Overhearing Film DialogueSince the birth of cinema, film has been lauded as a visual rather than a verbal medium; this sentiment was epitomized by John Ford's assertion in 1964 that, "When a motion picture is at its best, it is long on action and short on dialogue." Little serious work has been done on the subject of film dialogue, yet what characters say and how they say it has been crucial to our experience and understanding of every film since the coming of sound. Through informative discussions of dozens of classic and contemporary films—from Bringing Up Baby to Terms of Endearment, from Stagecoach to Reservoir Dogs--this lively book provides the first full-length study of the use of dialogue in American film.
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accents action actors American films Angeles argues audience Aurora Berkeley Bordwell Bringing Up Baby California Press CALVERA camera CATHY character's characters Charlotte Chris Cinema Citizen Kane close-ups conversation Corleone cultural Dallas Darling Clementine David dialect Directed discussion drama ELLEN Emma emotional film dialogue film's filmgoers filmmakers functions gangster films genre's George Gerald Mast Gerard Gerry Girl Godfather going gonna Hawks's Heathcliff hero Hollywood important James Jerry John Ford Jules Furthman language lines linguistic listening logue male means melodrama Michael Michel Chion Miniver movie narrative novel Palm Beach Story Paramount Peter phrase play plot Preston Sturges Quentin Tarantino Reservoir Dogs reveals Richard Ringo Robert scene Screen Screenplay screenwriters screwball comedies script sexual shot silent sound speak speech Stagecoach star Sturges's style Susan talk Tarantino tell tion University of California verbal viewer visual voice Voyager Warner Brothers Westerns woman women words York