TAPE, for a brief moment, reminded me of a film david mamet might make. david mamet films are always highly focused on dialogue, and movies that are pure, uninterrupted dialogue are extremely interesting to me. TAPE was extremely interesting to me.
as roger ebert's review points out, there is no soundtrack, and there are no 'big gassy meaningless events.' it's just people... talking. and i love films like this. my dinner with andre, mindwalk, death and the maiden, mamet's vanya on 42nd street and oleanna, or even linklater's own waking life... they're all just basically people sitting around, talking. i always walk away from these movies feeling very satisfied. challenged. privileged to be taken, through their words, into the depths of these people's minds.
i've seen a few stage plays which consist only of 2 or 3 people stuck in a room, talking... but they never satisfy me in the same way as these movies do. the movies are magic, somehow, and the plays seem forced and flat. of course film has the advantage of being able to change the POV with a variety of camera angles, and you can't really do that in theater... but there's also something intangibly significant about putting dialogue up on a screen... to me, it makes the story more powerful than by just having actors stage a discussion in a playhouse.
lisa and i were talking, before the movie, about TLC's program, date patrol. a crew of 4 or 5 'specialists' take one floundering would-be dater and restyle them into a hardcore dating machine. they offer interpersonal advice, grooming advice, fashion advice... but what's most interesting to me are their lessons on how to have a conversation.
this is, apparently, a skill that is not innate in us. we have to learn how to have satisfying conversations. some people are quick to pick up the intricacies of it, while others need a reality-show ambush lesson. mimicking seems to help your conversation partner feel more at ease. raising your eyebrows indicates interest. don't forget to ask, "yes, and...?" questions. there are a whole slew of guidelines that have been set up to ensure a good flow of communication between two people.
my resolution last year was to throw a dinner party every month. i decided i'd invite 4 people to the house for dinner with ray & i. the challenge was to put together groups of people who would automatically generate interesting conversation. and when it succeeded it was extremely fulfilling. the discussions weren't always deep or philosophical... the topic itself didn't interest me as much as the idea of people being open, honest, and sharing their personality... that's all i cared about.
now that ray and i are in the new house and trees have stopped falling through the roof, i really want to start doing the dinner parties again. i miss them.
Posted by xta at February 2, 2004 11:01 PM | TrackBack