In response to Kristine Butler's query (and off the top of my head, in no particular order ...), Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT features several sequences in which multiple voices overlap and occasionally drown out each other (e.g. scenes involving different family members, each of whom is isolated and/or fixated on his or her own concerns and obsessions). In a much different way, so do some of the films of, say, Howard Hawks (e.g. HIS GIRL FRIDAY, BRINGING UP BABY) and Orson Welles (CITIZEN KANE, MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS). Or Bresson, for that matter. And there's a moment in Kazan's ON THE WATERFRONT in which Terry Malloy (Brando) tells Edie (Eva Marie Saint) about the role he played in her brother's death; the blast of a whistle from a departing ship down by the docks drowns out his words, but the camera captures the agonized expressions of both characters in a low-angle close-up (I *think* -- it's been a few years since I last saw the film). (Excuse the scatter-shot approach to my response!) Alison McKee Department of Film and Television UCLA ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]