RETROSPECTIVE

Method / Acting

Our RETROSPECTIVE focuses on discovering the possibilities of cinema through a look into the past – with a different focus every year.

Marlon Brando, Kim Stanley, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Montgomery Clift, Dustin Hoffman, Ellen Burstyn, Robert De Niro, Faye Dunaway, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio or Daniel Day-Lewis – the history of cinema has been shaped by the outstanding performances of actors who belong to the tradition of so-called Method acting. This art of performance is the focus of this year’s retrospective, which reveals how the Method transformed not only cinema, but also our idea of what constitutes good acting.

The roots of the Method stretch back to the Russian Empire. It’s there that Konstantin Stanislavski developed a methodology for training actors that focused on the “art of experiencing” (rather than the “art of representation”). Starting in the 1930s, some of his students brought his teachings to the USA. Together with a generation of young actors, they proceeded to fundamentally revolutionize the art form. Expressive theatricality gave way to naturalism, with authentic feelings as the primary objective. To this end, actors had to learn to draw from their own feelings and experiences; the inspiration for the role should derive from these lived experiences.

Starting with the boxing drama ›Body and Soul‹ (1947), this year’s retrospective features a selection of the most important works of Method acting. In one of his most moving roles, Marlon Brando plays a dockworker who stands up to corrupt union officials in ›On the Waterfront‹ (1954); Montgomery Clift and Marilyn Monroe portray two broken people who drag themselves through John Huston’s ›The Misfits‹ (1960); and in ›The Pawnbroker‹ (1964), an unforgettable Rod Steiger stars as a Holocaust survivor who is suddenly confronted with his past in New York. A special focus of the retrospective is on women actors who were too often overshadowed by such male colleagues as Brando, Clift or Newman. This despite the fact that performances by Joanne Woodward, Sally Field, Kim Stanley and Barbara Loden, for the stage as well as cinema, were at least as influential as those of their male counterparts.

A second boxing drama, Martin Scorsese’s ›Raging Bull‹ (1980), provides the chronological bookend to the program. The golden age of the Method came to a close with Robert De Niro’s legendary performance (he gained 26kg for the role). Most crucially, however, the basic principles of the Method had by this point been adopted the world over. To this day, it’s impossible to think of an actor’s formation without them.

SELECT MOV_ZMS_ID FROM TBL_MOV LEFT JOIN IX_ORGL ON IX_ORGL.MOV_ID = TBL_MOV.MOV_ID LEFT JOIN IX_SUBT ON IX_SUBT.MOV_ID = TBL_MOV.MOV_ID LEFT JOIN ( SELECT SCR_ZMS_ID, SCR_LOC_ID, SCR_PRESS, SCR_ONLINE FROM IX_SCR GROUP BY SCR_ZMS_ID, SCR_LOC_ID, SCR_PRESS, SCR_ONLINE ) SCR ON SCR.SCR_ZMS_ID = TBL_MOV.MOV_ZMS_ID where (MOV_EDITION = 2023 and MOV_SECTION = 'RET' ) GROUP BY MOV_ZMS_ID

  • A Place in the Sun

    A Place in the Sun    read more
    short info

  • Body and Soul

    Body and Soul    read more
    short info

  • Norma Rae

    Norma Rae    read more
    short info

  • On the Waterfront

    On the Waterfront    read more
    short info

  • Rachel, Rachel

    Rachel, Rachel    read more
    short info

  • Raging Bull

    Raging Bull    read more
    short info

  • Seance on a Wet Afternoon

    Seance on a Wet Afternoon    read more
    short info

  • The Defiant Ones

    The Defiant Ones    read more
    short info

  • The Godfather Part II

    The Godfather Part II    read more
    short info

  • The Misfits

    The Misfits    read more
    short info

  • The Pawnbroker

    The Pawnbroker    read more
    short info

  • Wanda

    Wanda    read more
    short info

Let's look back together at previous retrospectives:

Hannes BrühwilerRETROSPEKTIVEhannes.bruehwiler[at]iffmh.de
Email
Back to Sections >