{"product_id":"watching-them-be-james-harvey-9780865478329","title":"Watching Them Be: Star Presence on the Screen from Garbo to Balthazar","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn intimate, thought-provoking exploration of the mysteries of \"star presence\" in cinema \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e'One does not go to see them act, ' wrote James Baldwin about the great iconic \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003emovie stars Wayne and Davis and Bogart, 'one goes to watch them \u003c\/i\u003ebe\u003ci\u003e' . . . Of course. It seems obvious . . . Where else besides the movies do you get to see other persons so intimately, so pressingly, so largely even? Where else such intense and close, such sustained and searching \u003c\/i\u003elooks\u003ci\u003e as you have of these strangers on the screen, whoever they really are? In life you try not to stare; but at the movies that's exactly what you get to do, two hours or more--safely, raptly, even blissfully.\" \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIt's this sort of amplified, heightened, sometimes transcendent \"seeing\" that James Harvey explores in \u003ci\u003eWatching Them Be\u003c\/i\u003e. Marvelously vivid and perceptive, and impressively erudite, this is his take on how aura is communicated in movies. Beginning where Roland Barthes left off with the face of Greta Garbo and ending with Robert Bresson's \u003ci\u003eAu hasard Balthazar\u003c\/i\u003e, Harvey moves nimbly and expertly through film history, celebrating actors and directors who have particularly conveyed a feeling of transcendence. \u003cbr\u003e From Marlene Dietrich to John Wayne to Robert De Niro, from \u003ci\u003eNashville\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eJackie Brown\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eMasculine Feminine \u003c\/i\u003eand the implicitly or explicitly religious films of Roberto Rossellini and Carl Theodor Dreyer, this is one man's personal, deeply felt account of the films that have changed his life. They will also, Harvey suggests, change yours.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e James Harvey\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0865478325\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780865478329\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/08\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 400\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.70w x 1.10d","brand":"James Harvey","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46232982290687,"sku":"9780865478329","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_cf33802c-a13c-413b-8cd6-1889588a3b45.jpg?v=1728991717","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/watching-them-be-james-harvey-9780865478329","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}