The Joy of Competence

Jan 15, 2015 21:37

For More Joy Day, I thought I'd share a couple of videos I've been rewatching recently, both of which suit my personal competence kink right down to the ground.

First, there's Michael Caine in a BBC program from 1987, giving a detailed class on the specific art of film acting:

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He's such a master of the craft, and he demonstrates it so clearly. I adore watching him unpack the crucial differences between stage acting and film. He talks for instance about the use (or rather the non-use) of blinking, which is never something I even think about when I'm watching a movie, but it's a really big deal to an actor in closeup!

The other video is a detailed, slow-motion explanation by a dance teacher of Mikhail Baryshnikov's eleven-pirouette scene in the movie "White Nights," where Gregory Hines's character bets Baryshnikov's character that he can't do eleven pirouettes in one go, in his street clothes:

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He painstakingly points out the tiny details of how it was done, and I'm riveted. (I must recommend the movie, too--the dance scenes are SO GOOD, and it's also quite slashy/OT3ish!)

EDITED TO ADD: here's a clip of that pirouette scene to show it in context (not visually great, and embedding is unfortunately disabled, but still good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UBVjAZQpi4

michael caine, dancing, competence kink, more joy day, mikhail baryshnikov, acting

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