Question re “Dialogue and Subtext”
I’ll be teaching a new 1-week online screenwriting course beginning March 18. It’s called “Screenplay Universe: The External and Internal Worlds.” Here’s a brief course description:
This course looks at a screenplay’s universe, how it is comprised of the External World (plotline) as conveyed through action and dialogue and the Internal World (themeline) as conveyed through intention and subtext. Every moment in a script is an interplay between these two realms and we will study excerpts from notable scripts to see how the pros do it.
I’m in the process of putting together the lectures and thought it would be interesting to ask for your input. The second lecture is on “Dialogue and Subtext” — dialogue what we hear in the External World and subtext what we interpret in the Internal World. For example, here is an exchange in the movie Juno between Juno and Paulie Bleeker. Juno, who is eight months pregnant, has just heard the rumor that Paulie is going to go to the school prom with another girl:
JUNO
Whatever. Have fun at the prom with Soupy
Sales. I’m sure I can think of something way
more cool to do that night. Like I could
pumice my feet, or go to Bren’s dumb Unitarian
church, or get hit by a ten-ton truck of hot
garbage juice. All those things would be
exponentially cooler than going to the prom
with you.
The dialogue is clear: Juno states that (A) she doesn’t really care if Paulie goes to the prom, (B) doesn’t care if he has fun, and © she can find plenty of things that would be “exponentially cooler” than going to the prom.
That’s the ‘text’ of the words. But what’s the subtext? (A) Juno does really care that Paulie is going to the prom, (B) she does not want Paulie to have fun, and © she will have a miserable time while he’s at the prom. Oh, and the biggie: (D) Paulie has hurt her feelings by even considering going out on a date with another girl.
So let me throw out this question: What are some your favorite examples of movie dialogue and subtext? In particular, I’m interested in examples where the subtext is counter to the text of the dialogue. Or the subtext suggests some much deeper dimension of communication than the actual words themselves.
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