Photography and Cinema

medium. It is also a question of coming to terms with the idea that

documentary and photojournalism are now thoroughly allegorical. These

photographers know full well that their restrained images are read through

thebarrageofmass-mediacoverageoftheeventstheysostudiouslyavoid.^26

Body,Gesture,Action

How does the dialectic of stillness and movement impact upon the

representation of the human body? Let us consider ‘posing’ and ‘acting’

as two distinct modes of bodily performance. We might associate acting

with unfolding or ‘time-based’ media like cinema or theatre. Posing may

suggest the stillness of photography or painting. Of course, plenty of

examples complicate this. Think of scenes of arrest such as thetableau

vivantin theatre, cinema’s close-ups of faces in stilled contemplation,

blurred gestures caught but escaping a long exposure, or narrative

scenes acted out for the still photograph. Such things are too common

to be exceptions.

In Alfred Hitchcock’sNorth By Northwest( 1959 ), Cary Grant’s entire

performance is a series of balletic swoops and pirouettes strung between

archly frozen poses. He is on screen almost the whole time and his inter-

mittent halts provide the suspense in the hurtling story of mistaken

identity. Early in the film he stoops to aid a man who has been knifed in

the back. Stunned, Grant puts his hand on the weapon and becomes easy

prey for the incriminating flash of a press photographer. We see the

resulting image on the cover of a newspaper: his indecision has framed

him decisively. He flees in panic, setting the plot in motion.

Grant’s performance is a slick and knowing commentary on the very

nature of screen presence. Each pose is a wink to the audience that he is

toying with his own identity and celebrity. Fans knew Grant began life as

plain Archibald Leach, a circus tumbler from Bristol. In the film he plays

Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive mistaken for the non-existent spy

George Caplan. Grant holds his poses for longer than is strictly necessary,

long enough for the story to fall away momentarily and allow the audience

to stare at a man with four names.^27 At one point Grant breaks in through 47