Thread by @sheilakathleen

For my new "Present Tense" column over at @FilmComment I write about what my friends and I call "Back-ting": actors playing scenes with their backs turned to the camera. Almost a lost art. Bette Davis is the high priestess of it. More at the link: filmcomment.com/blog/present-t…

@FilmComment Exhibit A:

@FilmComment Exhibit B:

@FilmComment Opening scene of THE CIRCLE.

@FilmComment Kristen Wiig in HATESHIP LOVESHIP:

@FilmComment ... a movie I really loved. Reviewed for @ebertvoices : rogerebert.com/reviews/hatesh…

@FilmComment @ebertvoices I don't have images for Charles Lane at the window in SIBYL or for Michael Raymond-James as Brick in the production of CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF I saw.

@FilmComment @ebertvoices And here's just a brief glimpse of Bette Davis' mastery of the craft in THE LETTER:

@FilmComment @ebertvoices Lying to everyone. She does the whole thing without turning around.

@FilmComment @ebertvoices Member I told you to watch the movie again and track what's going on with her right hand? Exhibit A.

@FilmComment @ebertvoices The scene I mentioned with her arm crawling up the wall. Not one shot of her face.

@FilmComment @ebertvoices Like I said: not too many actresses could pull this off.

@FilmComment @ebertvoices These are all moments I mentioned in the piece. Here's the link again. filmcomment.com/blog/present-t…

@FilmComment @ebertvoices For my #SPN #Supernatural friends: a back-ting moment I really love from Jensen Ackles: Season 1, "Shadow":