Best Subtle Moment in a Movie

[Whack-a-Mole]

@JpnDude

Is this that scene?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tC2XgNcnSNQ

Yep! Thanks. Makes me smile everytime I see that.

[mr.jp]

@Loach

My favorite subtle moment in *The Godfather * is when Michael is talking to Carlo. He tells Carlo that he knows he betrayed the family and caused Sonny to get killed. He tells him that he is not going to kill him but he needs to hear it from Carlo that he is guilty. Carlo breaks down and says it was Barzeni that came to him. For a second Pacino hesitates. His eyes unfocus for a second. In that moment you realize that he didn’t know that Carlo caused his brother’s death, he only suspected it. Carlo sealed his own fate.

It is probably the last time that Al Pacino was subtle.

I think he suspected it very strongly, he just wanted to be certain before he ordered him whacked.

From the viewers point of view, I think you could realise this as soon as he starts questioning him. After all, if he was sure that he did it a priori, what would be the point of the exercise?

[Little_Nemo]

Just remembered one, from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life. In one of the sketches, a British in colonial Africa wakes up to discover his leg’s missing. The doctor examines him and pronounces that it was a tiger attack. The other British officers are stunned. “A tiger? In Africa?” is repeated several times. Someone suggests that it escaped from a zoo.

I’ve never been able to quite figure out what level this joke is supposed to work on. When I saw it as a kid, I thought the joke was that there’s nothing surprising about a tiger being in Africa, so the British officers looked like twits for being surprised to find African fauna in Africa. Except, of course, there are no tigers in Africa. Tigers are from India. And the Pythons were all pretty well educated, and would almost certainly know that there are no tigers in Africa. But if whichever Python wrote the sketch knew that, then it’s not actually a joke, is it? He’s reacting precisely as you’d expect a real British officer serving in colonial Africa to have reacted. Unless, of course, the joke is that most people think that there are tigers in Africa. It’s a common mistake, after all. Ask most people where you find tigers, and they’ll probably say, “Africa.” So, the joke in the scene is that people will think it’s funny that the officer is surprised to hear of a tiger attack in Africa, even though there’s not really anything funny about it. Which is what makes it funny.

Subtle? Maybe. Overanalyzed? Definitly.

I think the humor was that the people present were discussing somebody’s leg being eaten in such a calm and unemotional manner. It was a joke about stereotypical British reserve. The actual content of the conservation wasn’t important - the words were essentially filler. It was the tone of the conversation that was the punchline.

[Little_Nemo]

I think he suspected it very strongly, he just wanted to be certain before he ordered him whacked.

From the viewers point of view, I think you could realise this as soon as he starts questioning him. After all, if he was sure that he did it a priori, what would be the point of the exercise?

I think it was Michael just getting a little extra revenge. He knew all along Carlo was guilty and he was going to kill him. But he wanted to play with him first.

[ArizonaTeach]

Not subtle in the sense of having to watch a movie several times to get it, but the best example of subtle acting I’ve ever seen, is Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day, when he finally gets up the courage, after untold years, to tell Emma Thompson that he loves her, and she blurts out that she is going to get back together with her estranged huband. The camera stays on Hopkins as she babbles, and I swear to God, you can see a man breaking into a million pieces in those eyes, even though he never really moves a muscle.

Screw Hannibal Lecter…that’s the scene that cemented Anthony Hopkins’ greatness to me.

[mr.jp]

@Little Nemo

I think it was Michael just getting a little extra revenge. He knew all along Carlo was guilty and he was going to kill him. But he wanted to play with him first.

This doesn’t sound right to me. Michael is a serious mafia guy. It seems against his character to play with his victims, with no particular purpose for him.

[Spice_Weasel]

@BACl

The final week this happens, he proclaims his love for her, there’s a brief interplay and she concludes with the words, “See you next Tuesday”.

I’ve never actually watched the show in question, but the first thing I thought when I read this is that she’s subtly telling him she’s looking forward to him telling her he loves her NEXT week. Is that also a possibility?

[ArizonaTeach]

@olivesmarch4th

I’ve never actually watched the show in question, but the first thing I thought when I read this is that she’s subtly telling him she’s looking forward to him telling her he loves her NEXT week. Is that also a possibility?

Yeah, actually, you jogged my memory there…they had established earlier in the episode that he tells her he loves her on every Tuesday.

“You know what day it is?”
“It’s Tuesday.”
“I love you.”

Maybe it was all a set up for that punchline, but it’s not like she picked that day out of the blue.

[Evil_Captor]

@SaintCad

In not so sure that a lot of these classify as subtleties. Many of them would be more in the class of foreshadowing or symbolism i.e. unimportant things that are important later on.

Symbolism and foreshadowing can be done subtly or clumsily. Of course, they are best done subtly, but it does’t always happen that way.

[Loach]

@BACI

It’s TV, and may not have been intended, but the coincidence is tantalizing. In House, Chase wants Cameron but she’s not interested in anything but a shallow “friends with benefits” relationship. He undertakes to keep his desire to himself but allows himself to tell her once a week that he loves her. The final week this happens, he proclaims his love for her, there’s a brief interplay and she concludes with the words, “See you next Tuesday”.

Maybe complete co-incidence but around my group of friends we use the same expression when describing people we don’t like, taking the first phoneme from each word. As in: c, u, n, and t. We say it more or less all the time so when “See you next Tuesday” came up on House my partner and I turned to each other and said, “WHAT!”

Intended? Conicidence? Who’s to know. But subtle, for sure.

I thought the same thing.

[Loach]

@Little Nemo

I think it was Michael just getting a little extra revenge. He knew all along Carlo was guilty and he was going to kill him. But he wanted to play with him first.

Nope. Watch it again. After the admission Pacino’s whole body language changed. He needed the admission. Before it he knew, after he knew. He was about to have his brother in law whacked, he had to be sure. The look he gives tells me that he was hoping he was wrong. After he hears it from Carlo he sends him off quickly to his death because after, when he is sure, he can’t stand to be in the same room. It’s subtle, which is why it is hard to see. You could watch it many times and not get it.

[Loach]

Here is the scene . I hope it doesn’t load in 5 second intervals like it did for me. He uses a classic interrogation technique, the I know everything I just need you to confirm it for me. He didn’t know before, he just suspected. As soon as he finds out Carlo is whisked out the door.

[Ludovic]

@BACI

“See you next Tuesday”.

I wasn’t going to post this since it’s TV, but since this TV example came up: I was watching The Good Life on PBS and Tom was delivering piglets, but he observed of one of them:

Tom: But this one, he’s so scrawny and barely breathing: he’s the runt.
Jerry: How Anglo-Saxon. [referring, presumably, to the word it rhymes with.]

I count that as subtle because I missed it the first time or so.

[Raguleader]

@Ludovic

I wasn’t going to post this since it’s TV, but since this TV example came up: I was watching The Good Life on PBS and Tom was delivering piglets, but he observed of one of them:

Tom: But this one, he’s so scrawny and barely breathing: he’s the runt.
Jerry: How Anglo-Saxon. [referring, presumably, to the word it rhymes with.]

I count that as subtle because I missed it the first time or so.

thinks

ponders

considers

dribbles

I don’t get it.

[Ludovic]

“See You Next Tuesday”, the word “Runt” rhymes with, is sometimes referred to as a good old classic Anglo-saxon word, mostly by people who do not consider it especially vulgar as compared to other terms for the female anatomy, merely vulgarified since the Normans looked down on Anglo-Saxon words.

[Larry_Mudd]

Stay is made up almost entirely of fantastic subtle moments - impossible transitions, and little background details that are easy to miss, like extras that appear to cross the screen repeatedly in apparently continuous shots as if using an out-of-frame Pac Man tunnel.

…and Ewan McGregor’s absurdly short pants that appear that way for a reason. Nice!

[Cat_Whisperer]

@BACI

It’s TV, and may not have been intended, but the coincidence is tantalizing. In House, Chase wants Cameron but she’s not interested in anything but a shallow “friends with benefits” relationship. He undertakes to keep his desire to himself but allows himself to tell her once a week that he loves her. The final week this happens, he proclaims his love for her, there’s a brief interplay and she concludes with the words, “See you next Tuesday”.

Maybe complete co-incidence but around my group of friends we use the same expression when describing people we don’t like, taking the first phoneme from each word. As in: c, u, n, and t. We say it more or less all the time so when “See you next Tuesday” came up on House my partner and I turned to each other and said, “WHAT!”

Intended? Conicidence? Who’s to know. But subtle, for sure.

There’s also the whole thing that “House” is and always has been broadcast on Tuesday night.

(I don’t agree with the “c u n t” thing - you’re stretching way too hard to get some meaning out of that.)

[Larry_Mudd]

@featherlou

(I don’t agree with the “c u n t” thing - you’re stretching way too hard to get some meaning out of that.)

It’s not that much of a stretch, it’s been used with that meaning for ages. Family Guy invoked it, and it’s held its own as a stand alone sweary bit.

In context, it makes more sense than any literal interpretation. Immediately before that Chase had asked “What do you think I am, some kind of vindictive jerk?” and gotten no response from her but a sort of “You said it!” look.

The next thing she says has long been established as a saucy/sly way of taking a poke at someone – not too much of a stretch to take it that way, IMO.

[Loach]

@Larry Mudd

It’s not that much of a stretch, it’s been used with that meaning for ages. Family Guy invoked it, and it’s held its own as a stand alone sweary bit.

In context, it makes more sense than any literal interpretation. Immediately before that Chase had asked “What do you think I am, some kind of vindictive jerk?” and gotten no response from her but a sort of “You said it!” look.

The next thing she says has long been established as a saucy/sly way of taking a poke at someone – not too much of a stretch to take it that way, IMO.

I agree. It’s not a stretch at all. I have heard shock jocks use it for years to get around the FCC.

[DrDeth]

@sciurophobic

In Pulp Fiction Vincent and Mia did not win the dance contest. There’s a scene with Bruce Willis where the radio is on and you can hear it announced that the dance trophy was stolen.

Hmm, odd that that’s not on the IMDB Triva page. :dubious: