Midsemester Examination
2. The most memorable non-verbal dialogue in the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair, would have to be, I believe, the chess scene. It was all about the connection between Thomas Crown (McQueen) and Vicki Anderson (Dunaway), their silent flirting. It was a sight behold when I saw the film, there were so many emotions being portrayed though a single touch or a subtle glance. The most important type of non-verbal dialogue throughout the film, had to be the body language. A slight twist of the body, when the character was uneasy, or the single glance can set a scene and make a viewer pay attention a specific detail. It is like the age-old magic trick, where the magician flips through a deck quickly and asks the viewer to pick a card. The magician, or in the film’s case – the character, subtly lingers on a certain card for only a millisecond longer, but that millisecond is all that is needed for the viewer’s brain to latch onto whichever card the magician picked out. This is the same in the subtle body language portrayed in The Thomas Crown Affair which causes the viewer to latch onto something even if they don’t realize it.
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[a] Boorstin’s “Three Eye Theory” is the theory that the common viewer watches every film three different ways at the same time. These three “eyes” are called the Voyeur’s eye, the Vicarious eye, and the Visceral eye. The Voyeur’s eye is the observation of the film; it is own mind trying to understand and interpret what we see. It is logical and reflective. It “sees” the logic of the film. The Vicarious eye is the emotional hold of the film. It is when we connect to what is shown. The footage evokes an emotional response because what is shown matters deeply to the viewer. The visceral is basically the primal thrill and innate emotion that the film prompts. It evokes our gut