I love the old time actors who came out of live theater.
Those people were trained to project to the back of the house and go big in every scene.
Subtly is for perfumes.
The influence of american naturalist acting school pushed out bombastic silent film acting. It is especially noticeable if you look at how other countries moved into talkies and how different their acting styles were from the american. Check out the transitional british films - they basically keep that rabblerousing animated all the way into sound film takeover and it never really went all the way naturalist subtle until fairly recently - late 90s into 2000s and now it is rendering every BBC production into grey brown mush. For the most part down there it was more like shimmying between epic theater and kammerspiele - big and small - if you look at Korda productions or The Archers or Lean films - it’s pretty intense and it gets showy when it counts. Compare Vivien Leigh in American and British films. Alec Guinness is a great example of an actor shifting styles mid-performance illustrating the character dimensions - The Prisoner, Our Man in Havana, The Scapegoat. Jim Broadbent and Timothy Spall are also great example of this approach. But yeah naturalist style is gravely overdone in the movies
If you never saw it, look up ‘Altered States’ with William Hurt.
It’s about a bunch of Harvard scientists confronting a bizarre change in one of their number.
A lot of well grounded hysteria.
It’s one of my faves. I’m a Russell fan through and through. That man was on another level. An all-time style mismatch with Ken Russell, the MASTER OF BOMBASTTTTTT, directing the Paddy Chayefsky script who is master of kitchen sink realism. It goes so hard it is undeniable. The only thing this movie is missing is Oliver Reed in the lead just being himself.
[Dead pan] Nothing unusual here. That man is a gorilla.
yup
I love how dramatic she looks with just a little makeup, a somber expression, and a restrained pose.
old style makeup
Her head is also tilted forward, which (especially in combination with furrowed brow) projects dominance and aggression.
I’ma have to remember that for my next video meeting!
