When dramatising the conflict between the silent and talky eras, why privilege silence?
Sometimes this technique is revelatory: at the start of the chapter delineating Mary's friendship with Ann Donnellan, Ms Peacock describes the portrait of a pair of Canada lilies as having the "lanky feel of two tall, talky girls"; instantly the young women spring to life.
Whether Republican or Democrat, Tea Party or establishment, winner or loser, most of the candidates gave a "speech" that was more of a talky pastiche of empty phrases and tough-guy lines.
The only person he might "let in" is Florence, who submits without a murmur to his web-footed sexual advances and is rewarded with a series of cuffs and rebuffs.Ms Gerwig has been crowned "the queen of mumblecore", the nickname for very low-budget films featuring 20-something non-professionals improvising talky chronicles of contemporary romance, angst and drift.
When did you last see a legal drama as intricate and talky as "The Social Network", or a mystery as harsh and real as "Winter's Bone", or a blockbuster as demandingly cerebral as "Inception", or a cartoon as clever and heartfelt as "Toy Story 3", or a melodrama as downright barmy as "Black Swan", or a comedy that dealt with unconventional families as maturely as "The Kids Are All Right"?
Some critics assigned the lion's share of the credit for Leisen's next film, the masterful screwball comedy Easy Living (1937), to Preston Sturges's clever screenplay, whereas others praised Leisen for deftly preventing that script from being overly talky.
Indeed, it was Barker's talents as director that lifted talky works such as Shaw's Major Barbara and Man and Superman off the page and made them hits at the Royal Court.
He is all impacted energy, fierce, talky intelligence and caustic wit.
John Kinsella's Armour (Picador, £9.99) is a talky, dense and sheerly brainy take on rural Australia.
In the meantime, Ice Age 3's tediously talky opening has the characters plodding around a dull white landscape, airing their neuroses, and giving the viewer ample time to ponder whether anyone wanted an Ice Age threequel anyway.
He too grew up in "a very talky atmosphere", one in which books played "a big part".
