Daily Dialogue — January 28, 2015

JAMES BOND: Red wine with fish. Well, that should have told me something.
DONALD “RED” GRANT: You may know the right wines, but you’re the one on your knees. How does it feel, old man?

— From Russia with Love (1963), screenplay by Richard Maibaum, adaptation by Johanna Harwood, novel by Ian Fleming

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Espionage. Today’s suggestion by Ludovic.

Trivia: Sean Connery said that this movie was his personal favorite out of the Bond films he did.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Ludovic: “The James Bond franchise has contribute to define the espionage genre. And one of the movie that established the Bond formula is From Russia With Love.

This scene defines the Bond character because of his ability to make a joke in front of the bad guy (and in this case the bad guy answers back, which is rare!). Moreover Bond stresses the fact that his nemesis is unaware of how you should eat and drink in a proper way (aka in a occidental way) and that makes him a danger. The enemy of Bond is the one that is his opposite in a cultural way: he wants to be his equal but he can’t really achieve this status because of the “little thing” that draws a line between the good and the evil.

The opposition between two characters is not necessarily stressed with clothes or manner or language: here both are in costume and speak a proper english. Yet they are enemies who recognize each other (especially Bond in this example) because of something else, that makes Bond a good detective: a more day-to-day detail!”

If you have a suggestion for this week’s theme, please post in comments.