Making Faces, Playing God: Identity and the Art of Transformational Makeup

Wearing a mask--putting on another face--embodies a fundamental human fantasy of inhabiting other bodies and experiencing other lives. In this extensively illustrated book, Thomas Morawetz explores how the creation of transformational makeup for theatre, movies, and television fulfills this fantasy of self-transformation and satisfies the human desire to become the other. Morawetz begins by discussing the cultural role of fantasies of transformation and what these fantasies reveal about questions of personal identity. He next turns to professional makeup artists and describes their background, training, careers, and especially the techniques they use to create their art. Then, with numerous before-during-and-after photos of transformational makeups from popular and little-known shows and movies, ads, and artist's demos and portfolios, he reveals the art and imagination that go into six kinds of mask-making--representing demons, depicting aliens, inventing disguises, transforming actors into different (older, heavier, disfigured) versions of themselves, and creating historical or mythological characters.

Author: Thomas Morawetz
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 08/01/2001
Pages: 246
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.64lbs
Size: 9.94h x 7.04w x 0.76d
ISBN: 9780292752474

Review Citation(s):
Choice 02/01/2002 pg. 1055
Univ PR Books for Public Libry 01/01/2002 pg. 67 - Strongly Recommended

About the Author
Morawetz, Thomas: - Thomas Morawetz, Tapping Reeve Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Connecticut School of Law, writes avocationally on modern literature, non-fiction, mysteries, and movies. His interest in movie-making extends over thirty-five years.