WISSPER

Women’s Impact on Silent Screen PErformance Reloaded

Why WISSPER?

Because women’s influence as acting theorists has been reduced to a “whisper” by traditional film historiography.

WISSPER is a research project focused on the study of actresses-dancers in silent cinema and their contribution to screen-acting theory and practice.

The principal aim of this research is to study the impact of migrating European actresses-dancers on screen acting, especially through their onscreen choreographic performances.

 

The case studies on which this project focuses on, are portrayed in this image. From left to right: Stacia Napierkowska, Ileana Leonidoff, Pola Negri, Asta Nielsen and Alla Nazimova.

Objectives

This project aims to valorize the impact of European actresses of the silent era, on the definition of international screen acting standards.

Studying the screendance performances of European migrating actresses, I hope not only to find the answers to my research questions, but also to contribute to the acknowledgement of a shared trans-national cultural heritage and to underline the role played by women in such process.

Who’s in charge?

Elisa Uffreduzzi is postdoctoral fellow at Université libre de Bruxelles, under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie COFUND programme IF@ULB.

She is in charge of the research project WISSPER.

 

To find out more about Uffreduzzi’s role in the framework of the programme, you may have a look on the research fellow’s page.