Watching Them Be: Star Presence on the Screen from Garbo to Balthazar

An intimate, thought-provoking exploration of the mysteries of "star presence" in cinema

"‘One does not go to see them act,' wrote James Baldwin about the great iconic movie stars Wayne and Davis and Bogart, ‘one goes to watch them be' . . . 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 looks as you have of these strangers on the scr...