RARA-AVIS: Acting Noir

Bill Hagen (billha@ionet.net)
Wed, 19 Nov 1997 22:47:54 -0600 (CST) I think I can understand Sandra Hess' reaction to TOUCH OF EVIL.

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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