Matt McAllister asks: "BUT, I'm getting bored with these scenes. Can anyone suggest movie clips that are rich in nonverbal complexity, and illustrate some concept about nonverbal symbols? I'd appreciate not just suggesting a scene, but also pointing out what you think the scene does nonverbally. Things like posture, eye contact, body language, spacial relations, paralanguage (the way words are said) would be great! Thanks in advance for the suggestions!" There are a host of possibilities, of course. One thing that I *think* I've noticed among "classic" directors is the way that that generation that began working or training in the silent era carried so many of these non-verbal elements into their films: von Sternberg, Lang, Hitchcock, Ford and others are only the tips of the iceberg. Here are a few ideas: (which may be all too obvious)-- THE BLUE ANGEL--the division of space by doors in windows in Rath's classroom and Lola's dressing room (not to mention the excruciating betrayal scene, with the utter debasement of Rath, towards the end of the film) SCARLET STREET--particularly the ending, as EG Robinson lives on while the voices of his (direct and indirect) murder victims haunt him There are *many* such scenes in Hitchcock-- the discovery of the murdered woman in THE 39 STEPS the "recognition" scene in SABOTAGE, where Sylvia Sidney realizes that her husband is a killer while watching a Disney cartoon (and the killing in that scene) Virtually the whole of BLACKMAIL NOTORIOUS--especially the balcony/wine bottle scenes when Bergman gets her "job" commission and the "recognition" scene where Rains realizes that she's a spy the opening shots of I CONFESS the chase in Radio City Music Hall in SABOTEUR and on and on the scene at the dinner table and the later scene of the birth of the baby in STAGECOACH and the ending of MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (see Nick Browne's THE RHETORIC OF FILM NARRATIVE for remarks on the former, along with other films) This does not even begin to address "modernist" twists on such handlings of space--Welles in TOUCH OF EVIL (where setting continually provides running commentary on the characters), the alienated character arrangments of Antonioni's films, the interaction of formal postures and codes of behavior along with idiosyncratic camera placement and editing in Ozu's films. And so on. Or are you really looking for such non-verbal communication in more "ordinary" films like the ones you mention? Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN) ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]