When I have shown that film or CITIZEN KANE or just about
anything in the
German Expressionist mode (BLUE ANGEL), students--and good
ones too--will
always ask something like "Why didn't they learn how to act?"
The
performance styles of the period strike the younger
generation as way
overdone--and of course Welles pushed the limits of that
style anyway. In
fact, if young viewers weren't so schooled to revere Bogart,
I'll bet many
would admit that films like THE MALTESE FALCON or THE BIG
SLEEP have scenes
that are too theatrical for their tastes.
Add to period's styles of acting all the assertive,
expressionistic
camerawork, lighting, and editing and the whole package will
strike them as
posturing, not realism. They may value it only as "camp,"
like an early
Dracula movie.
The students that do end up liking these titles and others
are those who
develop a taste for different styles of acting (and
filming)--some
understand that "realism" in acting or filming is a style as
well.
Stepping from behind the lecturn...
Bill Hagen
<billha@ionet.net>
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