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[ecrea] CfP Film Journal - Actors Behind the Camera
Sun Oct 01 23:34:22 GMT 2017
Film Journal, the international peer-reviewed online journal founded by
SERCIA (http://filmjournal.org <http://filmjournal.org/>), is seeking
contributions for a special-themed issue on “Actors behind the Camera”.
All details here (and below signature):
http://filmjournal.org/call-for-papers-actors-behind-the-camera/
Proposals of 250 words and a short biography are to be sent by DECEMBER
1, 2017 <http://airmail.calendar/2017-12-01%2012:00:00%20GMT> to
(nicole.cloarec /at/ univ-rennes1.fr) <mailto:(nicole.cloarec /at/ univ-rennes1.fr)>,
(delphine.letort /at/ univ-lemans.fr)
<mailto:(delphine.letort /at/ univ-lemans.fr)> and (filmjournal.sercia /at/ gmail.com)
<mailto:(filmjournal.sercia /at/ gmail.com)>. Notification will be sent by
mid-January. The deadline for completed articles is Sept. 1, 2018
<http://airmail.calendar/2018-09-01%2012:00:00%20BST>.
Also, please note that issue 3 of Film Journal on “Railway and
Locomotive Language in Film” is now available online at
http://filmjournal.org/film-journal-3-2016/
All best,
Fabrice Lyczba
Université Dauphine Paris
——————————————————
FILM JOURNAL
CALL FOR PAPERS
ACTORS BEHIND THE CAMERA
DEADLINE for proposals: Dec. 1
<http://airmail.calendar/2017-12-01%2012:00:00%20GMT>, 2017
“Actors are cattle” was Hitchcock’s provocative judgement in the famous
series of talks that the filmmaker gave to François Truffaut
(Jeffries).Truly enough, during the heyday of Classical Hollywood,
actors were under contract, like any other cog in the wheel of
production of the studio system. The prevailing star system put an end
to the “multitasking” norm of the beginning of the movie industry and,
in this context, the instances of actors who turned directors (Charles
Laughton, Robert Montgomery, Ida Lupino) were all the more
remarkable.However, the break-up of the studio system and the advent of
independent cinema brought about a new order where a new generation of
actors (Dennis Hopper, Paul Newman or Robert Redford among others) had
more opportunities to try their luck behind the camera. Since the 1970s,
the list of actors-turned-directors has increased dramatically and seems
to have become a significant trend in recent years. The list keeps
growing exponentially, moving from old-timers like Warren Beatty, Robert
de Niro, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton,
Angelica Huston or Tommy Lee Jones, to include actors who are also known
for their political commitment like Tim Robbins, George Clooney, Jodie
Foster, and film stars like Tom Hanks, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson,
Kevin Costner, Sean Penn, Michael Keaton, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Ben
Affleck, Andy Garcia, Edward Norton, Ethan Hawke, Natalie Portman,
Angelica Jolie, James Franco, Joseph Gordon-Lewitt. Nor is the trend
confined to the American film industry, as testified by the films of
actors Peter Mullan, Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Alan Rickman, Paddy
Considine or Vanessa Redgrave in the UK, Sarah Polley or Don McKellar in
Canada, Russell Crowe in Australia.While there has been a renewed
interest in actorial studies after studies on the star system and stars’
biographies (James Naremore, Jacqueline Nacache, Christian Viviani,
Christophe Damour, among others), this phenomenon has yet to be
investigated. This issue of Film Journal aims at exploring this largely
unchartered territory.
What drives an actor behind the camera? Is it just another star’s
fanciful whim or an unconscious desire to get even with directors – and
prove Hitchcock’s assertion wrong? Do actors nurture the presumptuous
belief that their experience will make them better equipped to stage
direct other actors or do their films’ aesthetics give more leeway to
actors’ performances? In the case of actors-turned-directors that are
also in front of the camera, how can one film oneself? Does it testify
to the fantasized ideal of immediacy which Jacqueline Nacache points
out,[1]
<http://filmjournal.org/call-for-papers-actors-behind-the-camera/#_ftn1> obliterating
signs of acting itself so as to equate playing and being? Or, on the
contrary, is it a way to foreground the thespian quality of the actors,
relating their actorial work to the prestigious stage (Al Pacino comes
to mind)?
From Charles Laughton’s one-off masterpiece to the steady production
of former actors who have become as well-known for their director’s
works as for their acting career (John Cassavetes, Woody Allen, Clint
Eastwood, Kenneth Branagh), actors’ films do certainly not constitute a
genre of their own. Nonetheless, for all their variety, they seem to
foreground some personal commitment, either in relation to an
autobiographical experience or in an attempt to make a political or
social statement. In this respect, one may wonder if actors’ films are
not the perfect illustration of “auteur theory” that American film
critic Andrew Sarris popularised from French film criticism, whereby a
film is first and foremost the product of the director’s personal
vision, a means of conveying his/her own worldview (Sarris, 1962).
The economic aspects of the matter may also be considered. Does the
recent trend of actors-turned-directors convey a genuine emancipation
from the profit-oriented, market-led constraints of a broadcasting
environment that seems ever more prone to cash in on predictable
formulaic franchises? Or is this rather the ultimate sign of the
entertainment industry’s merchandising?
We invite submissions that will explore significant examples of films or
collections of films by actors-turned-directors. The following list
provides possible, albeit not exhaustive, topics for discussion:
* To what extent does this phenomenon contribute to renewing the
debate around theories of film authorship after it has been
discredited by structuralist and post-structuralist approaches?
* Is it possible to set up a typology – from the intimate and
autobiographical or self-reflexive stance (Paul Newman directing his
family, Sarah Polley etc.) to the spectacular overkill (Mel Gibson
for ex)?
* How do production contexts and distribution strategies impact an
actor’s decision to turn director? Do the opportunities offered by
television (HBO, Netflix, etc.) and Hollywood or independent studios
stimulate such career choices?
* How are the films received by the critics and the audience? Are they
received with more condescension or more severity than other
“ordinary” new-comers?
* How does it impact the collaborative nature of filmmaking?
* How do actors-turned-directors handle actor management? Are there
notable specificities in this regard?
* How does it impact their future career? How does filming oneself
affect an actor’s performance? Is an actor’s choice of roles or
acting modes altered after an experience as film director? Does a
director’s choice of film (and genre) relate to his/her acting career?
* Can factors of difference (age, gender, ethnicity, for example)
influence actors to turn director?
Proposals (250 words) and a short biography are to be sent by December
1st 2017 <http://airmail.calendar/2017-12-01%2012:00:00%20GMT> to
(Nicole.Cloarec /at/ univ-rennes1.fr) <mailto:(Nicole.Cloarec /at/ univ-rennes1.fr)>,
(Delphine.Letort /at/ univ-lemans.fr) <mailto:(Delphine.Letort /at/ univ-lemans.fr)>,
and (filmjournal.sercia /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(filmjournal.sercia /at/ gmail.com)>.
Notification will be sent by mid-January. The deadline for completed
articles is 1st September 2018
<http://airmail.calendar/2018-09-01%2012:00:00%20BST>.
Contributions should be sent together with a short biography of the
author (max. 150 words) and an abstract (max. 200 words) and five
keywords. For submissions, please consult and follow the norms for
presentation indicated at Film Journal
http://filmjournal.org/author-guidelines/.
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