One thing about having a short attention span is that occasionally the oddiments I do pick up come to some kind of focus. In particular today: Mike Bailey's post re: Altman's insisting that his players in McCABE take on their roles even off-screen reminded me of living history reenactors who get together at various types of encampments where they often take on a historical personna which they play out in first person, that is, they attempt to reenact a particular person, or at least a class of people. They take this task very seriously; "out of period" representations are discouraged. What is happening at these encampments is similar to the apocryuphal tale of Von Stroheim insisting the extras in a 'twenties extraganza set in the Viennese court be costumed in silk undergarments. The reenactors, some reenactors make the same demand; others settle for outerwear verisimilitude. Does this have anything to do with REAL PEOPLE? I don't know; that's why I'm sending these thoughts directly to you rather than engage with the folks who would otherwise read them on H-FILM or SCREEN-L. cal ------------------------------------------------------------------- Cal Pryluck, Radio-Television-Film, Temple University, Philadelphia <[log in to unmask]> <PRYLUCK@TEMPLEVM>