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Why Acting Matters
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Book Presentation:
A provocative, highly engaging essay on the art of pretending on the stage, on screen, and in daily life
Does acting matter? David Thomson, one of our most respected and insightful writers on movies and theater, answers this question with intelligence and wit. In this fresh and thought-provoking essay, Thomson tackles this most elusive of subjects, examining the allure of the performing arts for both the artist and the audience member while addressing the paradoxes inherent in acting itself. He reflects on the casting process, on stage versus film acting, and on the cult of celebrity. The art and considerable craft of such gifted artists as Meryl Streep, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Daniel Day-Lewis, and others are scrupulously appraised here, as are notions of “good” and “bad” acting.
Thomson’s exploration is at once a meditation on and a celebration of a unique and much beloved, often misunderstood, and occasionally derided art form. He argues that acting not only “matters” but is essential and inescapable, as well as dangerous, chronic, transformative, and exhilarating, be it on the theatrical stage, on the movie screen, or as part of our everyday lives.
About the Author:
David Thomson is the author of more than twenty books, including biographies of David O. Selznick and Orson Welles, and The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. He lives in San Francisco, CA.
See the publisher website: Yale University Press
> From the same author:
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film (2014)
Sixth Edition
Subject: On Films > Guides and dictionaries
> On a related topic:
The Non-Professional Actor (2025)
Italian Neorealist Cinema and Beyond
Trish Arnold (2023)
The Legacy of Her Movement Training for Actors
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