when the movie independence day came out, i read a great review by mick lasalle, containing this point:
These early scenes capitalize on the dark human tendency to enjoy watching people get bad news. The kicks keep coming: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Robert Loggia) is told that the object heading toward Earth can’t be a meteor because it’s slowing down (“It’s slowing down?”)
he’s so right! the only thing more common to film (and tv) than watching people get bad news is watching people get bad news from afar. for instance the action of the bad news revelation happens on the other side of a window, or across a noisy room. we know what they are being told, and it is not good news, but they are far away from us and for some reason, it feels more perverted that way.
i’ve been fairly obsessed with this idea since i first saw the lame quasi-lifetime movie “just between friends.” thanks to hulu, i can show you the clip!
first we get to see christine lahti find out that ted danson is dead. then we get to see about 400 hours of full frontal aerobics by mary tyler moore, who is married to the now-dead danson, she just doesn’t know it until… let’s watch, shall we?
i know i’ve seen this done dozens of times since then. i’d love to put a montage of these scenes together. for fun. sort of like this genius tv carnage “gun and badge” montage:
anyway, let me hear from you if you have good examples of this, or if you know about any established term or convention for this technique.
p.s. independence day is so much better with rifftrax!