READING BETWEEN THE LINES

- AN EXAMPLE OF SUBTEXT IN LOST IN TRANSLATION
One of the constants in the scripts that I read is that the good ones will utilize strong subtext, and the not-so-good ones won’t.

Subtext gives character and dialogue depth in the form of an extra layer, and the more meaning you can give the subtext, the richer your script will be.

It is especially important in scripts that are more character driven. When you spend a lot of time with characters that drive the story through conversation, then it is imperative that the dialogue you give those characters invokes as much response from the audience as possible. If the dialogue is continually matching precisely what the characters are thinking, then the script will soon become tedious.

As an example of a strong use of subtext, here is one single speech from Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation.

It comes exactly 31 minutes into the film and is the moment when Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and Bob (Bill Murray) speak to each other for the first time. We have seen Charlotte acknowledge and show interest in Bob in the bar in an earlier scene, but otherwise there has been no interaction until now.

The scene plays out like this:-

CHARLOTTE
So what are you doing here?

BOB
A couple of things. Taking a break
from my wife. Forgetting my son’s
birthday. And getting paid $2 mill
to endorse a whiskey, when I could be
doing a play somewhere.

Now, bearing in mind that the interpretation of art is subjective and that there is no right and wrong, here is the subtext that I read into this dialogue:-

Taking a break from my wife --- I’m available

Forgetting my son’s birthday --- I can admit my mistakes/I have compassion

Getting paid $2 mill to endorse a whiskey --- I’m mega-rich

When I could be doing a play somewhere --- I still have artistic integrity

When I see this scene play out, it’s like a double punch. The first and third lines convey his status and pave the way to impress others (the ‘public’ Bob Harris), but the second and fourth lines indicate how Bob is or at least wants to be (the ‘real’ Bob Harris).
All in all, it shows Bob in a good light and we can understand that Charlotte becomes fascinated by him. It also feels very practiced from Bob’s perspective and it is easy to imagine that this is something that this is a skill that Bob has cultivated over the years to get on the right side of his ‘public’.

However you read the subtext in this scene, it goes to show that the more information you can put behind the words, the richer it can be.
An example of how a lack of subtext makes dialogue feel a bit flat is the exact same speech in the shooting script!

BOB
My wife needs space, I don't know my
kids' birthdays. Everyone wants
Tiger Woods, but they could get me,
so I'm here doing a whiskey
commercial.

There’s something about this piece of dialogue that doesn’t give any information other than what is being said – other than a minor inferiority complex over Tiger Woods!
Regardless of what happened between the shooting script and the finished film, the speech we get to see, which comes at one of the story’s key moments (the first meeting of Charlotte and Bob), is a much richer piece of writing and gives the relationship that will become the driving force of the film a certain amount of weight at just the right time.
Happy writing!