24/2000 - HFS

adio, the voice of a newsreader could be heard already in
the documentaries produced in the 30’s, which would soon
be accepted by authors like Luis Buñuel who used it in his
film Tierra Sin Pan (1932). Finally, the introduction of interior
monologue was of equal importance both for film poetics
and rhetorics — a character’s voice was heard although
he/she could not be seen; moreover, he/she could be seen
and heard, although he/she was not opening his/hers mouth.
During the short, initial stage of sound film the perception
of sound in film has undergone many changes — after the
discovery of laws of perception of sound in reality, the
attention soon turned towards the selection and exploration
of particular possibilities of exploitation of sound on the
screen. All these possibilities — along with some innovative
elements that we have not mentioned — were used in Orson
Welles’ film Citizen Kane (1941), which opened a new phase
in the development of sound film, the phase in which film
freely turned towards its new modernism.
Igor Tomljanovi}
Mute Dialogues in Talkies
UDC: 791.43:81’221
At first glance it appears that with the arrival of the talkies
mute dialogue was forgotten, i.e. dialogue based on gestures
and mimic which has unavoidably dominated narrative
silent film. However, mute dialogue — non-verbal communication
— did not disappear with the arrival of sound and
the onslaught of particularly verbal films. On the contrary,
it obtained a new meaning and role. It was no longer a necessary
stylistic means that performed the role of dialogue
and compensated for the lack of audible verbal speech.
Since audible dialogue was obligatory part of sound films,
non-verbal communication appeared in opposition to the
verbal dialogue and thus obtained a special stylistic value.
Verbal and non-verbal dialogues are closely linked, but do
still have certain differences. Both silent, non-verbal, and
sound, verbal dialogue offer various information about the
characters, their interrelations, the global situation, and
individual reactions. The difference, however, is the type of
information they provide. While verbal dialogues have an
almost unlimited range of types of information that they can
offer to the viewer, mute dialogues do not normally offer
factual information, although even that is possible (for
example, the character can answer a straight question, and
provide factual information, by nodding or waving his
head). Most often, mute dialogues serve to express what
cannot, or is difficult to be expressed verbally, i. e. emotions
(love, hate, jealousy, contempt...) or some other type of
reactions that character for some reason cannot, or does not
want to verbalize (for example, giving a suspicious look).
Another special quality of mute dialogues is that they very
much depend on the context — non-verbal reactions can be
deciphered only when we are familiar with the relations
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Hrvatski filmski ljetopis 24/2000.
among characters and their situation. In this sense they
depend on the type of situation they appear in, namely, the
type of scene. In action scenes where physical movement
dominates appear a number of mute reactions consisting of
looks, mimic, gestures, which are mostly short and expressive.
For example, in the attack on the rebel camp in the
movie Predator by John McTiernen, the characters use the
agreed upon sign language for military activities, they communicate
with eyes, and by nodding their heads. On the
other hand, even in the scenes with verbal dialogue there is
also a subtle usage of mute, non-verbal reactions. Here,
mute dialogue appears as an extension of verbal by ’other
means’ (mostly conduct and glances charged with emotions).
For example, in the scene of dialogue between
Pfeiffer and Day Lewis in the Age of Innocence by Martin
Scorsese there are parts in which they exchange glances during
their long walks. However, there are also action-dialogue
sequences in which the whole dialogue is mute, as for
example in the disco club scene from Paul Verhoeven’s Basic
Instinct. A whole two-minute sequence in which Michael
Douglas takes over Sharon Stone from Sarelle with whom
she had been dancing, takes place in their eye-contacts and
demonstrative actions heavily relying on our knowledge of
character relations and previous events. According to their
function in relation to the verbal dialogue, mute dialogues
serve to: (a) emphasize certain aspects of verbal dialogue, (b)
replace verbal dialogue, and (c) supplement it. All these
functions can be illustrated with the example from Basic
Instinct — in the scene in which Michael Douglas and
George Dzundza first arrive to question Sharon Stone in
their glances additionally affirm their words (Sharon Stone’s
defiant look underlines her verbal message Get lost);
Douglas’ appearance expresses his defeat, however, he does
not put that into words, but rather only nods to his partner.
According to their meaning, mute dialogues can meaningfully
accompany verbal dialogues, they can carry the same
meaning, or introduce information that are different or contrary
to those expressed verbally (in the above described
scene with Sharon Stone, she tries to correct her rudeness
adding ’Please’, however, her eyes and her attitude remain
defiant). Exactly in such contrast meanings of non-verbal
dialogue lie great rhetorical potentials of mute dialogues.
According to the manner in which mute dialogues appear,
we can distinguish independent non-verbal dialogues
excluding verbal ones, and mute exchanges in the context of
predominantly verbal dialogue (for these we can find examples
in Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly — dialogue between
Hammer and the policeman, and Hitchcock’s Shadow of a
Doubt — scene of the family dinner at which Charlie, certain
that her uncle is the murderer, lets others know it too).
Evidently, after the initial hyperverbalisation of film at the
beginnings of sound era, the mature phase of sound film
introduces a much more subtle treatment of dialogue
sequences, increasing the importance of non-verbal conversation.
Contemporary film authors, especially those with
great ambitions and a narrative talent, display exquisite sen-