See “More Than a Method: Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Film Performance,” edited by Cynthia Baron, Diane Carson, and Frank P. Tomasulo

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG More Than a Method, on film performance, is the 1st book by IAF expert #CynthiaAnnBaron who joins Thurs., 1/20/22, 8 pm, “If America Fails?,” focusing on Cults, Cultures & Religions theme in @HandmaidsOnHulu, on TWN’s YouTube channel.

More Than a Method: Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Film Performance is the first book published by Dr. Cynthia Ann Baron, Associate Professor, Theatre and Film, Bowling Green State University.

Baron joins the Thursday, 1/20/22, 8 pm episode of “If America Fails?:  The Coming Tyranny,” focusing on the Cults, Cultures and Religions theme in The Handmaid’s Tale.  — LMO

“Though it is often neglected in cinema scholarship, screen performance is a crucial element in the ideological and emotional impact of films. More Than a Method: Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Film Performance features twelve essays that analyze performance in post-1950s film, addressing distinct questions about the working relationships between actors and directors and discussing the interplay between performance and other cinematic techniques. The authors explain the context for performance analysis as they address an international array of film genres, actors, and directors including Alfred Hitchcock and Gus Van Sant, Robert Bresson, Michelangelo Antonioni, Robert Altman, John Cassavetes, John Sayles, Neil Jordan, Tomàs Gutiérrez Alea, Stanley Kubrick, Jim Carrey, and John Woo.

“More Than a Method provides the reader with a historical perspective on film performance theory and explains the importance and relevance of analyzing acting. The essays are divided into three sections: modernism, neo-naturalism, and postmodern film performance. The authors clearly define terms relating to acting and acting styles and provide brief overviews of the significant themes and predominant visual styles of each director. The volume’s essays share a cohesive focus on the art and craft of acting, each emphasizing performance as it is presented on-screen, challenging the idea that the best (or only) way to categorize performance is by training or working method. Through dynamic and sophisticated analyses of a wide range of acting styles and choices, More Than a Method fills an important gap in today’s film scholarship.”  — Publisher

Dr. Cynthia Ann Baron is an Associate Professor in Theatre and Film at Bowling Green State University, where she researches and teaches; authors scholarly books and articles on subjects related to the discipline; and provides keynote speeches and other presentations at conferences both domestically and internationally.  Her research and teaching interests include American Independent Cinema; Screenwriting; Taste Formation; Censorship; Food Studies; Women’s Cinema; and Actor Training, Stardom, and Screen Performance, among other subjects. She has taught courses on intersections between the film-media industry, national security, and cultural moments such as the Cold War and the Vietnam era.  Some other courses Dr. Baron teaches are American Independent Cinema; Hollywood, Censorship, and American Culture; and Performance and Theatre in the Americas. 

Most recently, she published Acting Indie: Industry, Aesthetics, and Performance (with Yannis Tzioumakis), (2020), which illustrates the many ways that actors contribute to American independent cinema and analyzes industrial developments; Modern Acting: The Lost Chapter of American Film and Theatre (2016), which, in part, highlights women’s key contributions to American film and theatre; and Denzel Washington (2015) where Baron traces the star’s persona and impact on mainstream society.  Current book projects include:  Recasting (White) Genres: Race, Ethnicity, and Performance in Contemporary Film and Television; Intersecting Aesthetics: Literary Adaptations and Cinematic Representations of Blackness, with co-editor Charlene Regester; and Imprisonment: Representation in Global Film and Media, with co-editor Karen Ritzenhoff.  She is co-chair of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Caucus on Class and has participated in events such as the Rethinking Realist Acting Conference in New York, and the Acting in Film Conference in Potsdam.  — If America Fails:  The Coming Tyranny, a TruthWorks Network Production

SEE | More Than a Method:  Trends and Traditions in Contemporary Film Performance | edited by Cynthia Baron, Diane Carson, and Frank P. Tomasulo | (Wayne State University Press, 2004)