The scene bears all the hallmarks of Levinson’s film, especially when compared to Eddie and Billy’s (Tim Daly) late-night moment of musical inspiration in a strip club. Dancing the twist to Chuck Berry seems like it was lifted straight from the Diner songbook (which actually does exist, as Levinson has planned for a musical adaptation for some years), and Jack Rabbit Slim’s is itself a neon-hued pastiche of ’50s ephemera. The parallels don’t end with the dialogue, however, as Tarantino’s use of music in Pulp Fiction also harks back to the energy and youthful spirit of Diner. Like Levinson before him, Tarantino relies on rapid-fire, meandering dialogue to give shape to his characters, which is arguably even more important in a film where anonymity is the central motif. Tarantino’s characters interrupt one another, bicker and joke, all in the familiar environs of an American diner. The heated debate about how to interpret Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ effectively becomes the R-rated response to Eddie and Modell’s exchange. This interaction, in all its wistful simplicity, provided the blueprint for Tarantino’s own take on diner-dialogue in the opening of his 1991 debut, Reservoir Dogs. I won’t answer it.” He pauses, then concedes: ‘Mathis.” This scene is a delightful testament to the chemistry between Levinson’s cast, who not only feel real and compelling as individuals but also collectively as a group of lifelong friends. “Okay, let me ask you this then,” Modell says with a smirk, “when you make out, who do you make out to? Sinatra or Mathis?” Eddie looks at him from across their usual booth, a plate of his signature dish – gravy and fries – before him. One of Diner’s most memorable scenes, ironic considering its trivial subject matter, is an exchange between Modell (Paul Resier) and Eddie (Steve Guttenberg) regarding Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis. The precedent set by Diner found its heir apparent in Quentin Tarantino, a filmmaker who similarly delights in the minutiae of American life. Levinson’s characters come alive through dialogue it’s when they are speaking about the most inconsequential of things that they feel most real. Their conversations, often improvised as per Levinson’s script, are concerned with the small details that make life interesting, simply enjoying each other’s company as they shoot the breeze. In Barry Levinson’s 1982 film Diner, the eponymous eatery becomes a formative space where his young adult protagonists come-of-age over coffee and gravy fries. Surrounded by a forecourt of Buicks and Dodge Coronets, it’s a place of ritual in 1950s America where hearty food and warm small talk come to hang out. The Fells Point Diner is a gas station postcard come to life, as American as an apple pie cooling on a window sill.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |