Are We the Actors of Our Own Life? Notes on the Experimental Actor.

Abstract

The film actor achieves a synthesis of the three dimensions of art according to Quintilian (theoretical, practical and poetic). By his nature, the actor challenges familiar existence, an existence that is needy even in its emotional habits, as his job involves transporting life to the territories of creation, beginning by turning to the possible or the impossible, by reaching towards or away from existence. Opposed to the immense mass of actors who agree to play and collaborate with the dominant ideology (whatever that ideology may be) and who are happy and proud to support it with their complacent reflections, there are initiatives by actors who rebel not only against the images, but also against the prevailing codes of symbolisation. Such would be the case of Marlon Brando and Delphine Seyrig. We can view the fulfilment of the actress’ work as a political catalyst in Delphine Seyrig’s collaboration with Carole Roussopoulos, which gave rise to three major cinematic essays. The actor, an experimental laboratory of identity, redefines the accepted configurations or develops before our eyes specific prototypes of beings that can be inscribed, not only in the history of ideas and images, but also in our social reality. One of the greatest poets of unstructured appearance was the US experimental performer and filmmaker Jack Smith. Andy Warhol adopted from Smith his actors, the notion of “Superstar” and, above all, the principle that, in order to get to the heart of cinema, all that is needed is to document the presence of the bodies. Warhol’s contemplative minimalist style allows the actors to develop their own imago and offers us a series of unforgettable portraits. The filmmaker and, frequently, actor who systematised throughout his work the question of the cinema actor is, undoubtedly, Jean-Luc Godard. The article concludes by quoting the work of those actors from whom acting means engaging in real activism, such as the actors filmed by the filmmaker Raymundo Gleyzer.