You'll Never Hear Dialogue the Same Way Again

Описание: Discussions about movie dialogue always revolve around matters of style, whether the language is heightened, snappy, literary, realistic or naturalistic. But there is one aspect of dialogue that should always come first: content.

I raise the theory that there are only two types of content for dialogue, both in fiction and in real life: the Practical and the Analytical.
Practical: facts and events. Reality. Things that happened, that are happening and that will happen.
Analytical: Ideas and feelings. Opinions, hypotheses, analyses, analogies, metaphors, connections and conclusions.

Basically this is the MBTI (Myers–Briggs Type Indicator) dichotomy of the preference for Sensing or Intuition applied to dialogue.

Practical and Analytical are rarelly absolutes. They are poles, with dialogue mostly falling somewhere in the middle. But everyone still has a natural preference for one type of dialogue or the other.

Many screenplays have subpar dialogue because of an excess of the Practical: characters speak about the plot, about stuff that happened, is happening and will happen (remember "Game of Thrones"?). But the Practical should be used only to provide exposition and to prepare characters to talk analytically.

Take every film that is praised for its excellent dialogue ("His Girl Friday", "The Maltese Falcon", "Casablanca", "All About Eve", "Sweet Smell of Success", "The Apartment", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", "A Man for All Seasons", "The Lion in Winter", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", "The Godfather", "Annie Hall", "Pulp Fiction", to name a few in here). What do they all have in common?

All these films have their characters think and speak about their points of view concerning the world around them. The Analytical permits characters to be fleshed out and feel like real humans, not merely tools to move the plot along.

The Practical and the Analytical can also be used to differentiate characters. Have you ever noticed how common is the pair of characters made up of the dreamer and the doer? One character likes to talk about ideas, the other speaks less and gets things done. Make sure to watch HBO's "Rome"; Vorennus and Pulo made up one of the best duos in TV history.

As much as being Analytical is connected to intelligence and sophistication, it is also related to arrogant pedants. The character who is to the point and objective (Practical) can also be an intelligent man of action.

Jean-Pierre Melville made a career out of Practical men who only speak what and when they need to. On the other hand, Éric Rohmer made a career out of characters who only speak analytically.

In this video essay we'll go through this whole theory with plenty of examples.

#videoessay #cinema #dialogue #screenwriting #screenplaytips


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