Theatre Through the Camera Eye
The Poetics of an Intermedial Encounter
How do we experience theatre through film? Laura Sava critically engages with the filmic representation of theatre, focusing on a selection of art house and independent films which provide a sophisticated commentary on the interaction between the two media.
Through an in-depth analysis of films such as Jacques Rivette’s L’Amour fou, Pedro Almodóvar’s All About My Mother and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, this book analyses the embedment of theatre in film and the notion of spectatorial address. Using textual analysis in conjunction with concepts derived from narratology, performance philosophy, and film and theatre phenomenology, it explores the mechanisms of representation involved in the intermedial diegetisation of theatre in film.
Key features- Provides a detailed study of the ways in which film can accommodate theatre
- Integrates the close reading of films with the theory of intermediality, with insights from both film and theatre theory
- Includes case studies of works by major directors, such as Pedro Almodóvar, John Cassavetes, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Manoel de Oliveira, Theo Angelopoulos and Takeshi Kitano
- The Double Life of Véronique (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1991)
- Dolls (Takeshi Kitano, 2002)
- The Jester (José Álvaro Morais, 1987)
- All About My Mother (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)
- L’Amour fou (Jacques Rivette, 1969)
- Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman, 2008)
- Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)
- A Tale of Winter (Eric Rohmer, 1992)
- I’m Going Home (Manoel de Oliveira, 2001)
- The Travelling Players (Theo Angelopoulos, 1975)
- My Dinner with André (Louis Malle, 1981)
- Swimming to Cambodia (Jonathan Demme, 1987)
- Monster in a Box (Nick Broomfield, 1992)
- The Arbor (Clio Barnard, 2010)
- Case studies include:
Acknowledgments
List of illustrations
Introduction: Accommodating Difference: The Filmic Representation of Theatre
Part I: Theatre, Interrupted: Strategies of Intermedial Embedment
Chapter 1: No Strings Attached: Framing Puppets in Movement
1.1 The Double Life of Véronique and the Theatrical Mise en Abyme
1.2 Dolls: Theatrical Bracketing and Filmic Distortion
Chapter 2: Theatre, Memory, and the Framing Voice
2.1. The Jester: Competing Voices in Alternating Scenes
2.2. All About My Mother: Filmic and Theatrical Repetitions
Chapter 3: The Making and Unmaking of Theatre Rehearsals on Screen
3.1. Theatre in Multiple Frames: L’Amour fou and the Self-Defeating Rehearsal
3.2. Synecdoche, New York: Film and Theatre as Mutually Contaminating Worlds
Part II: Divided Attention: Intermedial Performers and their Split Audience
Chapter 4: Spectatorship by Proxy Meets Multimodal Performance
4.1. Subversive Performances and Sonic Perspectives in Opening Night
4.2. Conspicuous Camera and Utopian Spectatorship in A Tale of Winter
4.3. Exit the Actor: Restrained Performances and the View from the Wings in I’m Going Home
Chapter 5: Cinematic Monologues and Their Spectatorial Address
5.1. The Travelling Players and the Historical Monologue
5.2. ‘Something to do with living’: My Dinner with André and the Ekphrastic Duologue
5.3. Spalding Gray and the Autobiographical Monologue
5.4. The Arbor and the Unreliable Monologue
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
