"But in this singular moment, we can see, even from behind, that Tyler has what the unnamed narrator played by Edward Norton lacks: unbridled, unending confidence and a clarity of self. 'All the ways you wish you could be, that’s me' Tyler says later, sitting with the stillness of a coiled snake that’s waiting to strike."
From "Every Brad Pitt Movie Performance, Ranked A closer look at the Oscar-nominated actor’s body of work" by Angelica Jade Bastién (who goes to a lot of trouble)(in Vulture).
In case you're wondering, "Fight Club" is ranked #6. #1 is not "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," the 2019 movie for which Pitt received an Oscar nomination. That is #3. #2 is another 2019 movie, "Ad Astra." And #1 is "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (from 2007)
Anyway... "back-ting"... that amused me. And it fits with today's mini-theme, hyphens (here and here). If you'd coined the word, would you have written "bacting" or "backting" instead of "back-ting"? It's hard to do portmanteau words, and here you need to find a way to make readers see "back" and "act," with the "k" and the "t" in some weird conflict. Worth it though! Because acting while turned away from the camera is something you have to think of noticing.
Ah! Here's the original Sheila O'Malley column, "Back-ting." Excerpt:
The gold standard of back-ting is Bette Davis.... The best example of this—in a performance worthy of intense study—is Davis’ portrayal of Leslie Crosbie in William Wyler’s 1940 film The Letter. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that Davis plays about 70 percent of The Letter with her back to the camera. Very few actresses could pull this off. Leslie is first seen, unforgettably, emerging from a bungalow, emptying a gun into the man on the ground at the foot of the stairs. From that moment forward, Leslie lies with a cool unblinking aplomb. She lies to the police. She lies to her husband Robert (Herbert Marshall). She lies to her friends. She says the man tried to rape her and she killed him in self-defense. When she regales the police with her lie, she stands at the edge of the room, back turned to the group, “re-living” her experience for them, never once turning around. There isn’t a closeup of Davis until almost halfway through the movie. Leslie turns her back when she lies, but she also turns her back when she is revealed. Her lawyer (James Stephenson) informs her of the existence of a letter she wrote to the man she killed. She whirls around to face the wall, her shoulders heaving with gasps. She doesn’t turn around through the rest of the scene, an unyielding figure, staunchly refusing to let us in.....
This kind of acting is almost a lost art, although there are still actors capable of working this way, and directors who understand the power of back-ting....
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53 comments:
It's used in nude scenes. You get butt and a flash of side-boob.
The climax of Silence of the Lambs was effective use of back-ting
"Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken!"
A metaphor for a back-t(h)ing I'm grateful they chose not to demonstrate.
Some performers really needed more "Back-ting" like Streisand. Think of how much better her films would be, if you didn't have to look at that face.
Lots of that for 'Carrie Fisher' in "The Rise of Skywalker"...
A film critic once praised George C. Scott for doing more acting with a back-shot shoulder shrug, then most actors do all film.
Dark Reckoning with Bogart has a lot of back shots. Plus shots of him in bandages. They tried to use the camera to denote his POV and not show his face. Must have been an easy paycheck for him.
Sometimes in movies they show a person from behind if they're facing away from the camera for some reason, like when it fits the story or it just looks good. That sounds weird, but it's true!
The recent discovery of this sort of camera shot is quite "a thing" on the interwebs - maybe it should have a real name.
"Now do side!" he said.
What cracks me up is the inevitable scene in old movies where the speaker turns her back to the camera to say something Heavy to the guy. Usually that's the scenario. It seems to be a scene setup directors love.
But, who does that in real life? Turn away to talk? Unless they've watched too many movies of course.
Tom Waits played Renfield in a Dracula show.
It can't be "bacting", that makes people think of Bactine (tm). Or makes them wonder how to bact.
b'acting?
In the theater this is called being upstaged, i.e. to face the other player one is forced to turn ones back to the audience.
b'acting is what Bruce Campbell does..
In my television and film production classes in the 1980s, this technique was called "two faces East." It was used as a way for two people to make profound comments in a conversation without looking at each other.
Speaking of acting, I saw that Robert Downey Jr was on Rogan yesterday. I haven't checked it out but I guess they talked about black face and whether you could make Tropic Thunder today.
Met Bruce short while ago. Nice person who seems to be very aware of how lucky he is to be him. He's got a sense of humor, that guy!
It's also the art of the deal. In movie scenes, the actor shows the power of walking away when not getting what they want. Then the other negotiator has to give them something to get the negotiation to re-start. And using a long silence would be a form of back-ting.
The Norks and the Chi-Coms saw plenty of DJT's back-ting over the last 2 years. Now it's Iran's turn.
The last Brad Pitt movie seen was Fury. And he played that role very well. In a final scene his tank crew played possum while the Germans surrounded their tank. That was another form of back-ting.
Brad Pitt is underrated, but Ad Astra is not his 2nd best role, I would rank that movie below Sgt Fury, Inglorious Bastards was better. I think that Once Upon a Time and Fight Club were both better than Ad Astra. I only vaguely even remember Pitt from the Jesse James movie, but if I did remember him clearly, I bet I would rank it with Legends of the Fall.
Ad Astra was an OK movie though, just not a great movie.
Bactine. Stingless disinfectant
"Think of how much better her films would be, if you didn't have to look at that face.”
Her movies from the sixties were some of the best made in that era, I don’t know what you are talking about. Well, I do, but I think you are way wrong.
Bactine. Stingless disinfectant
Yeah, we always thought people who used that were sissies. We used merthiolate, full of healty mercury. You could tell it was working by how bad it hurt!
Compare Streisand’s movies to those of Elvis and get back to me.
I liked #20. A River Runs Through It. Beautiful fly fishing scenes.
The concept of "back-ting" immediately brings to mind (my mind, anyway) the 1969 Sam Peckinpah classic, THE WILD BUNCH. Seeing the characters' backs is pretty much a motif in the film, and very evocative.
The actors in Brokeback Mountain: Brokebackting
And then we have Michael J Fox's backting in Back to the Future. And who could forget the scenes in the Empire Strikes Backting.
Just read the list, it’s ridiculous. Mr and Mrs Smith and the Oceans’ movies belong nowhere in the top half of it and The Devil’s Own and The Mexican belong much higher.
"Supine-ing" is what often ensures the likelihood of 'bacting'
Pitt going shirtless on a LA roof gets the women pontificassing about his rear. Hey, I can take my shirt off.
Haha Unknown.
Agreed, bactine was for wimps. My mom used mecurichrome.
"Hey, I can take my shirt off.”
If you look as good as him, knock yourself out.... [That’s a little Fight Club humor...]
If anybody invented back-ting and stood for its use it was silent actor Emil Jannings, first winner of the best actor Oscar. Watch the opening here, it's all about the weight of his sins on his back:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v66gBxW8iVg
A history of the breast, Gresham podcast
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/history-of-the-breast
Doesn't come up if your back it turned.
I'm convinced the only reason "Spy Game" didn't get rated higher is because it seems like Robert Redford's bit. But Redford's character belatedly regains his moral sense and idealism—and, yes, brilliantly runs an unauthorized clandestine rescue operation while being deposed by hostile colleagues—because Pitt's character, including his willingness to run his own unauthorized rescue operation for a woman who is morally compromised but that he loves, has gotten through to him. I found the arc from Redford coldly insisting "If you go off the reservation, I will not come after you" to the expression on Pitt's battered face when he asks the chopper pilot to repeat the code name of the rescue operation (I won't repeat it so as not to give a spoiler) deeply satisfying,
You could tell it was working by how bad it hurt!
That’s how I feel about original Listerine.
I would call it "back acting." "Backting" is just awkward. I only ever noticed it in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Boromir does it walking away from Aragorn in Rivendell (1st movie), and his brother Faramir does it walking away from his father when he is sent to an impending battle (3rd movie). Peter Jackson is famous for dual scenes where the second one echoes the first one.
In preparation for Possible Woman President, White House Staff Begins Loosening All Jar Lids. Babylon bee
I took theater classes as an undergraduate in the mid-1960s. I recollect that technique being addressed in a directing class circa 1966. Ain’t new, but we were taught to use it at most once per play that we were directing.
“Assassination of Jesse James... “ is one of my all-time favorite movies, everything about it. Just watched Ad Astra a couple of weeks ago, found it to be very interesting.
Iman said...
“Assassination of Jesse James... “ is one of my all-time favorite movies,
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Me too...…..Pitt was scary as the sociopathic James. He was brilliant.
Let's not overlook his role as the ultimate stoner in 'True romance'.
Agree on Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. I loved it, particularly Casey Affleck's role. It was one of my favorite westerns since McCabe & Mrs. Miller. I thought the homoeroticism was a little pat, but Affleck and Pitt really did a great job. And I am not a particular fan of Brad Pitt's acting, though he is undeniably a movie star. For raw sex appeal, nothing beats his performance in Thelma & Louise.
“From that moment forward, Leslie lies with a cool unblinking aplomb. She lies to the police. She lies to her husband Robert (Herbert Marshall). She lies to her friends. She says the man tried to rape her and she killed him in self-defense.”
#MeToo alert!!!!
I just like him. I think Snatch is a great flick. Im a fan of Tarantino films. Is he the reason we go watch them? Not in my case. Most of these I have not seen.
I'm not that familiar with that one, probably the oceans films also spy game, where he played second fiddle to Robert redford, but others of guy ritchies work, like the layer cake is interesting, this next one, the gentlemen, is a variation on that, between English pot distributors and their American competition,
he was also in inglorious bastards, which was an ok film, for the genre I guess, haven't seen ad astra,
What's the movie where his wife is a spy and he shoots her. I like that.
Allied, had to look that one up, he was also in true romance.
Pitt’s role in “The Big Short” may have been small, but later on, after you find out that Brad Pitt was in the movie, you say something along the lines of “Wait, that was Brad Pitt?!?” And, friend, that’s real acting.
“If we’re right, people lose homes. People lose jobs! People lose retirement savings, people lose pensions. You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here’s a number, every one percent unemployment goes up, forty thousand people die, did you know that?”
“Just ... don’t fucking dance.”
I'm sorry, but Pitt's best turn was in the Coen Brothers Burn After Reading.
I think "back-ting" started with the "Fake Shemp."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_Shemp
My Voice For Musical Theater prof wouldn't let us close our eyes while singing - it shut out the audience, she said. Of course we were all a bunch of callow youths who thought that that squinched-eyed expression made us look more profoundly emotionally present or something, rather than constipated.
And my theater teacher warned us against turning our backs to the audience - as another commenter noted above, advised us to use it sparingly so it wouldn't lose its shock value.
But the backting or whatever that our host uses as an example here is more about kinaesthetics than Brad Pitt's plain old back; he *moves* with confidence. You'd be able to see it from any angle. Act with everything you have.
Yes but he was a fictional character, much like the narrative in the big short
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