Lecture 8: ActingLecture 8: Acting

Professor Aaron Baker

Robert DeNiro in Heat (1995)

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Previous LecturePrevious Lecture• A Brief History of

Sound• The Three Components

of Film Sound– Dialogue– Sounds Effects– Music

This LectureThis Lecture

• Stage and Movie Acting

• Robert De Niro as Star Actor

• De Niro’s Performance in Raging Bull (1980)

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Stage and Movie ActingStage and Movie Acting

Lecture 8: Part I

Laurence Olivier as Hamlet

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Stage ActingStage Acting

• generally receives less recognition than movie acting.

• emphasizes roles that aren’t confused with the actor’s real life.

• often evaluated by one’s ability to succeed in well-known roles (e.g. Hamlet, Willy Lohman, Lady Macbeth)

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Stage performanceStage performance• is done in one

space and time, before a live audience.

• It requires sustained focus for the 2-3 hours of a play.

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Film Acting: One and DoneFilm Acting: One and Done

• Successful film actors are usually well known, compensated.

• Such star film actors are often seen as having a distinctive, appealing identity that they present in all their roles.

• Film roles are usually done just once. Movie actors perform a part and go on to others.

• There is no repertory of great roles in the movies as in theater to evaluate acting.

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Movie actors Movie actors

generally perform generally perform for just a few for just a few minutes at a time, minutes at a time, spread out over spread out over the weeks or the weeks or months in which a months in which a film is shot.film is shot.

Four Challenges for Movie Four Challenges for Movie Actors:Actors:

• Lack of RehearsalLack of Rehearsal• Out of Continuity ShootingOut of Continuity Shooting• No AudienceNo Audience• Impact of Other Contributors, Film Impact of Other Contributors, Film

TechnologyTechnology

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Lack of RehearsalLack of Rehearsal

• Schedules, Cost Prevent Schedules, Cost Prevent RehearsalRehearsal

• Actors Do Own PreparationActors Do Own Preparation• E.g. De Niro:E.g. De Niro:--Lived in Sicily for --Lived in Sicily for TheThe Godfather, Part II Godfather, Part II (1974)(1974)-Drove cab 3 months for -Drove cab 3 months for TaxiTaxi DriverDriver (1976) (1976) -Did interviews with Vietnam-Did interviews with Vietnam veterans for veterans for JackknifeJackknife (1989) (1989) 10

Out of Continuity ShootingOut of Continuity Shooting

• Also Cost EfficientAlso Cost Efficient• All Shots in a Location At One Time All Shots in a Location At One Time

(Even If from Different Parts of Story)(Even If from Different Parts of Story)• Master Shot of Whole SceneMaster Shot of Whole Scene• Coverage (Often without Other Actors)Coverage (Often without Other Actors)• Actor Must Know Character So Well Can Actor Must Know Character So Well Can

Play Parts of Story Out of Order and Play Parts of Story Out of Order and Without Other Characters/Audience Without Other Characters/Audience PresentPresent

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Film actorsFilm actors

• often have limited control over their performance.

• The director, editor, producer may decide how the actor will appear.

Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, director Steven Spielberg and actor Diego Luna on the set of The Terminal 2004.

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Some actorsSome actors

will therefore learn more about other aspects of filmmaking to “increase their control over the construction of their performances” (Lehman and Luhr, Thinking About Movies p. 149).

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Marlene DietrichMarlene Dietrich

learned about lighting and cinematography to have more involvement in how she was shown.

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Brad PittBrad Pitt

Jeff Kurland, the costume designer from Ocean’s Eleven, has said that Brad Pitt’s was very involved in developing the costumes his character, Rusty Ryan, wore.

Summary Film Acting vs. Stage Summary Film Acting vs. Stage ActingActing

• Less Recognition• Live Performance =

Creative Responsibility• Standard of Famous

Roles

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• Fame and Fortune• Collaborative

Performances• One and Done

Early Movie ActingEarly Movie Acting

• Used emotive, conventional gestures from theater.

• Stage actors need to project to audience to overcome distance.

• As closer framing brought viewer nearer, film actors became more restrained.17

Lillian Gish in Lillian Gish in Birth of a Nation, 1915Birth of a Nation, 1915

Method ActingMethod Acting

• After WW II became most influential acting style in movies.

• Based on psychological realism of Russian theater director Constantin Stanislavski

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Stanislavski

Use Own ExperienceUse Own Experience

• Method actors connect feelings of character to own experiences to create performance.

• Marlon Brando was one of first film actors to demonstrate the viability of Method style

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Rod Steiger and Brando in Rod Steiger and Brando in On the Waterfront 1954On the Waterfront 1954

Emotional Reality in StoryEmotional Reality in Story

• Method actors seek “moments of truth.”

• Express that truth with their voice, facial expressions, body, props

• Brando in On the Waterfront wears Eva Marie Saint’s glove to show his character’s vulnerability.

Technical ApproachTechnical Approach

• Good Actors Need Not Identify with Character, Draw on Own Experiences

• Can Instead Imitate Behavior They Have Seen

• The Actor Simply “Pretends” To Be The Character.

Laurence Olivier, Technical Laurence Olivier, Technical ActorActor

• Bragged that during his “To Be Or Not To Be” soliloquy from Hamlet (1948), while the audience was on the edge of their seats, he was thinking about what wine he was going to have for dinner later that evening.

Personification vs. Personification vs. Impersonation Impersonation

Barry King

• Personification offers the attractiveness of the star. What s/he is as a person.

• Impersonation asks the performer to create the character in the story.

• Impersonation for King defines good acting.

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Robert DeNiro: Star ActorRobert DeNiro: Star Actor

Lecture 8: Part II

Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, 1980

RecognitionRecognitionAcademy Awards:

1. Best Supporting Actor

The Godfather, Part II (1974)

2. Best Actor

Raging Bull (1980)

3. Nominated for

Taxi Driver (1976) Deer Hunter (1978), Awakenings (1990), Cape Fear (1991)

Critical Praise Critical Praise

“Robert De Niro is nearly incapable of a thoughtless performance. . . . [He] has been a prolific screen actor, appearing in an astonishing variety of roles both starring and supporting, and playing each with equal aplomb [complete and confident composure or self-assurance].”

--Robin Wood

http://www.filmreference.com/Actors-and-Actresses-Da-Ea/De-Niro-Robert.html

Angry, Violent Characters Angry, Violent Characters • Taxi Driver (1975)• Raging Bull (1980)• The Untouchables

(1987)• Goodfellas (1990)• Cape Fear (1991)• Analyze This (1999)• Meet the Parents (2000)• A Shark Tale (2004)

“ “Choked Rage” Choked Rage”

“[DeNiro’s] often fearsome screen presence . . . full of choked rage”

--Fred Schruers in Rolling Stone

The Untouchables (1987)

De Niro Exemplifies De Niro Exemplifies Impersonation Not Impersonation Not

PersonificationPersonification-Creates the Character

-Trained in Method (Stella Adler)

But Also Uses Technical Skills:

-Research

-Physical Transformation

-Improvisation

Robert DeNiro as Jake Lamotta in Raging Bull 1980 (Top), Robert DeNiro as Jake Lamotta in Raging Bull 1980 (Top), and as Al Capone in The Untouchables 1989and as Al Capone in The Untouchables 1989

Good Acting Requires Good Acting Requires Creative ControlCreative Control

“Good acting is based on . . .

authorship.”

--Barry King

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Robert De Niro as Max Cadyin Cape Fear (1991)

Parodies of MasculinityParodies of Masculinity• De Niro’s Extreme Anger,

Violence as Critique of Tough, Violent Masculinity

• Such Anti-Social Behavior Conceals Insecurity/Fears About Other Desires (Connection, Expressiveness)

DeNiro in Frankenstein 1994, as Mafia Boss in Analyze This 1999 and as cross dressing pirate in Stardust 2007

Revisionist Roles: Alternative Revisionist Roles: Alternative MasculinityMasculinity

Average guy inFalling in Love (1984)

Reborn missionary in The Mission (1986)

Acting as Social CritiqueActing as Social Critique

• DeNiro’s Acting Skill to Create Characters

• Angry, Violent Masculinity as Social Pathology

• Also Alternatives to Violent, Individualized Masculinity

Vigilante in Taxi Driver (1976), Loving dad in A Bronx Tale (1993)

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De Niro in De Niro in Raging BullRaging Bull

Lecture 8: Part III

Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, 1980

De Niro’s Preparation De Niro’s Preparation • Research – Time with

Vicki LaMotta• Training

Jake LaMotta: De Niro as good as ranked

middleweight• Transformation: After fight

scenes shot, gained

60 lbs. to play older

LaMotta.

De Niro’s as a Contender De Niro’s as a Contender • DeNiro trained hard to

present credible performance of professional prizefighting skills

• DeNiro’s Hard Work, Preparation to Act Analogous to LaMotta’s Desire to Be Champ

• Tool of a Method Performance/Clip 1

DysfunctionDysfunction

• LaMotta’s Jealousy• His Violence• De Niro Uses Failure of

Language and Excessive Weight to Represent Jake’s Frustration and Lost Control

• Clip #2

Weight as Trait of DysfunctionWeight as Trait of Dysfunction

• De Niro Influenced Other Film Actors to Manipulate Weight

• Physical Trait Creates Realism, Represents Character’s Flaw, Dysfunction

Sugar Ray RobinsonSugar Ray Robinson

• Fought LaMotta Six Times

• Robinson Won Five• In 1951 Robinson

128-1-2• Welterweight and

Middleweight Champ

Clip 3: Last Robinson FightClip 3: Last Robinson Fight

• Dark, Expressionist Setting

• Point of View shots show us Jake’s perspective

• Show What’s in Jake’s Mind

• Masochism attempt to assert control in defeat

WhitenessWhiteness• Richard Dyer: Identity Based

on Feelings of Unjustified Racial Superiority

• LaMotta’s Obsession w/Control Involves Sense of Self as White.

• LaMotta sees Robinson as dark monster representing his loss of control, dominance over others.

• Equates Blackness with loss of control.

De Niro’s Acting as Social De Niro’s Acting as Social CritiqueCritique

• LaMotta’s Masculinity Defined as Domination of Others

• Destroys Him, Those Around Him

• De Niro’s Performance in Collaboration with Director Martin Scorsese (Cinematography, Mise-en-Scene)

SummarySummary

• Movie and Stage Acting

• Robert De Niro as Star Actor

• De Niro’s Performance in Raging Bull (1980)

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End of Lecture 8End of Lecture 8

Next Lecture: Stars/George Clooney