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Lesson 13:Lesson 13:Resistance ain’t futile, is it?Resistance ain’t futile, is it?

Professor Daniel Bernardi/Professor Michelle Martinez

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In the Last lectureIn the Last lecture

• The three waves of Chicano/a Film

• Postmodernism and the Mexican-American border dilemma

• Lourdes Portillo: Chicana Cinema– La Ofrenda (1988)– The Devil Never Sleeps

(1994)

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In this LectureIn this Lecture

• The Actor’s Role

• Using Acting as Subversion- Lupe Vélez

- Gilbert Roland

- José Ferrer

• Zoot Suit

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The Actor’s RoleThe Actor’s Role

Lesson 13: Part 1

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Actors Without Power?Actors Without Power?

“Many purported analyses of film acting are actually discussions of a fictional

character, which is created by the screenwriter, rather than the way that

the character is embodied, which is the work of the actor.” (88)

-Charles Ramirez Berg

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Isolating the ActorIsolating the Actor“After all, the actor is dressed by costumers,

coifed by hairstylists, made up by make up artists, lit by the director of photography, and

presumable guided in every shot by the director. In addition, actors speak words

written by the screen writer, and the editor shapes their performances into their ultimate form. Where then, is one to locate the actor’s

creative participation?” (88)-Charles Ramirez Berg

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SemioticsSemiotics

Ramirez Berg points to Theorist Richard Dyer’s argument:

“…what the performer does in addition to the actions/functions she or he performs in the plot and lines she or he is given to

say. Performance is how the action/function is done, how the lines

are said.” (88)

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ReminderReminder

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Semiotically SpeakingSemiotically Speaking

Dyer’s breakdown of signs of performance:– Facial expression– Voice– Gestures (principally of hands and arms, but

also of any limb, e.g. neck, leg)– Body posture (how someone is standing or

sitting) – Body movement (how someone stands up or

sits down, how they walk, run, etc.)

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The Big PointThe Big PointThe actor participates as a cog in the

wheel of the filmmaking process, a hired hand, and implements the part as directed and groomed to do so.

Audiences often confuse character for actor and vice versa. The actor’s true power is in interpreting the signs and

signifiers in the physical aspects of the role.

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Using Acting as SubversionUsing Acting as Subversion

Lesson 13: Part 2

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ReminderReminder

“The antidote to stereotyping is knowledge, that is information. In social stereotyping, the

more the in-group knows about the Other, the less accurate they will find the maligning

stereotype to be. A stereotypes usage declines as it becomes a less reliable

category.” (89)

-Charles Ramirez Berg

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Film RepresentationFilm Representation

Richard Dyer has argued that:

“In film representation…white characters are depicted as individuals, and people of color as part of an undifferentiated

mass…white people in their whiteness…are imagined as endlessly

diverse, complex and changing.”

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The Invisible KnapsackThe Invisible Knapsack

“Whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to

benefit others, this is seen as work which will allow ‘them’ to be more like ‘us’.”

-Peggy McIntosh

Click here to read the article by Peggy McIntosh“Unpacking the Knapsack of White Privilege”

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Fighting BackFighting Back

“Anything the filmmakers can do to enrich the flat, stereotypical image of an Other character

is probably a progressive blow against stereotyping. The more the film contextualizes its Latino characters, the more background the screenwriters provide for them so they appear

as fleshed-out characters as opposed to cardboard types, the less stereotypical they

will appear.”-Charles Ramirez Berg

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Enriching CharacterizationEnriching Characterization

“Anything actors can do to enrich their screen characters, to allow them to

become individuals rather than remain types, undermines their existence as a

mere stereotypical sign.” (89-90)

-Charles Ramirez Berg

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Examples of Early SubversionExamples of Early SubversionPerformative excesses as counter-stereotypical

devices:• Lupe Vélez

– Frenetic comic performance

• Gilbert Roland– Posture– Self-costuming

• José Ferrer– Dulcet voice– Lyrical line delivery

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Lupe Vélez (1908-1944)Lupe Vélez (1908-1944)• Starred in many lead or co-

sarring roles• Early sex symbol

(comparable to Mae West) in 1930s before pre-Production censorship codes

• Starred in series of films: Mexican Spitfire

• Lead role, fashionable clothing, “heroine of series”

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Vélez as Slapstick ComicVélez as Slapstick Comic

“In terms of the history of performance in film, what Vélez was doing—and this is unique for a woman in American sound cinema – was

continuing the slapstick tradition of silent comedies into sound films. Her whirligig comic style had its roots in Mexican vaudeville and was similar to the slapstick pioneered into an art form by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton,

Harold Lloyd, and others.” (96)-Charles Ramirez Berg

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Vélez as SubversiveVélez as Subversive

“…we can assume she was allowed to ad-lib her Spanish outbursts as long as they were

not offensive…she takes the opportunities to wink at the Spanish speakers in the audience, underscoring for them the difference between

stiff and cold Anglo values and human and warm Mexican ones.” (97)

-Charles Ramirez Berg

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Gilbert Roland (1905-1994)Gilbert Roland (1905-1994)

• Born in Mexico,raised in El Paso

• Matinee idol of the late 1920s and 1930s

• Became a well respected character actor

• Earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

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Roland as SubversiveRoland as Subversive

• Presented himself with a straight, yet graceful posture

• Avoided stereotypical costuming for ‘Latino’ characters

• Visually commanded this scenes

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Stealing the SceneStealing the Scene

“Whenever his trademark costume tricks were constrained, he still stood erect in the frame, never slouched or drooped at the shoulders. In graphic terms, the vertical line created by upright posture is a strong power line in the frame, and when standing, Roland always

presented such a figure to the camera.” (98)

-Charles Ramirez Berg

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JosJoséé Ferrer (1909-1992) Ferrer (1909-1992)

• Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico• Graduate of Princeton• Won Academy award in

1950• Subpoenaed by McCarty

during ‘Red Scare’• Father of actor Miguel

Ferrer• Uncle of George Clooney

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Ferrer as SubversiveFerrer as Subversive

• Worked as actor, director, writer, and producer

• Won numerous awards• Worked with renowned film directors• Rarely cast as a Latino in films, came to be

known as an actor, rather than Latino actor.• When playing Latinos, used voice to avoid

stereotypes

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Ferrer in Ferrer in Crisis Crisis (1950)(1950)

“…Ferrer the actor breaks with the dictator-as-bandido stereotype by creating a

character who is far from a one-dimensional caricature. He is a complex of contradictions, part visionary, part savage, and always intelligent (both because it is

so well written by [Richard] Brooks and so well spoken by Ferrer).” (104)

– Charles Ramirez Berg

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The Big PointThe Big Point

Actors have limited power for subversion, however since the Golden Age of

American Cinema, some Latino actors have developed techniques and found

projects to subvert stereotypes.

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Zoot SuitZoot Suit

Lesson 13: Part 3

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Zoot Suit Zoot Suit (1981)(1981)

• Written and directed by Luis Valdez

• Starred Edward James Olmos

• Tells alternative history of Sleepy Lagoon Trials

• Politically contestational

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As SubversiveAs Subversive

• Adapted from the play by Luis Valdez

• Employed “meta-theater” and Brechtiaan techniques of poltical subversion

• Latino cast and filmmakers

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The Big PointThe Big Point

Latinos making films about Latinos, casting Latinos to play ‘themselves’ or casting Latinos to play non-Latinos or

roles which de-emphasize ethnicity are all ways to subvert stereotypes and seek to de-familiarize stereotypical

roles, therefore resisting their persistence.

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End of Lecture 13End of Lecture 13

Next Lecture: So where are we…again?