Abstract

This first book-length critical study of Jeremy Irons concentrates on his key performances and acting style. Through the analysis of some of the major screen roles in Irons’s career, such as Brideshead Revisited, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Reversal of Fortune, Swann in Love, Dead Ringers and Lolita, Mark Nicholls identifies a new masculine identity that unites them: an emblematic figure of the 1980s and 1990s presented as an alternative to the action hero or the common man. Using clear explanations of complex theoretical ideas, this book investigates Jeremy Irons’s performances through the lens of sexual inversion and social rebellion, to uncover an entirely original but recognizable screen type.

Mark Nicholls is Senior Lecturer in Cinema Studies at the University of Melbourne where he has taught since 1993. His research interests include Hollywood cinema, Italian cinema, masculinity, Freudian psychoanalysis and Shakespeare adaptation. He is the author of Scorsese’s Men: Melancholia and the Mob (Pluto and Indiana University Press, 2004) and has published chapters and articles on Martin Scorsese, Luchino Visconti, Shakespeare in film and film and the Cold War.

“A fascinating and thought provoking reading of Jeremy Irons ... this book will make an excellent contribution to the way we read actors. The approach is innovative, imaginative, and full of delicate argument.”  ·  Sean Redmond, Victoria University of Wellington