Engaging Dialogue: Cinematic Verbalism in American Independent Cinema

Examining the centrality of dialogue to American independent cinema, Jennifer OMeara 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 dialogues 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, OMeara 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. See more