We a good story
Quick delivery in the UK

Watching Them Be

About Watching Them Be

An intimate, thought-provoking exploration of the mysteries of "star presence" in cinema"'One does not go to see them act,' wrote James Baldwin about the great iconic movie stars Wayne and Davis and Bogart, 'one goes to watch them be' . . . Of course. It seems obvious . . . Where else besides the movies do you get to see other persons so intimately, so pressingly, so largely even? Where else such intense and close, such sustained and searching looks as you have of these strangers on the screen, whoever they really are? In life you try not to stare; but at the movies that's exactly what you get to do, two hours or more-safely, raptly, even blissfully."It's this sort of amplified, heightened, sometimes transcendent "seeing" that James Harvey explores in Watching Them Be. Marvelously vivid and perceptive, and impressively erudite, this is his take on how aura is communicated in movies. Beginning where Roland Barthes left off with the face of Greta Garbo and ending with Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar, Harvey moves nimbly and expertly through film history, celebrating actors and directors who have particularly conveyed a feeling of transcendence. From Marlene Dietrich to John Wayne to Robert De Niro, from Nashville to Jackie Brown to Masculine Feminine and the implicitly or explicitly religious films of Roberto Rossellini and Carl Theodor Dreyer, this is one man's personal, deeply felt account of the films that have changed his life. They will also, Harvey suggests, change yours.

Show more
  • Language:
  • English
  • ISBN:
  • 9780865478329
  • Binding:
  • Paperback
  • Pages:
  • 400
  • Published:
  • September 7, 2015
  • Dimensions:
  • 144x32x218 mm.
  • Weight:
  • 454 g.
Delivery: 1-2 weeks
Expected delivery: January 5, 2025
Extended return policy to January 30, 2025
  •  

    Cannot be delivered before Christmas.
    Buy now and print a gift certificate

Description of Watching Them Be

An intimate, thought-provoking exploration of the mysteries of "star presence" in cinema"'One does not go to see them act,' wrote James Baldwin about the great iconic movie stars Wayne and Davis and Bogart, 'one goes to watch them be' . . . Of course. It seems obvious . . . Where else besides the movies do you get to see other persons so intimately, so pressingly, so largely even? Where else such intense and close, such sustained and searching looks as you have of these strangers on the screen, whoever they really are? In life you try not to stare; but at the movies that's exactly what you get to do, two hours or more-safely, raptly, even blissfully."It's this sort of amplified, heightened, sometimes transcendent "seeing" that James Harvey explores in Watching Them Be. Marvelously vivid and perceptive, and impressively erudite, this is his take on how aura is communicated in movies. Beginning where Roland Barthes left off with the face of Greta Garbo and ending with Robert Bresson's Au hasard Balthazar, Harvey moves nimbly and expertly through film history, celebrating actors and directors who have particularly conveyed a feeling of transcendence. From Marlene Dietrich to John Wayne to Robert De Niro, from Nashville to Jackie Brown to Masculine Feminine and the implicitly or explicitly religious films of Roberto Rossellini and Carl Theodor Dreyer, this is one man's personal, deeply felt account of the films that have changed his life. They will also, Harvey suggests, change yours.

User ratings of Watching Them Be



Find similar books
The book Watching Them Be can be found in the following categories:

Join thousands of book lovers

Sign up to our newsletter and receive discounts and inspiration for your next reading experience.