Psychology technique · used in 3 films
Centering the film on a character who has to keep performing, on stage or under a false identity. They fear being exposed and slowly lose track of who they really are.
Examples
Woody Allen · 2002
Val has to keep acting like a director in front of the cast and crew while he cannot see anything. His agent Al helps him cover it up. Every scene on set becomes a test of whether he will be found out, which is where the laughs come from.
Where to see it: The shoot. Val hides his blindness from the cast, the crew and Hal while production goes on around him.
Martin Scorsese · 2006
Costigan and Sullivan are both acting a part every minute of the day, and the film tracks what that costs them. Costigan falls apart mentally. Sullivan becomes truly corrupt. The film asks which act does more damage: pretending to be evil, or pretending to be good.
Where to see it: Costigan's therapy sessions. This is the only place where he partly drops the act.
Todd Field · 2022
Lydia Tár's entire identity is made of performance: conducting, teaching, speaking, being watched. She is supremely confident, so failure doesn't worry her. What worries her is that the performance might end and the audience that makes her who she is might walk away. When that audience does leave, the film tracks what remains.
Where to see it: Lydia conducting the Mahler. Her total control is at its most visible here and also at its most fragile. The baton is both her instrument and the evidence.
Questions
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