WORDS AND PICTURES

US, 2014, 111 minutes, Colour.
Clive Owen, Juliet Binoche, Amy Brenneman, Bruce Davison.
Directed by Fred Schepisi.

It does depend on one’s sensibility, some have a love for words, a relish for the words and their meanings, and wordplay; others have a passion for pictures, colours and design, the immediate impact of a picture which is worth a thousand words.

This is one of the premises for this romantic comedy – with some edge.

At first we see Clive Owen as Jack Marcus, a talented literature teacher, urging his students to be creative in their imaginations and write up images that have not been heard before. He has an eager honours class because this is a distinguished Preparatory School. We see Dina Delsanto, an art teacher from a school which is closing down and who is hired to teach the same eager honours class. The initial encounter has a sardonic edge to it, Jack trying to make an impressiion and inviting her to participate in his game of going through the alphabet successively and naming words with five syllables. Dina is not particularly impressed.

So, it is clear, that Jack is a man of words and Dina is a woman of pictures. In their arguments, we see a touch of the battle of the sexes, then the competitiveness leads to a war between words and pictures, the aim of the war is to have a confrontation in the presence of all the staff and students, Jack to provide 1000 words and Dina to provide a picture.

In the meantime, we see that Jack is an alcoholic, his job is under threat, he is to undergo a review, with interviews by many of the staff. And, in the meantime, the audience has seen that Dina walks with a crutch because of her rheumatoid arthritis. Jack’s drinking takes the better of him as he makes a show himself in a local elite restaurant. Dina holds him in something of contempt.

As regards drama, there is the focus on Jack, his editing of the school magazine, the promise of a poem, where he uses a deception to promote himself, his sense of embarrassment in the presence of his son and, because of Dina, leading him to AA meetings. Dina is cared for by her sister and has an operation for knee reconstruction. And, audiences anticipating some kind of rapport between the two will not be disappointed -although this leads to further antagonisms.

Quite a deal of attention is given to paintings and discussion about paintings, especially the need for a painting not just to appeal to the brain but also to the heart and emotions. Quite a deal of attention is given to the value of words, the syllables game, the derivations and meanings of words.

The film was directed by Fred Schepisi who made his mark in Australian filmmaking in the 1970s with The Devil’s Playground and, his masterpiece, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith. Schepisi has directed quite a number of international film including The Russia House and Roxanne. His previous film to this was from the novel by Patrick White.

The film is interesting because of the two characters and the place of this film in their careers. They clash – but not forever. So, this film is in the tradition of romantic comedies but with welcome emphasis on the value of words and on the power of pictures.

1. The film inviting the audience to compare and contrast words and pictures? Sequences in favour of each? The final eliminating of opposition for complementarity?

2. The Preparatory School, its style, the classrooms, the assembly area? Homes and studios? The musical score?

3. Words: the range of quotations, especially at the end? The game of words with specific syllable numbers? Explaining the derivations of words?

4. Pictures: colour, black-and-white, shapes, designs, impressions, portraits?

5. The school, it situation, the other school closing down, the three new teachers? Their arrival, introduction, in the lounge, Dina and the encounter with Jack? Verbal sparring? The tone?

6. Jack, in class, the quotations from John Updike, the images, getting the students to write an assignment of one new creative image? His goading them?

7. Dina, her class, the comment on the painting of the red house, appealing to the brain? The contrast with Emily’s portrait? The appeal to the heart and devotions? Her perfectionism for the students?

8. The group, the boys, the girls, together, the boy teasing Emily, her being upset, the cartoon, her weeping, the meeting, Jack and Dina and their perceptions on the cartoon, the boy and his denials, showing off his own book and Jack taking it, the cartoon of Dina?

9. The battle of the sexes, mutual attraction? His alcoholism? Her rheumatoid arthritis? each with the flaw, disability? The clashes, the wit, the repartee, the initiating of the competition, the plans? His thousand words? Her picture? The magazine?

10. Jack, the threat to his job, Elspeth, the supervisor and his past relationship with her? The headmaster and his stern approach? The discussions of the magazine, economics, prestige? His promising the poem? Dina’s art? Jack at the club, drinking, the disturbance, the manager warning him off, the shaking hands, his later coming again, falling off the chair, being ousted? His son waiting for him? His son, background, partner, studies? His poem and his father admiring it, submitting it as his own?

11. The supervisor, her anxiety about the revelations of the past relationship, the build-up to the meeting, the range of interviews with each of the teachers, hostile, supportive, Dina and her personal contribution? The promise about the poem? The decision that he could stay?

12. Going to see Dina, talking, the invitation to the kiss, the sexual encounter, the jokes? His drinking, falling against the painting, the effect on her, ousting him? his many apologies, the phone calls, the emails?

13. His going to the AA meeting, telling the truth, the days without drinking? His coaching his students? Dina and her meeting with the students, discussions of painting?

14. Jack and the various notes on Dina’s window, urging her to come to the competition?

15. The meeting, the two MC’s, Emily and Cole? The audience, the students? Dina and her speech, the range of paintings? Jack, his range of quotations, the importance of words? The response of the audience, the headmaster, the supervisor, the staff, Dina sister and her continuing help four Dina?

16. The praise of all the arts, the complementarity, the effect on culture, on humanity?

17. And the final kiss?