Silent Film Performance

This book provides a groundbreaking exploration of silent film performance. It combines close reading of silent screen acting with theoretically informed analysis, stressing the overlap between different performative arts, such as film and stage acting, dance, mime, and pantomime. The boundary between silent and sound films is also challenged. Anna Pavlova's acting inThe Dumb Girl of Porticiis read through Freud's work on the uncanny, disability studies, and notions of intermediality. Vladimir Mayakovsky's performance inThe Young Lady and the Hooliganis approached as a silent soliloquy and a representation of loneliness. Ivan Mozzhukhin's tour de force inThe Late Mathias Pascalis discussed through a queer failure lens, while Pola Negri's presence inHotel Imperialis analysed with the aid of texts on wartime anxiety. Harald Kreutzberg's stunning number inParacelsusis examined in the light oftheories of mime and pantomime, arguing for its subversive potential in a Third Reich sound film.