Focus on James Mason

Birkbeck Cinema, Gordon Square, London, 26 May 2018

 

This symposium explored the work and career of James Mason and marked the publication of a new study of the actor. A leading star of British and Hollywood cinema during the 1940s and 1950s, Mason had a long and diverse career. His early British success in such Gainsborough Studio melodramas as The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady established his identification with cruel and sensual villainy, an image he later sought to escape in America. While never achieving the conventional leading man status he aspired to, Mason achieved international success in such later roles as the tragic, self-destructive Norman Maine in A Star is Born and the predatory Humbert Humbert in Lolita.

The event began with a presentation by Adrian Garvey, Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck, on Mason’s work in film noir in both Britain and Hollywood. Drawing on such examples as Odd Man Out, The Upturned Glassand North by Northwest, this talk considered the actor’s frequent association with the noir archetype of the homme fatal, a charismatic and alluring figure associated with danger and deathliness.

This talk was followed by a screening of The Reckless Moment, one of the actor’s first Hollywood films and the second of his collaborations with the auteur Max Ophuls. A fusion of film noir and melodrama, the film shows middle class American family life polluted by crime and violence, as Mason’s character, the blackmailer James Donnelly, invades the respectable world of Lucia Harper over her daughter’s relationship with a small time criminal. This was a rare opportunity to see the film on 35mm, and for many in the audience it was a revelation on a big screen. The screening was followed by a discussion of the film and Mason’s wider career, which was led by Adrian Garvey and Sarah Thomas of the University of Liverpool.

The final presentation was given by Sarah Thomas, author of the recently published James Mason, a volume in the BFI Film Stars series of monographs. Sarah’s focus was on the underexamined and undervalued latter period of the actor’s film career, from the early 1960s until his death in 1984, when he worked extensively as a character actor in American and European cinema. Focussing on two examples, The Deadly Affair and The Flower in His Mouth, Sarah offered detailed performance analysis to consider his complex representation of ageing masculinity in roles which emphasised compromise, corruption and perversity.The event concluded with a reception to celebrate the publication of Sarah’s book, with a toast given by the BFI series’ co-editor, Martin Shingler of the University of Sunderland.

The symposium was organised by Birkbeck Institute of the Moving Image and supported by Living British Cinema. Adrian and Sarah would like to thank Michael Temple and Matthew Barrington of BIMI and LBC’s Lucy Bolton for all their help and support.

The day’s presentations and discussions were recorded for inclusion on a Blu-ray edition of The Reckless Moment, which was released in May 2019