Making Faces, Playing God

Thomas Morawetz

ISBN 10: 0292752474 / ISBN 13: 9780292752474

Published by University of Texas Press, 2001

About this Item

Wearing a mask - putting on another face - embodies a fundamental human fantasy of inhabiting other bodies and experiencing other lives. This book 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". Num Pages: 246 pages, 121 colour and 100 b&w photographs. BIC Classification: ANH; APF; HP; JFC; JM. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 251 x 179 x 21. Weight in Grams: 476. . 2001. Paperback. . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9780292752474

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Making Faces, Playing God
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Publication Date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0292752474
• ISBN 13: 9780292752474
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

Thomas Morawetz, Tapping Reeve Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Connecticut School of Law, writes avocationally on modern literature, non-fiction, mysteries, and movies. His interest in movie-making extends over thirty-five years.