Bette Davis, ou le bonheur de jouer à la « méchante »

Christian Viviani

Abstract :
Hugo Weaving is an actor familiar with bad-guy parts in contemporary Hollywood action movies. What appears as a constant in these roles is the use of the actor's face as a mask. While being at first part of established evil forces (the Machines in Matrix or Hitler in Captain America), Weaving’s bad guys detach themselves from this dominant force and grow stronger, as well as insensitive and merciless, and finally die killed by a kind of energy force, a blinding light that comes out of their bodies. A link appears between the actor's face, the mask he wears and the evil force that he is trying to contain inside him. Besides the traditional opposition good vs. evil (the villains played by Weaving share numerous similarities with the hero), Weaving playing the bad guy seems to propose a third way and appears to be a transitional figure towards a new type of hero, the super heroes, whose force is to live with a dark side that consumes them.
Published : 2018-07-23

Citation

Christian Viviani, « Bette Davis, ou le bonheur de jouer à la « méchante » », Cycnos, 2018-07-23. URL : http://epi-revel.univ-cotedazur.fr/publication/item/183