The Representation of the Actor from Edward Gordon Craig's Uber-Marionette to Robert Bresson's 'Model'
This article examines the concept of the "Uber-Marionette," proposed by British actor, director, and designer Edward Gordon Craig as an opposition to romantic subjectivity and realism in acting, alongside the "Model" actor concept introduced by French filmmaker Robert Bresson, within the context of early 20th-century acting theories and methodologies. Both artists transcend and redefine traditional realism, advocating a new mode of representation that emphasizes formal and aesthetic qualities. Craig’s "Uber-Marionette," which relies on movement and gestures as primary expressive tools, and Bresson’s "Model," characterized by the absence of overt emotional expression in cinema, are comparatively analyzed in both form and content. The study discusses these approaches in relation to the artistic contexts of their era, highlighting their aesthetic directions. Ultimately, Craig and Bresson reposition the actor’s function beyond mere emotional expression, establishing a new representational paradigm. Thus, their proposals are interpreted as a formal and conceptual critique against conventional norms of 'realism' in acting.
Edward Gordon Craig’in ‘Kukla Üstü’nden Robert Bresson’un ‘Model’ine Oyuncunun Temsili
Bu makale, 20. yüzyıl başlarında şekillenen oyunculuk teorisi ve metodoloji bağlamında İngiliz oyuncu, yönetmen ve tasarımcı Edward Gordon Craig’in oyunculukta romantik öznelliğin ve realizmin bir karşıtı olarak sunduğu "Kukla Üstü" (Uber-Marionette) kavramı ile Fransız sinema yönetmeni Robert Bresson’un "Model" oyuncu yaklaşımını ele almaktadır. Her iki sanatçı da oyunculukta ‘gerçekçilik’ anlayışının sınırlarını aşıp yeniden tanımlayarak, performansın biçimsel ve estetik düzeyde yeniden tanımlandığı yeni bir temsil anlayışı ortaya koymuştur. Bu temsil anlayışından yola çıkarak, Craig’in hareket ve jestlerin anlatım aracı olarak kullanılmasına yönelik sunduğu ‘Kukla Üstü’ önermesi ile Bresson’un sinemada bilinçli ifadeden arındırılmış ‘Model’ oyuncu anlayışı hem içerik hem biçim açısından karşılaştırmalı olarak analiz edilmektedir. Çalışma, bu iki yaklaşımın dönemin sanatsal bağlamlarıyla birlikte oyunculukta temsil meselesine nasıl yaklaştığını ve hangi estetik yönelimleri barındırdığını tartışmaktadır. Sonuç olarak hem Craig hem de Bresson, oyuncunun sahne ya da perde üzerindeki işlevini salt ifade aracı olmanın ötesine taşıyarak, yeni bir temsiliyet anlayışı inşa etmişlerdir. Bu bağlamda her iki sanatçının da önerileri, oyunculuk sanatında ‘gerçeklik’ normlarına karşı biçimsel ve düşünsel bir itiraz olarak değerlendirilmektedir.
In the early 20th century, the art of theater and cinema, the understanding of acting and theories of performance underwent significant transformations. Within these transformations, Edward Gordon Craig and Robert Bresson's ideas on the art of acting came to the fore with their ways of reconsidering the actor's position on stage and screen. Craig's concept of the 'Uber-marionette' and Bresson's understanding of the 'Model' actor offered a radical alternative to the traditional perception of acting and brought aesthetic approaches beyond realistic representation. This study aims to present a comparative analysis by examining Craig and Bresson's understanding of acting within a theoretical framework.
In this context, the influence of Romanticism on the art of acting and the rise of realism will also be discussed. Romanticism; as an understanding of art that emphasizes individuality and the intense expression of emotions, opened the door to a process that allowed for an emphasis on the inner world in acting. While the formal structure pioneered by Victor Hugo established a more lyrical relationship with the reader, the melodrama tradition that became widespread in Europe aimed to evoke empathy in the audience through emotional intensity on stage. However, with the rise of realism, the understanding of art turned to a different perspective based on observation and reflecting the outside world as it is. During this change process, Craig defended the idea that a realistic perspective could be reached through metaphorical definitions through symbolism.
Craig argued that there was no place for the individual interpretation of the actor in stage art, on the contrary, it was essential to reflect the vision of a director on the stage as a whole. His ‘Puppet Master’ metaphor expressed that the actor should stay away from emotionally uncontrolled and random movements and perform the movement design in question with an aesthetic understanding determined entirely by the director. Craig’s approach, by taking a stance against the narrative of the realistic acting approach that focuses on individual emotions and the inner world, emphasizes a more disciplined and symbolic acting approach.
In Bresson’s ‘Model’ approach, he argued that the exaggerated performances of professional actors in cinema harm authenticity and advocated that actors give simple, mechanical and natural reactions. ‘Model’ actors; They perform their lines without any emotion, with minimal gestures, and the emotional bond the audience establishes with the film is provided through the integrity of visual and auditory elements. In this sense, Bresson's understanding of aesthetics is similar to Craig's concept of 'Puppet Master'.
One of the fundamental differences in the approaches of Craig and Bresson is their approaches to artistic disciplines. While Craig's disciplined system on theatre requires that every element of stage aesthetics be under the control of the director and reduces acting to the aesthetics of gesture and movement, Bresson's cinematographic approach adopts a kind of minimalism and neutral narrative approach in acting practice. In Bresson's understanding of cinema, the language of montage and image is more prominent than the actor's performance. In this context, in his films, the actors' presence in front of the camera and the roles assigned to them by the director are important, not their individual talents.
These approaches of Craig and Bresson caused radical changes in 20th century art and led to the emergence of different aesthetic understandings in the world of theatre and cinema. Craig's ideas in particular contributed to the development of theatrical aesthetics based on symbolism, while Bresson's approach inspired today's minimalist cinema movements. In contrast to the acting approach of the naturalist realist approach, which centers on the individual emotional world, both artists proposed an acting approach that was disciplined, director-centered, and limited individual expression.
Craig and Bresson's acting approaches presented radical ideas on the representation of the actor on stage and screen. While Craig argued that the actor should be a controllable artistic tool in theater, Bresson argued that professional acting in cinema was fake and that models would present a reality on the screen that was free of emotional artificiality. A common point in both artists' acting approaches is that the actor is removed from the foreground as an individual and the artist is positioned as a part of a director's aesthetic vision.
In this comparative framework, it aims to offer new perspectives on the transformations in the art of acting, based on the relationship between Craig and Bresson's theories and the minimalist and avant-garde approaches in 20th century art. As a result, in contrast to the emotional intensity of Romanticism, acting in the modernist understanding of art took on a more controlled, directorial and structural form. This situation radically changed the role of the actor and the nature of performance in both theatre and cinema.
