Attori e star nella GIF culture
Pubblicato in: Imago, 2017, vol. 16, pp. 183-194.
In the animated GIFs discussed here a new form of cinephilia is expressed through the redesign of stars close-ups, isolated from the reference context. These looping films with a star as protagonist, created by unknown authors, are widely spread on social networks. Some examples show how the mimic gesture, an invention of the actor as much as a result of direction, becomes the subject of a new resemantization. The foreground perception changes. Moving images, which have seen stars engaged in communicating into a film feelings and emotions, appear frozen in the infinite repetition of a mood entrusted to the actor's face or body. Interrogating the stardom animated GIF as a new form of viral art invites to rethink the history of cinema as the site of a reactivated memory and participated transmission in the new media.