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Facial Dialogue: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[Facial Dialogue]] occurs when a character is communicating not just his emotional reactions or intense feelings, but entire reams of dialog using nothing more than their facial expressions and without saying a single word. When two characters do this to each other, it results in entire paragraphs of byplay, all perfectly understandable to the audience despite the entire exchange being silent.
Used correctly, such scenes can be as good as, or even better, than those with actual spoken dialogue.
[[Eye Take]], [[Aside Glance]] and [[Fascinating Eyebrow]] may be used as part of the [[Facial Dialogue]], but by themselves are only limited versions. Often the forte of [[The Silent Bob]], [[The Voiceless]] and [[The Quiet One]]. Often featured in a [[No Dialogue Episode]]. It is just as often used by characters who are perfectly capable of speaking, but just don't in this occasion.
Has ''nothing'' to do with porn actresses talking to the cameraman after...well, you figure it out. Well, it ''might''. But probably not.
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{{examples}}
== Animation ==
* Takeo from ''[[Mahou Tsukaitai]]'' had literal facial dialogue at times, with his thoughts being written out on his face.
* ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]'': Gromit. Although it's a necessity in his case, since he's mute. [[Captain Obvious|'Cos he's a dog]].
* Dopey, from ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'', does this throughout the entire film.
* ''[[Kino's Journey]]'' has an excellent example in one episode: Kino is in the land of the people who drank nanomachines that transmitted every thought and feeling, and each eventually had to live apart from everyone. After the man telling the story finishes, Kino's pep talk causes him to realise something; he silently thanks her, and her expression clearly says, 'you're welcome'. She explains all this to Hermes to ensure we got the point too.
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== [[Film]] ==
* During the opening robbery in ''[[Serenity]]'', River and Zoe have a short conversation using nothing but facial expressions that goes something like, "That guy." "That guy? Are you sure?" "Are you kidding me or just an idiot? Of course I'm sure! That guy!"
* Jake, the [[Plucky Comic Relief]] Sheriff's Deputy in ''[[Support Your Local Sheriff]]'' does this a lot. It was one of the things Jack Elam, the actor playing Jake, was best known for.
* [[Gene Kelly]] has a few memorable looks, including one moment during the dance scene of "You Were Meant For Me."
* [[Akira Kurosawa]] was excellent at getting this out of [[Toshiro Mifune]].
* John Cusack [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6hQx9PW20E had a deep and profoundly spiritual conversation with a baby] using nothing but expressions in ''[[Grosse Pointe Blank]]''.
* ''[[As It Is In Heaven]]'', a Swedish film, where in one scene two main characters have such a non-verbal conversation.
* Some [[Silent Film]] stars mastered this out of neccessity - [[Buster Keaton]], [[Charlie Chaplin]], etc.
* In ''[[Animal House]]'', a lot of Bluto Blutarsky's "dialog" is this.
* ''[[Gone in Sixty Seconds]]'' features one character, called "The Sphinx" by the other characters, making a ''phone call'' and using nothing but Facial Dialogue to do so.
* In ''[[The Brothers Bloom]]'', Bang-Bang has only two spoken lines of dialogue, comprised of only three entire words, and yet manages to be a complete [[Deadpan Snarker]] the entire film.
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* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'': Christopher Judge as Teal'c was the master of unspoken dialogue.
** Parodied in a supposed "flashback" in the episode "200". While he and [[Invisibility|an invisible O'Neill]] are walking down a corridor (O'Neill's location is given away by the floating coffee mug he's drinking from), O'Neill makes a comment about being invisible which Teal'c responds to with his usual stare. Since he can't see O'Neill's response, Teal'c remarks after a moment, "I assume I am staring at you [[The Stoic|stoically]]."
* This is supposedly what got Peter Tork selected as a member of [[The Monkees]]. He didn't speak during his interview, just communicated with over-the-top facial expressions.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOrqOELpdIU Merlin's face] at 0:52
** Also, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGURy23xyLg this scene] from the same episode. They have their entire conversation silently and almost leave it at that until Arthur decides to verbalize it anyway -- probably because he felt Merlin wasn't embarrassed enough.
*** Merlin and Arthur do this a ''lot,'' even when they're speaking out loud. I swear, put any of their scenes on mute and you'll get the idea and it will still be almost jut as funny. Or [[Ho Yay|sexy.]] Or both, [[Belligerent Sexual Tension|depending on the scene.]]
* The "telepathic conversations" on ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]''. Although we hear what the characters are thinking, you can still get the gist of it just by the expressions alone.
** Occasionally subverted. In "Bachelor Party", Robin attempts to convey an important message to Lily with facial expressions, and Lily interprets it as a request for a tampon. In "Doppelgängers", everyone else is having a telepathic conversation about Ted's hairstyle, and Ted's voiceover says, "What are we talking about? Nachos?"
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* In the [[Star Trek: The Next Generation]] episode "Allegiance", Picard is abducted by aliens for the purpose of study. When Picard turns the tables on his captors, they return him to the ''Enterprise,'' but before they leave the bridge, Picard and the crew, communicating with only subtle facial expressions, trap the aliens in a stasis field to show them what it feels like to be imprisoned. Picard makes a point of the fact that he and the crew communicated this way.
* The scripts for ''[[Frontline]]'' frequently had lines in parentheses if they were intended to be implicit in facial expressions or body language.
* Mulder and Scully of [[The X-Files]] are infamous for this. Already masters at the [[Held Gaze]] and [[Longing Look]], most scenes have an imbedded layer of subtext within the facial expressions. It makes their relationship look very intimate and almost make an onlooker feel as though they've walked in on something they shouldn't have.
* [[Grey's Anatomy]] has a good conversation between George and Izzy. After waking up with an alcoholic blackout of the night before, Izzy remembers George cheating on his wife with her, but George doesn't. Later on, George's memory comes back, and he and Izzy share an entire conversation without speaking.
* The first episode of ''[[Bugs]]'' courtesy of voice-triggered bombs.
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