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Virtuoso
Film Performance and the Actor's Magic
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Book Presentation:
Elizabeth Taylor's electrifying performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The milkshake scene in There Will be Blood. Leonardo DiCaprio's turn as Arnie in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? What makes these performances so special?
Eloquently written and engagingly laid out, Murray Pomerance answers the tough question as to what makes an exceptional, or virtuosic performance. Pomerance intensively explores virtuosic performance in film, ranging from classical works through to contemporary production, and gives serious consideration to structural problems of dramatization and production, actorial methods and tricks, and contingencies that befall performers giving stand-out moments.
Looking at more than 40 aspects of the virtuosic act, and using an approach based in careful meditation and discursion, Virtuoso moves through such themes as showing off, effacement, self-consciousness, performative collapse, spontaneity, acting as dream, acting and femininity, virtuosity and torture, secrecy, improvisation, virtuosic silence, and others; giving special attention to the labors of such figures as Fred Astaire, Johnny Depp, Marlene Dietrich, Basil Rathbone, Christopher Plummer, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alice Brady, Ethel Waters, James Mason, and dozens more. Numerous scenic virtuosities are examined in depth, from films as far-ranging as Singin' in the Rain and The Bridge on the River Kwai, and My Man Godfrey. As the first book about virtuosity in film performance, Virtuoso offers exciting new angles from which to view film both classical and contemporary.
About the Author:
Murray Pomerance is an independent scholar living in Toronto, Canada, and Adjunct Professor in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of The Hitchcock Quartet (An Eye for Hitchcock, A Dream of Hitchcock, A Voyage with Hitchcock, and A Silence from Hitchcock); Uncanny Cinema: Agonies of the Viewing Experience (Bloomsbury, 2022); Color It True: Impressions of Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2022); The Film Cheat: Film Artifice and Viewing Pleasure (Bloomsbury, 2020); Virtuoso: Film Performance and the Actor's Magic (Bloomsbury, 2019); Cinema, If You Please: The Memory of Taste, the Taste of Memory (Bloomsbury, 2018), and many other volumes including, with Matthew Solomon, The Biggest Thing in Show Business: Living It Up with Martin & Lewis (2024).Pomerance's fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, New Directions, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere; he is the author of Grammatical Dreams, A King of Infinite Space, and other books.
Press Reviews:
"In 44 epigrammatic chapters, Pomerance examines the work of literally hundreds of screen actors, capturing the essence of their performances in isolated gestures, speech patterns, facial expressions, and other bits of cinematic legerdemain … The depth, range, and scope of this volume is stunning, as is the precision with which Pomerance unpacks these moments from more than a thousand films, shedding new light on the actor's craft. Summing Up: Highly recommended." ―CHOICE
"An interesting and compelling read throughout … the book is a joy to read from start to finish, whether one knows the performances being discussed or not, and makes a wonderful addition to the growing body of scholarly writings on performance and star studies." ―Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
"In this extraordinary volume, Murray Pomerance acts as something like a spirit guide to the mysteries of cinematic performance. The text conjures a pageant of gestures, voices, faces and moments that exemplify virtuosity, accompanied by critical reflection that is never less than compelling. Pomerance's prose is itself virtuosic: lucid, penetrating, brilliant. It asks questions we didn't know could be asked, and never resorts to easy answers. This makes the book essential reading, not just for scholars and students of film performance, but for anyone interested in the art and magic of the cinema." ―Dr. Alex Clayton, Senior Lecturer in Film and Television, University of Bristol, UK
"From detailed examinations of such singular talents like James Dean and Cary Grant, to the subtler, fleeting, performative moments by virtuosos as varied as John Barrymore and Kristen Stewart, Murray Pomerance offers a new way of approaching, as well as a language for addressing, the riddling qualities of great film acting. What magic the actors explored in this book do with gesture, expression and inflexion, Pomerance does here with incisive description, analysis, and an often delightful turn of phrase." ―Dr. Daniel Varndell, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Winchester, UK
See the publisher website: Bloomsbury Academic
> From the same author:
Mervyn LeRoy Comes to Town (2025)
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Director > Mervyn LeRoy
The Biggest Thing in Show Business (2024)
Living It Up with Martin & Lewis
by Murray Pomerance and Matthew Solomon
Subject: Actor > Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin
Autism in Film and Television (2022)
On the Island
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Sociology
The Other Hollywood Renaissance (2020)
Dir. Dominic Lennard, R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Countries > United States
The Many Cinemas of Michael Curtiz (2018)
Dir. R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Director > Michael Curtiz
Close-Up (2018)
Great Cinematic Performances Volume 2: International
Dir. Murray Pomerance and Kyle Stevens
Hamlet Lives in Hollywood (2017)
John Barrymore and the Acting Tradition Onscreen
Dir. Murray Pomerance and Steven Rybin
Subject: Actor > John Barrymore
Moment of Action (2016)
Riddles of Cinematic Performance
Thinking in the Dark (2015)
Cinema, Theory, Practice
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Theory
George Cukor (2015)
Hollywood Master
Dir. Murray Pomerance and R. Barton Palmer
Subject: Director > George Cukor
Hollywood's Chosen People (2012)
The Jewish Experience in American Cinema
Dir. Daniel Bernardi, Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Countries > United States
Shining in Shadows (2011)
Movie Stars of the 2000s
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: On Films > Per period
A Little Solitaire (2011)
John Frankenheimer and American Film
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: Director > John Frankenheimer
Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue (2011)
Eight Reflections on Cinema
Subject: Director > Michelangelo Antonioni
American Cinema of the 1950s (2005)
Themes and Variations
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: On Films > Per period
Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice (2001)
Cinemas of Girlhood
Dir. Frances Gateward and Murray Pomerance
Subject: Sociology
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls (2001)
Gender in Film at the End of the Twentieth Century
Dir. Murray Pomerance
Subject: Sociology
> On a related topic:
The Non-Professional Actor (2025)
Italian Neorealist Cinema and Beyond
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