Thursday, February 21, 2008
actors and actresses.
Eliot's theory of Formalism is what is required of viewers when they see an actor or actress in different movies. Watching "Blood Diamond" I must clear my mind of DiCaprio's character in "Titanic". Jack is still a memorable character that stands on his own. He cause emotions and scenes, brought about by his dialogue. In "Blood Diamond", Leonardo's character again creates emotions that are brought about by his character in the moment. Actors and actresses are receptacles for words, feelings and situational responses.
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Hi Sarah!
This is really interesting to me, and I definitely agree with your point. I do think that a role an actor or actress plays should stand alone, regardless of what that actor/actress has done before. However, I have a bad habit of seeing an actor and thinking immediately, "Hey...isn't that the guy from _____?" And then, the whole movie, that's what I'm thinking of, and in some cases that affects my ability to watch the movie and think about the character in the context of that movie. I think it's similar when we're talking about literature- if I read a novel by Steve Martin, I will probably think about how funny he was in The Jerk or some other movie, and it may change my perception of the novel because I know what he has done in his life as an actor. So that's kind of like what we talked about in class, about the lesser importance of the novelist's/poet's personal biography and more importance of the actual work at hand. I need to be able to focus on the novel I'm reading or the movie I'm watching itself- the actual work itself, and not think about the personal lives or other works of the actors/actresses/novelist. I never thought about it like that- you brought up an awesome way to think about Formalism!
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