I’m enjoying listening to a radio documentary series on BBC2 at the moment about ‘100 years of cinema’. It’s a little scattered sometimes, but the interview snippets are delightful: Frank Capra, Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Wise, David Puttnam, Ingrid Bergman, Steven Spielberg, and many more. It’s very Hollywood-centric, but that’s the main cinematic tradition many of us grow up with. Tonight it covers directors and directing. Many years ago I intended to train as a film and theatre director, and even went as far as getting a place on a course to do just that, but life took over, becoming that which happened while I was making other plans. Nevertheless, I held on to my love of stories, my delight in the silver screen, my faith in the magic of acting, and my fascination with the vision of directors. Little by little, I feel I’m drifting back to those kinds of conversations … :)
Last week’s programme is still available for ‘listen again’ (if you live in the UK) at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b007k9w5/David_Puttnams_Century_of_Cinema_Episode_1/
Some day I’d love to interview actors about their different senses of grounding or presence as they play roles. I had a chat recently with my friend Colleen, a professional actor, about this, and she remarked that one of the key things a teacher had left her with in drama school was the example of going to see a therapist for a few weeks after intense roles. Therapist or not, the lesson was one of self-care, that playing a role is still something that your body lives with, in all dimensions. I’d love to chat to Daniel Day Lewis about this, particularly because of his temporary departure from acting to become a cobbler in the Wicklow hills. When an intense an actor as Daniel turns to crafting as a way to reground himself in his humanity, I’m interested :)
Some work to displace themselves with a character, some work to ground a character in themselves, some wear roles as one would wear a coat - for a bit, to be laid down once they’re no longer needed. Each approach must have a different impact on the actor themselves … The acting theorists diverge on all of these issues, but that’s for another day :)
As far as this blog is concerned, I do wonder about the role of gentleness in acting, directing, and producing, the possibilities of humanising what has increasingly become an industrialised genre. I look to the conversation Charlie Rose had with Robert Redford, Stanley Tucci, Glenn Close, and Kimberley Peirce back in 2002, where they spoke at length about the spirit behind the Sundance Writers Lab. Inspirational through and through, for a window into alternative engagements with less industrial notions of creativity, a glimpse into the joys of embracing failure in the cause of craft: http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/2585. Everything that is said in this wonderful interview (also available on DVD) is also applicable to education and the possibilities of creativity generally in everyday life.
