Making Faces, Playing God

Identity and the Art of Transformational Makeup

By: Thomas Morawetz

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Paperback | 1 August 2001

At a Glance

Paperback
248 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.4 x 17.78 x 1.32

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$126.75

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"This book is entirely unique, very well written, dramatic, and, at the same time, philosophical. It is likely to appeal to a very large audience, including anybody interested in the visual arts, in film, in theater, in philosophical problems of transformation, and in the unconscious generally." -- Melvin R. Lansky, M.D., UCLA Medical School and Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Institute

Wearing a mask-- putting on another face-- embodies a fundamental human fantasy of inhabiting other bodies and experiencing other lives. In this extensively illustrated book, Thomas Morawetz explores how the creation of transformational makeup for theatre, movies, and television fulfills this fantasy of self-transformation and satisfies the human desire to become "the other."

Morawetz begins by discussing the cultural role of fantasies of transformation and what these fantasies reveal about questions of personal identity. He next turns to professional makeup artists and describes their background, training, careers, and especially the techniques they use to create their art. Then, with numerous before-during-and-after photos of transformational makeups from popular and little-known shows and movies, ads, and artist's demos and portfolios, he reveals the art and imagination that go into six kinds of mask-making-- representing demons, depicting aliens, inventing disguises, transforming actors into different (older, heavier, disfigured) versions of themselves, and creating historical or mythological characters.

Industry Reviews

"This book is entirely unique, very well written, dramatic, and, at the same time, philosophical. It is likely to appeal to a very large audience, including anybody interested in the visual arts, in film, in theater, in philosophical problems of transformation, and in the unconscious generally." -Melvin R. Lansky, M.D., UCLA Medical School and Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Institute

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction Arts & Entertainment Film, TV & Radio Specific Films Film Theory & Criticism Society & Culture Media Studies Acting & Theatre Studies Technical & Background Skills in Theatre Psychology Cultural Studies Philosophy

Technical & Background Skills in Film Production Dance & Other Performing Arts

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
The Culture and Art of Transformation	p. 1
The Significance and Invention of Faces	p. 3
The Culture of Transformation	p. 12
The Art of Transformation	p. 31
The Practice of Transformation	p. 45
The Demonic	p. 47
Aliens	p. 77
Disguise for Its Own Sake	p. 117
Variant Selves	p. 154
Impersonation	p. 186
Beyond Human	p. 202
Afterthoughts	p. 223
Photo Credits	p. 225
Index	p. 229
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Making Faces, Playing God

Identity and the Art of Transformational Makeup

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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