The “star presence” of great actors is one of the most compelling and powerful aspects of the movies we love. In his provocative and insightful new book, Watching Them Be: Star Presence on the Screen from Garbo to Balthazar (2014, Faber & Faber), James Harvey (author of Romantic Comedy in Hollywood and Movie Love in the 50s) takes us on a wide-ranging tour of some of film history’s most transcendent performers and performances, from (as the subtitle suggests) the donkey Balthazar (from Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar), to Marlene Dietrich, John Wayne, Pam Grier, Robert De Niro, and more.

Film descriptions adapted in part from Watching Them Be: Star Presence on the Screen from Garbo to Balthazar by James Harvey.