Engaging Dialogue

Explores how American directors engage audiences through dialogue that is creatively designed and executedExamining the centrality of dialogue to American independent cinema, Jennifer O'Meara argues that it is impossible to separate small budgets from the old adage that 'talk is cheap'. Focusing on the 1980s until the present, in particular on the films of directors like Jim Jarmusch, Wes Anderson and Richard Linklater, this book demonstrates how what we think of as 'dialogue' is really its ability to engage audiences and bind together the narrative, aesthetic and performative elements of selected cinema. Questioning the association of dialogue-centred films with the 'literary' and the 'un-cinematic', O'Meara highlights how speech can be central to cinema without overshadowing its medium-specific components, and demonstrates how indie dialogue can instead hinge on an idea of cinematic verbalism.Key FeaturesProvides a framework for analysing dialogue design and execution that can be readily applied to other films and filmmakersHighlights how speech can be central to cinema without overshadowing its medium-specific componentsDevelops new connections between film dialogue, reception studies, independent cinema and auteur studies