Engaging Dialogue: Cinematic Verbalism in American Independent Cinema Jennifer O'Meara 9781474420624

Examining 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, particularly on the films by writer-directors like Jim Jarmusch, Noah Baumbach and Richard Linklater, this book demonstrates dialogue's 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 in independent cinema can instead hinge on what is termed `cinematic verbalism': when dialogue is designed and executed in complex, medium-specific ways.

About the Author
Jennifer O'Meara is a lecturer in Film Studies at the University of St Andrews.


Book Information
ISBN 9781474420624
Author Jennifer O'Meara
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Edinburgh University Press
Publisher Edinburgh University Press
Series Traditions in American Cinema