Submitted by bejeweled_sky t3_124qzot in movies
I am a therapist working with neurodivergent people; a handful of my clients have difficulty reading facial expressions. One of them asked me if we can dissect a movie scene and use it as a way of labeling emotions. Anyone have ideas for movie or TV clips where there is not much said, but a lot is felt?
Old silent films are 100% facial expressions and body language.
Anything Buster Keaton.
Even tho it's mostly dialogue the facial expressions are mostly divorced from the dialogue. The before trilogy
The Artist (2011)
[deleted]
The opening hour of The Deer Hunter
Brief Encounter.
Check out Lars and the real girl.
Willem Dafoe’s new movie, Inside.
Castaway.
These might fit the bill:
Fruit market scene in Klute (1971) Scene available on Youtube.
Dale overhears the LA cops make fun of him at the diner in One False Move (1992)
Ending scene in Calibre (2018)
Ending scene in Fractured (2019)
Jack Lemmon's character in the turbine trip scene in The China Syndrome (1979) Scene available on Youtube.
This last scene has the most dialogue out of the ones I listed but it has lots of acting with body language and facial expressions as well.
Taste of Cherry by Abbas Kiarostami.
There’s a scene in Picard Season 3 between Patrick Stewart and Gates McFadden (episode 3) where these two actors share a multiple second look with no words that conveys love, respect, anger, hurt and regret in one long look.
(TV example, but this is for science) All of Millie Bobby Brown’s acting as El in S1 of Stranger Things. I was very impressed with how well expressed herself in so many scenes, conveying how she felt without a word.
bejeweled_sky: Here's something you might find useful, an example of masterful direction outside of films:
Genndy Tartakovsky's animated series Primal.
There is something in the history of "Film Language" known as Pure Cinema, the original visual language intuited and codified in Silent Movies, which had to portray all of their emotional and narrative intentions without words.
Writer-Director Tartakovsky wanted to do this in an animated series, which would be set in a world before spoken language, but which still found a way to illustrate all the big universal feelings (and thoughts) at the wellspring of sentience: Fear, repulsion, longing/desire, love, hatred, joy, hunger, loyalty, wonder, satiation, hope/hopelessness, puzzlement, fatigue, inspiration, etc. etc.
So he set his story in a fantasy prehistoric world with a proto-human as the protagonist (hence the double meaning of the title, Primal). It's very impressive; and the "simplified"/artistically-heightened facial expressions might be useful for your clients.
Absolute first thought: Emma Thompson unwrapping the CD at Christmas.
Sorry, what movie is this from?
This is Love Actually. its the scene where she realizes her husband is cheating on her, but is keeping it together because it's Christmas and the kids are all present. A masterclass.
Thank you all so much for your suggestions! I've created a great list.
The scene in A Beautiful Mind where Alicia visits John after he's been forcibly hospitalized. They both speak volumes with just their eyes.
I would say the scene when Brad Pitt hesitate to pull the trigger at the end of Seven
TechyDad t1_je0gx39 wrote
The first few minutes of Up.