Lie to me: Mission: Impossible
July 1, 2022 1:55 PM Subscribe
Suppose your story situation is this. Character A is telling a story, but it's a lie. Character B realizes it's a lie, but doesn't signal that recognition. This is really two problems in one: How do you tell the audience A is lying? And how do you convey that B knows but doesn't reveal that knowledge?
By David Bordwell (many previouslies).
By David Bordwell (many previouslies).
God, I love stuff like this. And a great callback to "Singin' in the Rain" as an explainer.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:48 PM on July 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:48 PM on July 1, 2022 [3 favorites]
Jon Voight’s Twitter feed is a real spoiler for who’s the villain in this scene.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:22 PM on July 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:22 PM on July 1, 2022 [4 favorites]
I enjoyed this, it reminds me of Every Frame a Painting.
posted by rustybullrake at 4:25 PM on July 1, 2022
posted by rustybullrake at 4:25 PM on July 1, 2022
Interesting. I haven’t seen the film in a long time, but I see the earnestness of the final question as the dead giveaway, which confirms the earlier (strong) hints. I completely miss the knife. So many layers to helping us get this — and yet, the movie isn’t ruined if you miss it anyway.
posted by breakfast burrito at 4:28 PM on July 1, 2022
posted by breakfast burrito at 4:28 PM on July 1, 2022
Definitely makes me want to go rewatch the original 1996 MI. Boy, I remember the Flash game they had as a teaser!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:00 PM on July 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 5:00 PM on July 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
The analysis is good, but weirdly ignores the part Voigt and Cruise play in carrying it off, which is particularly strange given the screenshots posted with the article give some examples of how too.
When Jim first accuses Kittridge Ethan(Cruise) has a largely blank look on his face (which you can see in the pair of stills immediately below the video), slightly open mouth eyes opened wide, but not to exaggerated effect and he repeats "kittridge" in a sort of minimally inflected emotionally uncommitted whisper. While Voigt's delivery is overemphasizing Kittridge while he scans Ethan for a reaction, then repeats the name with an even more exaggerated emphasis and a slight laugh.
The tone of the exchange and the demeanor of the two actors sells the new awareness of the lie by the actors expressing they're "lying" contrasted to their behavior/actions in the other parts of the film or even the conversation, as the page's top still shows Ethan's change in expression/demeanor post-flashback when he is supposed to be convincing Jim in his belief of the lie. We can see Ethan's new glare and tightened focus, but it's supposed to be invisible to Jim. It's a sort of bluff signaling emotional changes to the audience which the characters aren't supposed to notice (even though both these characters clearly should.)
Things like the Claire's look at the camera is followed by Ethan shaking his head more as if to erase the thought than as a "no" also work with the camera and scene construction choices to provide the audience the emotional logic to the events. But Bordwell isn't that comfortable with emotional reads unless they can be nailed down from shot to shot, so he tends to skimp on those bits.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:30 PM on July 1, 2022 [10 favorites]
When Jim first accuses Kittridge Ethan(Cruise) has a largely blank look on his face (which you can see in the pair of stills immediately below the video), slightly open mouth eyes opened wide, but not to exaggerated effect and he repeats "kittridge" in a sort of minimally inflected emotionally uncommitted whisper. While Voigt's delivery is overemphasizing Kittridge while he scans Ethan for a reaction, then repeats the name with an even more exaggerated emphasis and a slight laugh.
The tone of the exchange and the demeanor of the two actors sells the new awareness of the lie by the actors expressing they're "lying" contrasted to their behavior/actions in the other parts of the film or even the conversation, as the page's top still shows Ethan's change in expression/demeanor post-flashback when he is supposed to be convincing Jim in his belief of the lie. We can see Ethan's new glare and tightened focus, but it's supposed to be invisible to Jim. It's a sort of bluff signaling emotional changes to the audience which the characters aren't supposed to notice (even though both these characters clearly should.)
Things like the Claire's look at the camera is followed by Ethan shaking his head more as if to erase the thought than as a "no" also work with the camera and scene construction choices to provide the audience the emotional logic to the events. But Bordwell isn't that comfortable with emotional reads unless they can be nailed down from shot to shot, so he tends to skimp on those bits.
posted by gusottertrout at 5:30 PM on July 1, 2022 [10 favorites]
Hope that didn't come off as disliking the post, it's nifty! and well worth reading for anyone interested in movies in general or just Mission Impossible. Bordwell is one of the best at the study of how movies communicate as a medium and is hugely influential for that. He is, though, so focused on the how he doesn't account for the why we care as much, which is in the emotional logic as much as the mechanical and I think that needs to be noted in a time where so much energy is being put into AI and cognitive aesthetics for reasons that leave me uneasy. (And I'll refrain from further comment too so as not to put people off for that.)
posted by gusottertrout at 7:57 PM on July 1, 2022 [6 favorites]
posted by gusottertrout at 7:57 PM on July 1, 2022 [6 favorites]
I agree, gusottertrout. When Cruise says "Kitteredge" he's totally making the face of someone being told an obvious lie. I'm not sure why I feel that way since your description of his face as "blank" also seems right, but it definitely seems to me like the actors are doing half the work he's attributing to the flashbacks.
posted by straight at 4:38 PM on July 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by straight at 4:38 PM on July 2, 2022 [1 favorite]
The tone of the exchange and the demeanor of the two actors sells the new awareness of the lie by the actors expressing they're "lying" contrasted to their behavior/actions in the other parts of the film
I rewatched MI last night. It is a terrible and yet enjoyable piece of 90s cheese, but this particular scene does have multiple levels to it, as you notice.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:46 PM on July 2, 2022
I rewatched MI last night. It is a terrible and yet enjoyable piece of 90s cheese, but this particular scene does have multiple levels to it, as you notice.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:46 PM on July 2, 2022
I really like the analysis of relation and ‘veridiction’. There is a state, and then the state changes. Jim is good, and then he is bad. I’m reminded of this language because reading the passage on a Sunday morning I couldn’t keep the names straight. I had to reread and reduce names to labels two good guys, two bad guys, and the unknown. Then I reread as good guy, maybe-bad guy, and so on. Finally, I was able to notice the confrontation more clearly (good vs evil) and see the flip of jim to evil. Fun.
posted by xtian at 5:24 AM on July 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by xtian at 5:24 AM on July 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
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