Imparare a recitare per la macchina da presa. La manualistica americana degli anni Dieci

In the first decade of the XXth Century, film actors were becoming a professional figure. In the United States in particular, along with the institutionalization and rationalization of the modes of production, the skills and the techniques of those who act in front of the camera needed to be identified and codified. There was an urgent need to find new strategies of expression, to legitimate the figure of the screen actor from a cultural point of view and, furthermore, to establish clear boundaries with the neighboring territory of the theater, brother and enemy. The two manuals surveyed, written by Frances Agnes and by Jean Bernique, and published respectively in 1913 and 1916, are among the earliest examples of texts specifically dedicated to the training for the screen: they offer aspiring actors the coordinates of this new world (and, and the same time, they try to dissuade them from pursuing this career). These first manuals, though based on a rudimentary normative approach and pragmatic perspective, are extremely rich texts since they reflect and, to some extent, project from a theoretical perspective, a specific conception of the actor and of film acting.