Film expert to give public lecture
Film expert and Sociology Professor Murray Pomerance will present the free public lecture Deep Depp: Travails of Celebrity in a Global Era at UTAS.
Prof Pomerance is an academic in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Media Studies Working Group at Ryerson University in Toronto.
He has written extensively on cinema, and is the author of several books, including Johnny Depp Starts Here, The Horse Who Drank The Sky: Film Experience Beyond Narrative and Theory and, most recently, Michelangelo Red Antonioni Blue: Eight Reflections on Cinema.
Prof Pomerance said Johnny Depp is considered a paradigm of celebrity in the context of a history of movie stars and the Hollywood studio production process.
“A theory of ‘amplification’ is introduced to help account for the dual career he is maintaining, that in which he consistently gives penetrating but relatively esoteric performances for what are called ‘localised’ audiences.
“He is also ‘amplified’ in that he is widely accessible across the globe to various audiences whose members share almost no characteristics whatsoever with each other.
“Therefore Depp is regarded as the only movie star who is both ‘amplified’ and ‘unamplified,’ in two parallel and intriguing presentations of self.”
The free public talk will be held on Friday, 30 September 2011 Centenary Lecture Theatre at 3.00-4.30pm, Centenary Lecture Theatre 118 (Entrance off Grosvenor Crescent), UTAS Sandy Bay campus.
Please RSVP by Wednesday 28 September for catering purposes. Phone (03) 6226 2347 or email sejel.admin@utas.edu.au