Spoken language
Dialogue, voice-over, accent and idiom — what is said, how, and what the saying conceals.
- spoken language
- reference
- written-code
The verbal layer: dialogue, voice-over, narration, accent, register, slang, subtext. Spoken language rarely means only what it states; the analytical work is in the gap between utterance and intention — which is also where Acting lives.
What to look for
Register clashes (who talks "wrong" for the space they're in?); lines that mean differently on second viewing; voice-over's claim to authority.
Canonical cases
"We all go a little mad sometimes" in Psycho — the parlour scene — a kindness on first viewing, a confession on second. And little Alice's profane punchline in Alice — the prologue: period-perfect Hollywood diction detonated by a line no 1940s child was ever allowed to say — the film's whole method in one sentence.
Sources
Durgnat on the parlour dialogue; the Criterion essay on Alice's script history — Criterion — At Home in the World.