Description
Why do people go to see movies? Some say that it's for the story or the genre or the suggested theme, and some say that it's for the director, but this is often wishful thinking. Nearly everyone goes to the movies to see the stars, the actors, to see the people in them. And during the classic Hollywood period, running roughly from the late 1920s to the early 1950s, there was an explosion of distinctive talent, of stars like James Cagney, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and so many more.
Dan Callahan celebrates and analyzes many of the so-called "pre-Brando" actors of the classic Hollywood period and makes a case for their more heightened but just as valid style. Often dismissed as old-fashioned, these players deserve this new look and new reckoning that places them as icons of creativity and pleasure before more naturalistic Method actors of the 1950s like Brando and James Dean took over.
About the Author
Dan Callahan has written about film for Sight & Sound, Film Comment, Nylon, and many other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Reviews
"The rare writer who writes about acting really well, longtime theater and film critic Dan Callahan can home in on why and how a performance lands, or doesn't. He pays attention to the actor's technique, the actor's tension, the prosody of the actor's voice, all of these being "tells" as to whether or not the actor is truly engaged, or pumping up something artificial to fill in the blanks. This is tough stuff, but reading Callahan is an object lesson on how to do it.
[...] Callahan's latest book, The Art of American Screen Acting: 1912-1960, is made up of profile pieces and artistic analysis of the major figures from the silent era up until the moment before the collapse of the studio system. [...] it's a lush and complex look at the art of acting, and how it developed alongside the development of cinema itself. Callahan looks at the rupture represented by Marlon Brando, adding some necessary shadings to the almost universally accepted simplistic reading of Brando as an "improvement."" - Slant Magazine
Book Information
ISBN 9781476674056
Author Dan Callahan
Format Paperback
Page Count 242
Imprint McFarland & Co Inc
Publisher McFarland & Co Inc
Weight(grams) 319g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 10mm
Dan Callahan celebrates and analyzes many of the so-called "pre-Brando" actors of the classic Hollywood period and makes a case for their more heightened but just as valid style. Often dismissed as old-fashioned, these players deserve this new look and new reckoning that places them as icons of creativity and pleasure before more naturalistic Method actors of the 1950s like Brando and James Dean took over.
About the Author
Dan Callahan has written about film for Sight & Sound, Film Comment, Nylon, and many other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Reviews
"The rare writer who writes about acting really well, longtime theater and film critic Dan Callahan can home in on why and how a performance lands, or doesn't. He pays attention to the actor's technique, the actor's tension, the prosody of the actor's voice, all of these being "tells" as to whether or not the actor is truly engaged, or pumping up something artificial to fill in the blanks. This is tough stuff, but reading Callahan is an object lesson on how to do it.
[...] Callahan's latest book, The Art of American Screen Acting: 1912-1960, is made up of profile pieces and artistic analysis of the major figures from the silent era up until the moment before the collapse of the studio system. [...] it's a lush and complex look at the art of acting, and how it developed alongside the development of cinema itself. Callahan looks at the rupture represented by Marlon Brando, adding some necessary shadings to the almost universally accepted simplistic reading of Brando as an "improvement."" - Slant Magazine
Book Information
ISBN 9781476674056
Author Dan Callahan
Format Paperback
Page Count 242
Imprint McFarland & Co Inc
Publisher McFarland & Co Inc
Weight(grams) 319g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 10mm
