The ConflictedSelf-Construction of the Actor-Director: Tim Roth’s The WarZone.

Writing about an actor-turned-director leads the film scholar to explore the intimate links between acting and directing. David Roche’s article‘The Conflicted Self-Construction of the Actor-Director: Tim Roth’s The War Zone’is based on a biographical investigation into the covert and painfulmotives that prompted Tim Roth to direct The War Zone. While acknowledging the power of the actor to shape the discourse constructed on a personathat he self-consciously performs, Rocheexplores Roth’s most personal memories to better understand his undertaking a film about child abuse. While the process of adapting Alexander Stuart’s novel The War Zoneallowsthe film-maker to share personal stories of his own, Roche detects visualand narrativedetails that convey Roth’s filmic strategiesto deal with trauma, arguing that “the adaptation serves as a mask for the artist to tell a very personal story”.Mise-en-sceneis highly significant for maintaining the sense of secrecy which binds the family together in The War Zone,andwhichRoche invites the viewer to identify through detecting the invisible signs of malaise.Film analysis in this case turns into an emotional exercise that echoes the genuine response of non-professional actors interpretingcharacters confronted with a situation that visibly affected them.