Character might have been inspired by somewhat similar role (corrupt sherrif with cigar) in Man in the Shadow (1957)
§ Kane as young man, taking over The Inquirer
§ Kane older, after second wife leaves him
Acting for cinema depends on a number of different elements
§ Concepts of “acting” and “performance” when film was created
§ Expectations of critics and audiences
§ Training and background of actors
§ Role of the director
Welles, with background in theater and radio, works to redefine the actor’s role in film, even though often relegated to supporting roles in films directed by others.
Ideas about Acting
“Natural” or “Realistic” Acting vs. Stylization in Acting
Concepts change across time, shaped by realization of how technology changes audience needs, new concepts of “realism” and “character” in theatre and film
Early silent film
§ Nero, or the Fall of Rome (1909)
§ The Girl and Her Trust (1912)
§ Transition from stage-based performances to performance for intimacy of camera
o DelSarte Method (1839)—linking particular gestures and poses to particular emotions or expressions, dictated in part by necessity in large theaters
o D.W. Griffith—performance styles developed through Lillian and Dorothy Gish and other actors, subdued actions and expressions suited to medium shots and close-ups in film, 1910s-1920s; emotion conveyed through restrained movements, small mouth and eye movements, etc.
Silent Film and Character Development
Soviet Montage Filmmaking (USSR, 1920s)
Sergei Eisenstein, Potemkin (1925)
Typage—Actors chosen and made up to represent certain types and classes, not individual characters as such
Character Development—Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (1940)
Satire on Hitler—“Adenoid Hynkel” vs. Jewish barber derived from Little Tramp character
Sound Cinema: Hollywood and others
The Hollywood Star System
§ Roots in theatrical star system from theatre, opera, etc.
§ Initially resisted by early filmmakers like Edison
§ Result of popular appeal and ability to use stars to market films like product
Stars play double role—with or against character
Supporting roles by character actors, associated with particular types, and others
Examples:
§ William Powell, Carole Lombard and Mischa Auer in My Man Godfrey
§ Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity
§ Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce
§ Bette Davis in All about Eve
§ Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon
§ Peter Lorre in M
Late 1940s-early 1950s: rise of “method acting”
§ Adapted from Stanislavsky system developed in Russia at turn of 20th Century
§ Major impact on American theatre through Lee Strassberg, Elia Kazan, and the Actors Studio in New York
§ Influence spread to new generation of actors not raised within studio system (Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, James Dean) and directors like Kazan
Example: A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Stylized acting in modern films:
§ Stranger than Paradise