fabric.”^45 Although we do not yet know who Amy is,
what she does, or why she’s going to Morocco, we
certainly understand La Bessiere’s interest.
Close-ups can also reveal both the process of
thinking and the thoughts at its end. In a close-up
during the climactic moment of John Ford’s The
Searchers (1956), Ethan Edwards (John Wayne)
transforms from a hateful to a loving man as he
halts his premeditated attempt to murder his
niece, Debbie (Natalie Wood) and instead lifts her
to the safety of his arms. The shot doesn’t give us
time to analyze why he has changed his mind—only
to see the results of that change.
In a bar scene in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront
(1954), Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), playing the
tough guy, tells Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint) his
philosophy: “Do it to him before he does it to you.”
Up to this point, he has remained aloof after
witnessing the mob’s murder of Edie’s brother, an
attitude he continues to display until Edie, who is
trying to do something about the corruption on the
waterfront, asks for his help. Stopped in his tracks,
Terry sits down, and a series of close-ups reveals
the shakiness of his unfeeling posture. In a soft,
caring, but slightly nervous voice (in this bar set-
ting, surrounded by other tough guys, he’s a little
self-conscious of being tender with a woman), he
tells her, “I’d like ta help”—thus revealing to her,
the camera, and the audience a more sensitive man
under the macho mannerisms.Acting and Editing
Because a screen actor’s performance is frag-
mented, the editor has considerable power in shap-
ing it. We’ve already emphasized that the actor is
responsible for maintaining the emotional continu-
ity of a performance, but even the most consistent
actor delivers slightly different performances on
each take. Editors can patch up mistakes by select-
ing, arranging, or juxtaposing shots to cover the
error. They control the duration of an actor’s
appearance on the screen and how that time is
used. When aspects of an actor’s performance that
was originally deemed acceptable appear in the
editing stage to interrupt the flow of the narrative,
the development of the character, or the tone of the
movie, the editor, in consultation with the director,
can dispense with it completely by leaving that
footage on the cutting-room floor. In short, the edi-
tor can mold a performance with more control than
most directors and even the actors themselves can.Looking at Acting
Given all the elements and aspects in our discus-
sion of an actor’s performance, how do we focus our
attention on analyzing acting? Before we look atArtistic collaboration and the close-up In Morocco
(1930), Marlene Dietrich’s beautiful face is made to appear
even more haunting and enigmatic by director Josef von
Sternberg’s mise-en-scène and Lee Garmes’s black-and-white
cinematography. Dietrich, too, instinctively understood the
kind of lighting and camera placement that was right for her
role and the narrative as well as for the glamorous image she
cultivated in all her movies. In this MCU, she stands on the deck
of a ship at night and appears distant, almost otherworldly, as
she is bathed in soft, misty “Rembrandt lighting.” One half of
her face is bright, part of the other half is in shadow. Her face
is further framed and softened by her hat and veil and by
shooting her against a background that is out of focus. In all
likelihood, Garmes also placed thin gauze fabric over the lens
to further soften the image. This is the first appearance of
Dietrich’s character in the movie, so we know little about her
but can already discern that she is not only alluring but
mysterious. But one thing we know for sure: the Dietrich face,
as it appeared on the screen, was the conscious creation of
the actress, director, and cinematographer.
(^45) Naremore, Acting in the Cinema, p. 141.
LOOKING AT ACTING 327