Abstracts
Abstract
This article examines the actor’s performance of android characters in science fiction films. The author discusses how the cinematic android stresses conflicts between identity and expression, acting and performance, face and mask—conflicts that culminate in the recurring visual motif of the “unmasking” of the android to reveal its uncanny gaze. From A Clever Dummy (1917) to Blade Runner 2049 (2017), this article analyzes some of the narrative and aesthetic strategies that transform the human actor into an inhuman character, also pointing to early manifestations of the figure of the android in Western culture and to some of its recent developments through the use of videographic masks in the work of artists Otávio Donasci, Tony Oursler and Denis Marleau.
Résumé
Cet article examinera le jeu de l’acteur dans la construction de personnages androïdes dans des films de science-fiction. Nous verrons comment l’androïde cinématographique rend visibles des tensions importantes entre identité et expression, entre jeu et performance, et également entre visage et masque — tensions qui motivent le motif visuel récurrent du « démasquage » de l’androïde afin de révéler son inquiétant regard. De A Clever Dummy (1917) jusqu’à Blade Runner 2049 (2017), nous analyserons certaines stratégies narratives et esthétiques qui transforment l’acteur en personnage-machine, soulignant aussi ses possibles rapports avec les premières manifestations occidentales de la figure de l’androïde et avec son développement récent dans l’usage de masques vidéographiques par les artistes Otávio Donasci, Tony Oursler et Denis Marleau.
Appendices
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10.7202/039229ar