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Lecture 8: Acting

In this lecture, Professor Aaron Baker explores the differences between stage and movie acting, with a focus on Robert De Niro's performance in Heat (1995) and his previous role in Raging Bull (1980).

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Lecture 8: Acting

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  1. Lecture 8: Acting Professor Aaron Baker Robert DeNiro in Heat (1995)

  2. Previous Lecture • A Brief History of Sound • The Three Components of Film Sound • Dialogue • Sounds Effects • Music

  3. This Lecture • Stage and Movie Acting • Robert De Niro as Star Actor • De Niro’s Performance in Raging Bull (1980)

  4. Stage and Movie Acting Laurence Olivier as Hamlet Lecture 8: Part I

  5. Stage 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)

  6. Stage performance • is done in one space and time, before a live audience. • It requires sustained focus for the 2-3 hours of a play.

  7. Film 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.

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

  9. Four Challenges for Movie Actors: • Lack of Rehearsal • Out of Continuity Shooting • No Audience • Impact of Other Contributors, Film Technology

  10. Lack of Rehearsal • Schedules, Cost Prevent Rehearsal • Actors Do Own Preparation • E.g. De Niro: --Lived in Sicily for The Godfather, Part II (1974) -Drove cab 3 months for Taxi Driver (1976) -Did interviews with Vietnam veterans for Jackknife (1989)

  11. Out of Continuity Shooting • Also Cost Efficient • All Shots in a Location At One Time (Even If from Different Parts of Story) • Master Shot of Whole Scene • Coverage (Often without Other Actors) • Actor Must Know Character So Well Can Play Parts of Story Out of Order and Without Other Characters/Audience Present

  12. Film 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.

  13. Some 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).

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

  15. Brad 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.

  16. Summary Film Acting vs. Stage Acting • Less Recognition • Live Performance = Creative Responsibility • Standard of Famous Roles • Fame and Fortune • Collaborative Performances • One and Done

  17. Early 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. Lillian Gish in Birth of a Nation, 1915

  18. Method Acting • After WW II became most influential acting style in movies. • Based on psychological realism of Russian theater director Constantin Stanislavski Stanislavski

  19. Use 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 Rod Steiger and Brando in On the Waterfront 1954

  20. Emotional 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.

  21. Technical 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.

  22. Laurence Olivier, Technical Actor • 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.

  23. Personification vs. 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.

  24. Robert DeNiro: Star Actor Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, 1980 Lecture 8: Part II

  25. Recognition Academy 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)

  26. 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

  27. 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)

  28. “Choked Rage” “[DeNiro’s] often fearsome screen presence . . . full of choked rage” --Fred Schruers in Rolling Stone The Untouchables (1987)

  29. De Niro Exemplifies Impersonation Not Personification -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), and as Al Capone in The Untouchables 1989

  30. Good Acting Requires Creative Control “Good acting is based on . . . authorship.” --Barry King Robert De Niro as Max Cady in Cape Fear (1991)

  31. Parodies 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

  32. Revisionist Roles: Alternative Masculinity Average guy in Falling in Love (1984) Reborn missionary in The Mission (1986)

  33. Acting 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)

  34. De Niro in Raging Bull Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, 1980 Lecture 8: Part III

  35. 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.

  36. 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

  37. Dysfunction • LaMotta’s Jealousy • His Violence • De Niro Uses Failure of Language and Excessive Weight to Represent Jake’s Frustration and Lost Control • Clip #2

  38. Weight as Trait of Dysfunction • De Niro Influenced Other Film Actors to Manipulate Weight • Physical Trait Creates Realism, Represents Character’s Flaw, Dysfunction

  39. Fought LaMotta Six Times Robinson Won Five In 1951 Robinson 128-1-2 Welterweight and Middleweight Champ Sugar Ray Robinson

  40. 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 Clip 3: Last Robinson Fight

  41. Whiteness • 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.

  42. De Niro’s Acting as Social Critique • 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)

  43. Summary • Movie and Stage Acting • Robert De Niro as Star Actor • De Niro’s Performance in Raging Bull (1980)

  44. End of Lecture 8 Next Lecture: Stars/George Clooney

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