Avis sur le produitBette Davis : The Performances That Made Her Great by Peter McNally (2008, Trade Paperback)

The Performances That Made Her Great

Many books have been published about Bette Davis (1908-1989), "The First Lady of American Cinema." Being the 1st woman actor to receive the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award reveals more than the quality of her 60 year, 100+ acting career. Davis is the woman who broke the film institute's
"glass ceiling." By doing so, she left as her legacy a trail of still warm tracks that lead the way toward the top tiers of acting. Though Davis denied being a feminist, reviewing her whole life's recorded corpus of work reveals that what she did was feminist. She broke the old mold & thereby created an altogether brand new set of career standards towards which women & men can aspire knowing from her remarkable success how much is possible.

On February 29th, 2008, Peter McNally's book offers a precise set of analyses of 12 of Bette Davis' "top films," from 1938 to 1987. I'm particularly well pleased McNally includes Davis' much overlooked & underrated last serious full length drama, "The Whales of August" (1987). By doing as such, McNally's book offers a unique, more complete scrutiny of the "Yankee Lady" actor's lifetime career.

McNally's selection of Davis' films to analyze touches upon every decade of her acting career. It may be arguable what 12 Davis films are the best. McNally's choice of them may not be universally agreed upon. However, he's not saying they are.

Instead, McNally selects Davis films that he feels confident discussing. Since he's providing 263 pages of examinations that are very interesting and well studied reviews about various performances, direction, scripts, camera-work, and more, each of the 12 films of his choice are subjected to the same rigorous
scrutiny of these aspects: key elements to film making. In a sense, these aspects of film making, in relation to Davis' films, provide the framework for his analyses. The same framework can be used to analyze other films.

Thus, the reader can decide for themselves if they agree with McNally's assessments of each aspect of the film making processes he's researched. The net result of this book is a more complete opportunity to be aware of how and what Bette Davis used to make some of her finest performances great. What's more, McNally's analyses reveal how much more there is to being a great actor. The essence of his book reveals that great acting requires knowledge of how the key aspects of film making can be manipulated.

By structuring his study of Davis' films this tight, McNally's analyses make "method acting" seem amateurish~Lire l'avis complet...