Unthinking people speak of the motion picture as the medium of "action"; the truth is that the stage is the medium of action while... the screen is the medium of reaction. It is through identification with the person acted upon on the screen, and not with the person acting, that the film builds up its oscillating power with the audience. This is understood instinctively by expert film-makers, but to my knowledge it has never been formulated. At any emotional crisis in a film, when a character is saying something which profoundly affects another, it is to this second character that the camera instinctively roves, perhaps in close-up; and it is then that the hearts of the audience quiver and open in release, or rock with laughter or shrink with pain, leap to the screen and back again in swift-growing vibrations. The great actors of the stage are actors; of the screen, re-actors.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In contrast to revenge, which is the natural, automatic reaction to transgression and which, because of the irreversibility of the... action process can be expected and even calculated, the act of forgiving can never be predicted; it is the only reaction that acts in an unexpected way and thus retains, though being a reaction, something of the original character of action.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
[If not re-elected in 1864] then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the el...ection and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Lora May: Did you ever stop to think, Porter, that in over three years there's one word we've never said to each other, even in fu...n. Porter: To you, I'm a cash register. You can't love a cash register. Lora May: And I'm part of your inventory. You can't love that either.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Porter: O.K., O.K., you win. I'll marry you. How 'bout it? Lora May: Thanks. For nuthin'.... Porter: Now what kind of an answer is that? Lora May: I don't know. I just felt like it, that's all. Porter: We'll do all right, kid. We're startin' out where it takes most marriages years to get.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Analysis as an instrument of enlightenment and civilization is good, in so far as it shatters absurd convictions, acts as a solven...t upon natural prejudices, and undermines authority; good, in other words, in that it sets free, refines, humanizes, makes slaves ripe for freedom. But it is bad, very bad, in so far as it stands in the way of action, cannot shape the vital forces, maims life at its roots. Analysis can be a very unappetizing affair, as much so as death.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hans Castorp loved music from his heart; it worked upon him much the same way as did his breakfast porter, with deeply soothing, n...arcotic effect, tempting him to doze.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »