SP 472 American Film History, Week 7

8/2/2019 SP 472 American Film History, Week 7

1/26

Differences betweenstage and screen

acting Physicality

Real time vs. screentime

Photogenic features

Acting

Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet


2/26

Actors in FormalistFilms vs. RealisticFilms

Acting

Sin City

The Departed


3/26

Film Actors

Marilyn Monroe

Clint Eastwood Julia Roberts

Tom Cruise

Acting


4/26

Shooting out ofsequence - does not

have to sustain aperformance

Looping or ADR

Stunt & BodyDoubles

Little or no rehearsal

Acting

Flashdance


5/26

Personality Star

Actor Star

Icons

Acting

Pretty Woman


6/26

Personality Star

Acting


7/26

Actor Star

Acting

Kathy Bates


8/26

Icons

Acting


9/26

Styles of Acting

External mastery

Acting

Laurence Olivier


10/26

Styles of Acting

Internal reality

Acting

Marlon Brando


11/26

Acting

Konstantin Stanislavsky& Method acting Director of the famed

Moscow Art Theatre Developed the most

essential approach to theart of acting over the 20thcentury

Approach aimed tocreating realistic andbelievable actingperformances


12/26

Acting

Believable truth Employed methods such as

"emotional memory Concerned with the creation

of physical entries intothese emotional states,believing that the repetitionof certain acts andexercises could bridge thegap between life on and off

the stage Demanded actors that pay

closer attention to theimportant unsaid messageswithin the writing


13/26

Acting

Marlon Brando Robert de Niro Sidney Poitier

Marilyn Monroe James Dean Montgomery Clift


14/26

Style of the film

What kind ofcamera is used?

How is it

photographed? What is it about?

Acting

Moulin Rouge, The Others, Dogville & Bewitched


15/26

Casting

Typecasting

Acting

Kal Penn inSuperman Returnsand 24


16/26

Acting

Ed Helms in TheHangover, TheOffice & CedarRapids


17/26

Casting

Recognizable stars

Acting

The Namesake

Erin Brockovich


18/26

Casting

Recognizable stars

Acting

Monsters Ball


19/26

Casting

Amateurs

Acting


20/26

What kind of actors?

How are they treated by the director?

How much editing? Are they allowed to speak without a

lot of cuts? Does the film highlight one actor or the ensemble?

Does the star change from film to film or are theyalways symbolizing one thing?

What is the cultural connection of the starsiconography to the movie?

What is the style of acting? Realistic or stylized?

Why was the actor cast?

Acting


21/26

Acting Badlands, 1973

Directed, Written &Produced by TerrenceMalick

With Martin Sheen & SissySpacek

Does not condemn or praise

Society is benign

A 70s film despite the perioddetail
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173EB42CA6494CC0B7799F8C6896http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173EB42CA6494CC0B7799F8C6896


22/26

Acting

Based on the true Story ofCharles Starkweather & Caril AnnFugate (he was 19, she was 14)

Springsteens Nebraska

Starkweather was executed &Fugate (who always maintainedher innocence) was paroled after18 years
http://youtu.be/iir_xAbt-akhttp://youtu.be/iir_xAbt-ak


23/26

Acting Terrence Malick, 1943

Another true Auteur (French for author)meaning his vision, style and values areprimary and trumps the collective process-see Tarantino, Kubrick, Altman

Badlandsis his first feature (he was 29) So reclusive & eccentric that few photosexist producers cannot keep copies ofanything in his handwriting

called a producer & said he was walkingfrom Texas to Oklahoma "looking at birds".

Studied philosophy at Harvard & Oxford(was a Rhodes Scholar)

After Days of Heaven(1978) he did notmake another film & effectivelydisappeared from the mainstream untilThe Thin Red Line(1998)

Is a big fan of Zoolander
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-secret-life-of-terrence-malick-2288183.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-secret-life-of-terrence-malick-2288183.html


24/26

''He's the guy sitting there with thebutterfly net waiting for the greatmonarch to go by,'' says star BradPitt ''And when he sees it, he grabsit.''

''You can't imagine how much

footage there was,'' says costarJessica Chastain. ''We shot all day.The only time the camera wasn'trolling was when they were reloadingthe film.'

"Where other movies have fans,

Malick's produce disciples," US filmcritic James Hoberman has said.


25/26

Martin Sheen, 1940 65 films including

Apocalypse Now, Wall Street,Gandhi, The Departed, Catch

Me If You Can, The Believers &The Amazing Spiderman in 3D

TV includes Murphy Brown,Spin City & The West Wing(7years)

Regards Badlandsas some

of his finest work


26/26

Sissy Spacek, 1949

Met husband Jack Fisk onthe set of Badlands

Studied the Method with LeeStrasberg

Devoted much of the 80s &90s to her family

Films include Carrie(Oscar nom.), Coal

Miners Daughter(Oscar),night Mother, Missing, Crimesof the Heart, The StraightStory, In the Bedroom, Get

Low, The Help

Documents

SP 472 American Film History, Week 7