Well, some other film-makers like Tsai Ming-Liang have quite often kept dialogue to a minimum, with lengthy dialogue-free passages, in fact i think there’s been a trend with arthouse cinema in various countries. This can work very well in the right hands but i don’t think we should judge how cinematic a film is by the amount of dialogue.
Kenji said what I was going to say.
I will say this, however: Although, Denis’ films have very little dialogue I think it’s difficult to say their like, “new” silent cinema. There is a very large difference between her films and any silent films. It is certainly interesting to make the comparison, but I think other than a focus on the visual as oppsoed to a focus on dialogue there is little to it. It’s a superficial distinction, but one many people seem to be making.
Writing from Cannes about Lou Ye’s “Spring Fever” Daniel Kasman notes, “And—another tip—avoiding dialog, in inexperienced hands, doesn’t lend sensuality or pregnancy to scenes but instead showcases an inability to characterize people and dramatic situations.”
No one could accuse Denis of being inexperienced or inept. She’s fashioned a language uniquely hers. Agnes Godard, her cinematographer, must be given enormous credit. I believe the two are really one, so perfectly in tune are they with each other. And the one is an astonishing collaborative force. I don’t know if it’s silent cinema she’s intentionally moving towards, but as each work takes DenisGodard deeper into the exploration of the purely cinematic, the absence of dialogue becomes more apparent.
The minimal dialog films contain a level of diegetic sound and the acting style doesn’t have to be as emotive to compensate for the lack of spoken dialogue.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien has used minimal dialog to varying results. It’s a difficult form to do well.
Excellent point about diegetic sound.
Hey, what a great conversation I missed by four months! I just posted a new forum topic on a book I am editing on Denis, please check it out and forward it to anyone you think may be interested. Thanks!
Rollie Schott
Trace the exceptional career of Claire Denis from ‘Chocolat’ through to ’L’Intrus’ and there is simply no denying that she is moving in the direction of silent cinema. She has been very open about this. But do you think this will establish her as merely an experimental filmmaker or one who was very much ahead of (and, i guess, behind) her time? Will all filmmakers begin to revert back to silent cinema? Will it be as if we had our fun with dialogue but the essence of the celluloid has once more called us home?