Alice Guy-Blaché directed hundreds of films between 1896 and 1920. She wanted audiences to feel like they were watching real...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
Alice Guy-Blaché directed hundreds of films between 1896 and 1920. She wanted audiences to feel like they were watching real people on screen. She would encourage actors in her films to behave naturally. Guy-Blaché even hung a large sign reading 'Be Natural' in the studio where she made her films. At the time, films lacked sound, so actors needed to rely solely on their bodies and facial expressions to convey emotions. As a result, actors tended to highly exaggerate their actions and expressions. The style of acting in Guy-Blaché's films was therefore ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "Alice Guy-Blaché directed hundreds of films between 1896 and 1920." |
|
| "She wanted audiences to feel like they were watching real people on screen." |
|
| "She would encourage actors in her films to behave naturally." |
|
| "Guy-Blaché even hung a large sign reading 'Be Natural' in the studio where she made her films." |
|
| "At the time, films lacked sound, so actors needed to rely solely on their bodies and facial expressions to convey emotions." |
|
| "As a result, actors tended to highly exaggerate their actions and expressions." |
|
Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Guy-Blaché promoted natural acting in an era where technical constraints typically led to exaggerated performance styles.
Argument Flow: The passage establishes Guy-Blaché's commitment to natural acting, then explains how silent film constraints usually made actors exaggerate, setting up a contrast that leads to the missing conclusion about how her approach differed from the norm.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage creates a clear setup: Guy-Blaché pushed for natural acting, but the era's silent film constraints made actors typically exaggerate
- Since she was actively working against the standard practice of her time, her natural style would stand out as different from what audiences and industry people were used to seeing
- The answer should capture how her approach contrasted with the exaggerated norm of that period
- Claims her style was copied by peers
- The passage gives no information about other directors following her approach
- Actually contradicts the implication that her style was distinctive
- Suggests her style would be familiar to actors from other films
- This contradicts the passage's setup - if other films used exaggerated acting, her natural style wouldn't be familiar
- Captures that her natural style differed significantly from the era's exaggerated norm
- Flows logically from the contrast: everyone else exaggerated due to silent film constraints, but she promoted natural acting
- Makes a comparison to modern film acting that the passage doesn't support
- Goes beyond the scope of what we can conclude from the given information