3:37 p.m. - 2008-12-10
Seventies Movies Minutiae Roundup, Part I: Part II
Also, what the hell was Diane Keaton doing in that scene? Not why was she in the scene, but what was she trying to accomplish with the weird, distracting facial tics? In every shot of Al Pacino she's right behind him, eyes darting about aimlessly and her face a mask of nervous mannerism. Was she trying to convey how tense these nineteen-fifties style congressional hearings were? As though all the white guys in suits and their stilted language weren't doing the job? Was Keaton being directed or were the micro-histrionics her idea? Was she foreshadowing the trauma of her abortion and subsequent split from Al Pacino? But wouldn't that tend to load the scene down too much with everything that's already going on? Is it possible that sometimes, even in big-budget movies where everything is tightly controlled and where the film-makers are able to shut down entire neighborhoods for days or weeks on end, random things just unintentionally wind up on the screen? If so, is this the REAL reason to see movies and if so what does this say about the nature of the art of film and aesthetic experience in general?
Each correct answer will be counted as ten points. Void where prohibited.
