ACTING I'm a bit of a movie buff. I do the Netflix thing and treat myself to Saturday-night-at-the-movies on a weekly basis. As a result, I've come up with some ideas about the art of acting, as well as the whole movie-making process. I guess you could say that I am a sort of self-made critic. (Aren't we all?) One of my pet peeves regarding the whole movie scene (hey, is that a pun?) is the way kissing is presented. I keep wondering how much acting it truly is. To give you some idea of what exactly it is that I'm getting at, let me compare it to a scene depicting a couple having sex. Unless it is a porn flick, we do not actually see any coitus take place. Consequently, the actors are truly acting, i.e., pretending. (That is, after all, what actors are doing, right? They're pretending.) This is of course the main reason why so many people scoff at the idea of porn movies being labeled as a legitimate medium for acting. We don't see a whole lot of pretending going on in them (unless all that silly noise-making qualifies). In the same way, how much real acting is going on in a kissing scene? And I'm not talking about a peck of a kiss. No, I'm talking about that sucking-face kissing. It is blatantly presented to us, quite often with close-up camera angles. Please do not misunderstand me on this one. I am in no way a prude, as anyone can tell from visiting this website. Prudery has nothing to do with it. I am questioning the very art of acting (and movie making/direction). In doing so, I am subjecting these kissing scenes to some hard scrutiny. And my question is actually twofold:
1. Are kissing scenes truly offering us acting? 2. Are they a necessary part of the movie plot?
In most instances I am inclined to answer both of these questions in the negative. I do not see actors pretending to kiss (unless they are behind some kind of screen that hides their faces). I see them actually kissing. (And remember, I am not talking about the innocent peck of a kiss. I'm talking about that so-called hot-and-heavy stuff.) And rarely have I ever observed a kissing scene that I could honestly regard as a necessary element of the movie's plot. In almost every instance, they seem little more than diversions. I have on many occasions become not a little impatient with these scenes. I have even gone so far as to speak out loud to the television screen, erupting forth with something like, "Come on! Get on with it. Can we please get back to the movie?" I'm sure that I am not the only one who feels this way. But I am just as sure that I am most likely in the minority on this one. There are enough love-starved saps out there who crave this sort of shenanigans to keep on supporting it. And as long as they're supporting it, the movie industry will keep on dishing it out to them. And I will keep on being pissed off by it. I mean, think about it. Here I am paying for a movie, in which I want to be treated to a good plot and some good acting. In most cases, I will admit, I get it. But I also get what I consider to be little more than an advertisement for modern-day romance. If I'm paying for a movie, I don't feel that I should have to put up any commercials. Do you?
|
