Last Friday, I was in Reading to attend Acting Out: A Symposium on Film Performance, Inference and Interpretation. Overall, it was an excellent event with evocative and pondered contributions to the study of film performance. It was also an opportunity to catch up with a few friends.
Session 1: A Question of Style:
V. F. Perkins (University of Warwick), “The Eloquence of Bad Acting”
Ronan Paterson (University of Teeside), “A Little Touch of Harry in the Night: An Exploration of the Contrasting Acting Styles of Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh in Their Respective Films of Shakespeare’s Henry V”
Sarah Thomas (University of Aberystwyth), “Contrasting Modes of performance in Classical Hollywood Cinema and The Best Years of Our Lives”
Session 2: Keynote Speaker:
Andrew Klevan (University of Oxford), “Living Meaning: The Fluency of Film Performance”
Session 3: Interpreting Performance and Performing Interpretation:
Martin Barker (University of Aberystwyth), “How Do Audiences Evaluate Acting on Screen?: A Case Study Using The Usual Suspects”
Alex Clayton (University of Bristol), “Acting to Save the World (Fuck Yeah): Team America, Comedy and Performance”
John Adams (University of Bristol), “Interpreting Oneself: Performance, Feedback, and the Digital”
Adam Ganz (Royal Holloway, University of London), “Interpreting Oneself: Performance, Feedback, and the Digital”
Session 4: Acting In?:
Kathrina Glitre (University of West of England), “Still Acting: Doing Nothing as an Acting Choice”
David Morrison (King’s College London), “Performing Loneliness”
Steven Peacock (University of Hertfordshire), “David Lynch, Laura Dern and Crying on Film”
