I am a big fan of films where characters are very real. Real in the sense that they say everyday things without spouting cliches. I know this task rests mainly on the shoulders of the script writer, but I think it's just as important for the director to sculpt the actors as well. Some examples of what I'm talking about include "The Deer Hunter," "The French Connection," "Battle of Algiers," "The Bicycle Thief" and more recently, the brilliant "Cavite." The Italians were big on this concept with the neo-realism faze and the French do it remarkably well. But I'd like to hear from others about some recent films that combine real characters with entertainment, i.e. A good thriller or adventure. (I know "entertainment" is relative.) But the characters in too many films--despite how desperately they try to look "real"--sound lofty, stiff, animated--unreal. I won't mention the films that seem this way(too many to mention and too many fans of them out there with big sticks!) Any help with this would be appreciated--especially with foreign films. There are just too many coming out and I can't keep track of them!
jjf
jjf
Real people also talk in cliches. I think you are responding to what is just fine acting and directing that makes the lines sound very natural. To be honest real dialogue, real natural dialogue, is filled with ah, um, let me start over, and all sorts of interuptions and talking over each other. This kind of thing could get tedious if not done very well and it makes it hard to get clean audio.
Robert Altman did a lot of this kind of dialogue in the movie M*A*S*H, so it can be done, but he might have spent a fortune on ADR for all I know and I believe he never did that style again in later pictures.
In foreign films you generally have subtitles so actors stepping on each others lines isn't really noticed if it happens.
If you really want this let your actors improv their lines. Tell them the motivation and the jist and let them go with it. That's what the Spinal Tap guys do (Best in Show, For Your Consideration, Mighty Wind). They have rough outlines for each scene and improv away and choose the best/funniest/whatever for the print cut.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
I understand your point but it is very hard to create a 'cliche free script' that sounds realistic. Yes dialogue is very different in films from real life but it has to be because otherwise it just comes across as very amuteurish (sorry for that word). Due to the fact 'film dialogue' has stayed very similar over the years when someone tries to be different it does not come across as different but as a bad script. Ufornunetly this is the pattern and i dont see it changing.
Rob - UK
Yes, I understand. I don't see it changing either. But I still find little gems every now and then that defy the norm: "Big Night," "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," and "American Beauty" come to mind. But is there anything else out there, say in the vein of "Saving Private Ryan," that you know of where the dialogue in very genuine--almost profound--yet doesn't use cliches? Too many thrillers/dramas get such good reviews yet have scripts that sound processed from the writers of soap operas. The reviewers seem blinded by the film simply having an original idea. Again I won't mention which ones these are. Are there good ones out there that I don't know of?
jjf
jjf
I'm a fan of Kevin Smith's dialogue but the actors in his movies pretty much say it's unnatural to say.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
