[csaa-forum] Film/Photography Seminar at UNSW

[James Donald]

UNSW Media Film & Theatre Seminar
Wednesday 25 October
6 p.m. Webster 327
(Please note later starting time)


Famous Faces Yet Not Themselves
The Misfits and the iconography of post-war American acting

George Kouvaros

This paper will use the images taken by the Magnum photographic 
agency on the set of The Misfits to investigate changes in the 
cultural reception of cinematic acting during the immediate post-war 
decades. The arguments presented will respond to three broad-ranging 
questions:

How do we understand the relationship between styles of acting and 
the cultural and historical contexts to which they belong?

What are the institutions that mediate this relationship?

What can the iconographic analysis of photographic images of actors 
reveal about these changes on an institutional and broader cultural 
level?

Just as the industrial context of acting changed dramatically in the 
post-war period so too did the iconography associated with the figure 
of the actor. My intention will be to, first, speculate on the 
complex nature of these photographs as textual objects and, second, 
bring to light their relation to transformations in cinematic 
performance and post-war American culture.


George Kouvaros is Associate Professor in Film Studies at the 
University of New South Wales.  Where Does it Happen?  John 
Cassavetes and Cinema at the Breaking Point  was published by the 
University of Minnesota Press in 2004; his monograph on Paul Schrader 
will be published by Indiana in 2007.


-- 
Dr James Donald
Associate Dean (Education), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Professor of Film Studies, School of Media, Film and Theatre
University of New South Wales
Sydney
NSW 2052
Australia

Telephone	(02)9385 4858
Mobile		0433 126445
Facsimile		(02) 9385 6812

International
Telephone	+612 9385 4858
Mobile		+61433 126445
Facsimile		+612 9385 6812


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