Bodies in Action Films and TV Series in the Digital Era
Le corps dans les films et les séries d’action étatsuniens à l’ère du numérique
Published on Monday, July 22, 2024
Abstract
The idea for this conference arose from the renewed attention paid to the profilmic body in US-American audiovisual action productions since the mid-2010s, at a time when the transition to all-digital production favored the hegemony of other adventure genres centered on the prowess of virtual bodies. In the 1990s, action movies were largely characterized by the centrality of the physical body in motion, confronted with extraordinary constraints, and carried out by actors who performed the majority of their own stunts.
Announcement
Argument
The idea for this conference arose from the renewed attention paid to the profilmic body in US-American audiovisual action productions since the mid-2010s, at a time when the transition to all-digital production favored the hegemony of other adventure genres centered on the prowess of virtual bodies. In the 1990s, action movies were largely characterized by the centrality of the physical body in motion, confronted with extraordinary constraints, and carried out by actors who performed the majority of their own stunts. This type of stunt cinema has never really left the screen, if the longevity of franchises such as Mission Impossible (1996- ), Fast and Furious (2001- ) and the James Bond films starring Daniel Craig (2007-2021) are anything to go by. But the industrial environment dominated by digital technologies from the late 2000s onwards has encouraged the emergence of a spectacular cinema based on digital bodies, notably in superhero movies after Iron Man (2008) and science fiction after Avatar (2009). The growing success of the John Wick franchise (2014; 2017; 2019; 2023), however, has transformed the landscape of contemporary action cinema, inspiring a series of productions reviving the physical dimension of the classic action film, such as Atomic Blonde (2017), Anna (2019), The Old Guard (2020), Extraction (2020; 2023), Nobody (2021) or Bullet Train (2023). This trend can also be seen in action series such as Arrow (The CW, 2012-2020), Banshee (HBO, 2013-2016), Daredevil (Netflix, 2015-2018), Into the Badlands (AMC, 2015-2019), Hawkeye (Marvel, 2021), Echo (Marvel, 2023) or The Brothers Sun (Netflix, 2023).
This inflexion in audiovisual action productions corresponds to the fact that a number of stunt coordinators became directors (David Leicht, Chad Stahelski, Sam Hargrave), but it is also linked with the creation of specialized production companies (AGBO, 87Eleven), the emergence or return of stars of the genre, known for their ability to do their own stunts (Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron, Tom Cruise, Vin Diesel), and promotional strategies and reception discourses emphasizing the physical dimension of acting performances. It also corresponds to a moment in the industry’s history in the mid-2010s, when critics increasingly deplored the excesses of the digital spectacular, when the promotion of big productions like Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) or Star Wars The Force Awakens (2015) emphasized their profilmic anchor and the importance of their physical effects, and when digital spectacular cinema itself started incorporating the classic action film (Captain America: Civil War, Logan, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, or Shang-Chi).
The fact that the spectacular aspects of films like Atomic Blonde or the John Wick franchise rely on the stunts of their lead performer does not mean that digital technologies play no part in them. On the contrary, these films depend entirely on digital imagery for their aesthetics and the staging of their action sequences. The hegemony of the digital spectacular in audiovisual action productions at large now favors an ontological and phenomenological hybridization of the action body rather than an opposition between profilmic and digital (Ayers). The main characteristic of the contemporary action body would thus be its ability to articulate profilmic materiality and digital photorealism. The recent incorporation of the classic action film in spectacular digital cinema is certainly a part of this logic of hybridization. But it may also reflect the reaffirmation of the materiality of the profilmic body as the main principle of action on screen.
Existing research on the action film has already analyzed the profilmic body in action, whether in terms of its socio-political significance (Jeffords’ articulation of physical action with the body politic), aesthetic significance (Tasker’s idea of the body in action as cinematic spectacle) or spectatorial experience (King’s idea of spectacular action as transcending the boundaries of physical experience, or Purse’s focus on the resilience of the body in the face of all kinds of constraints). Faced with the advent of digital bodies on screen, research on action movies initially favored the profilmic body as the only effective dimension of the action body on screen (Purse 2007), before considering that the contemporary action body offered the image of a successful hybridization between profilmic and digital (Ayers). While the digital body is always at least partially the product of images of physical bodies (notably in motion capture), the profilmic body is itself an aggregate of composite images resulting from various operations (shot selection, framing, editing) that produce the illusion of continuous action. The return of classic action cinema forms centered on stunts in an industrial context of spectacular digital hegemony, however, invites us to revisit the question of the physicality of action and what it implies in terms of audiovisual spectacle, realism and, more broadly, in terms of the conceptions of cinema and audiovisual fiction. The consequences of this articulation of physical stunts with digital technologies on the questions of race, gender, age, and other political structures typically naturalized in on-screen bodies also need examination.
While productions such as the John Wick franchise and its avatars revive the principles of the golden age of the action film and build referential bridges with the history of action cinema, they also represent a new aesthetic turning point that deserves to be analyzed. Built on the hypertrophied bodies of actors projecting an image of power in the 1980s, the action film evolved towards exploring the resilience of more vulnerable bodies after Die Hard (1988). The Matrix (1999) represented a new turning point in the physical performance of the actoral body and the articulation between digital and profilmic, and The Bourne Identity (2002) along with its sequels imposed a more unstable, jerky aesthetic. With its wide-angle, long-shot action scenes combined with sophisticated cinematography (see Coulthard and Steenberg), the John Wick franchise played a major role in establishing a new aesthetic in action cinema that continues to percolate throughout the industry. This neoclassical dynamic, combining a return to the golden age with innovation, raises questions about the development of the genre and the redefinition of the spectacular in cinema. It also reminds us that the action body is produced by a multitude of aesthetic and technical factors that remain to be clarified.
We welcome proposals that explore aesthetic, generic, technical, economic, ideological, or political aspects surrounding the body in US-American action films and TV series as well as issues of production and reception. The conference will focus on contemporary series and films, but papers examining their connections with the history of the genre are also welcome.
Submission guidelines
Proposals in English or French, of 300 words minimum and accompanied by a bibliography and biography, should be sent to claire.cornillon@unimes.fr and herve.mayer@univ-montp3.fr
by September 15, 2024
Organization committee
- Claire Cornillon (Université de Nîmes, RIRRA 21)
- Hervé Mayer (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, EMMA)
Scientific committee
- Drew Ayers (Eastern Washington University)
- Lisa Coulthard (University of British Columbia)
- Amandine D’Azevedo (UPVM3)
- Marianne Kac-Vergne (Université de Picardie Jules Verne)
- Mathias Kusnierz (Université Paris Diderot)
- Monica Michlin (UPVM3)
- Lisa Purse (University of Reading)
- David Roche (UPVM3)
- Lindsay Steenberg (Oxford Brookes University)
- Yvonne Tasker (University of Leeds)
Subjects
- Representation (Main category)
- Zones and regions > America > United States
- Periods > Modern > Twenty-first century
- Mind and language > Representation > Visual studies
Places
- Montpellier, France (34)
Date(s)
- Sunday, September 15, 2024
Keywords
- cinéma, série, action, corps, Etats-Unis
Contact(s)
- Claire Cornillon
courriel : claire [dot] cornillon [at] unimes [dot] fr
Reference Urls
Information source
- Claire Cornillon
courriel : claire [dot] cornillon [at] unimes [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Bodies in Action Films and TV Series in the Digital Era », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, July 22, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/122io
