1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910155202803321

Autore

O'Rourke Chris

Titolo

Acting for the silent screen : film actors and aspiration between the wars / / Chris O'Rourke

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London, England : , : I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, , 2016

London, England : , : Bloomsbury Publishing, , 2019

ISBN

1-350-98521-X

1-78672-059-0

Edizione

[First edition.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 200 pages) : illustrations

Collana

Cinema and society series

Disciplina

791.430280922

Soggetti

Motion picture actors and actresses - Great Britain

Silent films

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Filmography (page 182).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-194) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction : Winifred Hopcroft's story -- 1. In and out of the studio : the silent film actor in Britain -- 2. Learn to act for the cinema in your own home : instructional guides to film acting -- 3. The common round : finding film work in interwar London -- 4. Stand forth, Mary Pickford the second! Searching for British stars -- Epilogue : from silence to sound.

Sommario/riassunto

"A shop girl wins a newspaper competition and is transformed overnight into a transatlantic celebrity. An aristocrat swaps high society for the film studio when she 'consents' to perform in a series of films, thus legitimising acting for what some might have considered a 'low' art. Stories like these were the stuff of newspaper headlines in 1920s and reflected a 'craze' for the cinema. They also demonstrated radical changes in attitudes and values within society in the wake of World War I.Chris O'Rourke investigates the myths and material practices that grew up around film actors during the silent era. The book sheds light on issues such as the social and cultural reception of cinema, the participatory film culture expressed through fan magazines, instructional booklets and movie star competitions, and the working



conditions encountered by actors behind-the-scenes of silent films. Drawing on extensive research and a wealth of archival materials, O'Rourke examines how dreams of stardom were fuelled and exploited in the interwar period, and reconstructs the personal narratives and experiences of the first generation to imagine making a living on screen.In doing so, he reveals a missing - and much sought after - piece of cinematic history to bring to life the developing industries, social attitudes and norms of a period of enormous change."--