aderack
Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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 Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 11:37 pm |
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| CubaLibre wrote: |
| Movies specifically are not the greatest at presenting plots, but rather at presenting action - physical movement. This includes carefully nuanced facial expressions and body poses ("acting," I guess) as well as car chases and what have you. They are not so great at imparting information, but rather mood or emotion. |
There's a pretty good example in American Beauty (a movie that really doesn't lend itself to multiple viewings) in the "root beer" scene. The daughter's friend is leaning in the kitchen doorway, while Kevin Spacey is puttering with the fridge. From his perspective, she's leaning, I believe, into the frame. When the camera cuts around to her perspective, she's leaning against the frame with one of her arms and we're seeing Spacey from between her body and the wood. Every cut, she teleports -- yet as viewers, we don't particularly notice unless we're watching for it. Due to the framing, it makes perfect cinematic sense -- even if logistically it seems bizarre.
There's another moment not too far into The Good The Bad and The Ugly, when Blondie first encounters Tuco. One moment they're out in the desert and Clint Eastwood shoves his awful cigar into Eli Wallach's mouth. Frames later they're in town, miles and miles away, Tuco is slung over the back of a horse, and he still has the cigar in his mouth -- momentarily. He spits it out, toward the camera. Again, as narrative it makes complete emotional sense -- though that requires not thinking about it at all.
TGtB&TU is a pretty amazing film to study for this discussion. It deliberately cuts down on dialog as much as it can; what dialog there is tells you more about the characters than about the story. Almost the entire story is told in -- as you say -- facial expressions, body language, screen compositions, editing, and music cues. I'm overstating the case a little, though not by much. |
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