Readers who hated the last post I did about Delsarte will probably hate this one too. It's a hard sell to convince people that Delsarte's old-fashioned "tie-the-pretty-girl-to-the railroad-tracks" school of acting is actually worth studying.
Here's the picture (above) I posted a few days ago. Look at it closely. The woman refers to the man as a giant, yet she's looking down and her hand is at waist-level. Why isn't her hand way up? She should be pointing up to the sky, shouldn't she? The guy's a giant after all. When she says he acted like a dwarf she looks upward disdainfully. What's going on? How come at the mention of "dwarf" she looks up, where she didn't at the mention of "giant?" Why is the orator defeating our expectations? Why don't her expressions and attitudes describe what's happening in the dialogue?The Delsartean answer is that her gestures are describing what's really happening in the scene. the emotional point of the scene is that she's heart-broken with disappointment. The description of the guy is secondary, and is only an excuse to convey her emotion. The idea that gesture shouldn't slavishly follow text is extremely interesting. I remember a quote from Norbert Weiner: It is a cybernetic law that the more expected a communication is, the less information it contains." In other words, gestures that only mirror the dialogue are boring. Gesture should ADD to what the dialogue tells us!
Delsarte is full of ideas like this. How about the one where he says gesture should always preceed dialogue? Or repeated expressions of the same thought should always be identical? Or never dwell on the final word? Or geture should always be choreographed? Or...well, you see what I mean. It doesn't matter if the man is right. What's important is that he stimulates our imaginaton!
16 comments:
I just started describing men just now out loud to see what my face did. ha! this is a great lesson.
i loved drawing next to you today !!!!!!!!!!
Jiant Jock?
I am really digging these Delsarte theories of expressions. Did you use these theories when you were making "Tales of Worm Paranoia?" The broad gestures in "Tales of Worm Paranoia" look like something from the Delsartean school of acting.
"Or repeated expressions of the same thought should always be identical?"
"Head On: Apply directly to the forehead!" Head On: Apply directly to the forehead! Head On: Apply directly to the forehead!"
I think I've found another disciple of Delsarte!
"To each spiritual function correponds a function of the body. To each grand function of the body corresponds a spiritual act." - Delsarte
Delsarte was all about examining the internal causes of gesture, and having gesture be a natural extention of those causes. Most of the poses we associate with Delsarte came from his students after his death (he never got around to writing a book). So he never intended his system to be a dogmatic series of poses, especially since it was that kind of teaching that destroyed his voice at an early age and ruined a potential singing career.
All his work was based on years of painstaking observation of people and the "laws" that governed their movements. It's definitely worth studying and I'm glad you're pushing for him.
Sigh. Defending Delsarte is hard enough, but if I start defending mime then I lose all credibility.
Last week the makers of "Head On" stopped advertising their hemmorhoid remedy because they couldn't say "Apply directly to the asshole."
Marlo: It was fun drawing with you, too!!! That was a terrific night. You got there too late to see the Oswalds. They were a revelation!
Max: Naw, the Worm was pre-Delsarte. If I was doing a film of my own right now I'd definitely try doing the gesture before the dialogue. At least I'd try it out in one scene to see if it animates as funny as I picture it.
Jenny: Is that a radio commercial? I don't understand why Delsarte believed in repeating gestures. It's an interesting idea but it needs explanation.
Jeremiah: You're a mime? No wonder you like Delsarte! What's going on in the mime world? Who's doing the best work?
It's been years since I studied mime, so I'm out of the loop. My teacher was the late Tony Montanaro, who was truly amazing. Here's a young Tony performing in a Colgate commercial in the 50's, when mime was still cool.
To call it a dying art is an understatement. It's something people can appreciate as long as you don't call it what it is. So really, any actor who's "physically eloquent" is a mime.
This has nothing to do with your post, but I just discovered this commercial and it brought tears of joy to my eyes. (no lie!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYNoQZ5djUA
See ya
Steve
Here is a link to the commercial
Boing-Boing invokes the classic "They Live!" in their mention of this...this thing: Head On
And another squib:
Most annoying commercial ever?
Steve, Jenny: Fascinating! So that's what the commercial looks like! I never tried to get into avertising because I always thought the most effective way to sell something is to annoy people and I just couln't bring myself to do that!
Jeremiah: Tony looked great!
Mr. Fitzgerald, you were right. I was regretting not getting that caricature last night. What a schmo! You crack me up, I wanted to chat you up a little at the Coral last night but I didnt want to jump into your conversation. Great to meet you in person though!
That's a woman?
i like this theory. i like the gags you were talking about, especially doing the action before saying something. I also agree with the rendundancy of actions imitating dialogue, although sometimes its okay and it works other times it is annoying and overboard, like a lot of cliche disney acting. hahah.
I think those perils of pauline style foreclosure evil banker villains are too close to home in todays economic and political climate to be terribly funny. Hey, but that is just me, humble shoe shine boy.
It depends on what you intend to wring out of the gesture school, truth or irony, but I would think the gesture before one speaks school is a natural, and probably historical precendence, for the sort of pompous windbag superheroes that do odd things like announce themselves in every scene they enter, that Powdered Toast Man was channeling.
But someone who gestured famously and imfamously in real life, Jackie Mason, didn't see that talking with hands ever fall into the limited animation behavior patterns of any depatie freleng aardvarks he voiced.
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