Virtuoso

Murray Pomerance is an independent scholar living in Toronto, Canada. He is the editor of the "Techniques of the Moving Image" series and the Horizons of Cinema series, and co-editor, with Lester D. Friedman and Adrienne L. McLean respectively, of the Screen Decades and Star Decades series. Pomerance has written, edited and co-edited several books, including Cinema, If You Please (2018), Moment of Action (2016), Alfred Hitchcock's America (2013), The Horse who Drank the Sky: Film Experience beyond Narrative and Theory (2008), and two BFI Classics on Marnie (2014) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (2016).

• AcknowledgementsOvertureChapter 1: A Brief History of the Virtuosic MomentChapter 2: Showing OffChapter 3: Effacement and AllureChapter 4: MoneyChapter 5: “I Am Acting”Chapter 6: “I Am On Show”Chapter 7: Charisma as CommodityChapter 8: OutstandingChapter 9: Virtuosity SuperimposedChapter 10: SpontaneityChapter 11: In Dreams AwakeChapter 12: A Feminine MystiqueChapter 13: TorturesChapter 14: Secret VirtuosityChapter 15: (In)Credible BeliefChapter 16: Touched by the CameraChapter 17: ImproviseChapter 18: BreatheChapter 19: Director/VirtuosoChapter 20: HeimlichkeitChapter 21: CollapseChapter 22: Bigger Than LifeChapter 23: The Spectacle of Things Falling ApartChapter 24: Limping OnChapter 25: The Eternal ReturnChapter 26: BordersChapter 27: FacingChapter 28: Louder Louder, Softer SofterChapter 29: Virtuosity ClassicalChapter 30: Near MissesChapter 31: DiscountsChapter 32: Virtuosic SilenceChapter 33: Virtuosic SupportChapter 34: ControlChapter 35: Virtuosic Play-Within-PlayChapter 36: Upstairs DownstairsChapter 37: Lost in the StarsChapter 38: Virtuosity Pianissimo Virtuosity ForteChapter 39: Virtuosity as EventChapter 40: IndeliblesChapter 41: Virtuosity and “The Virtuoso”Chapter 42: Negative VirtuosityChapter 43: Virtuosic SlippageChapter 44: The End or “End” of Virtuosic PerformanceCoda: A Thought of ConclusionBibliographyIndex

In 44 epigrammatic chapters, Pomerance examines the work of literally hundreds of screen actors, capturing the essence of their performances in isolated gestures, speech patterns, facial expressions, and other bits of cinematic legerdemain … The depth, range, and scope of this volume is stunning, as is the precision with which Pomerance unpacks these moments from more than a thousand films, shedding new light on the actor's craft. Summing Up: Highly recommended.