12024-09-17T05:59:50+00:00Paul Merchant, Jr.0158f9ffdc23fbe192fc5189110473e127e778be33691plain2024-09-17T05:59:50+00:00entext/plainYuri Tsivian/Daria Khitrovabac65b0132faabaa39d1d97ab053c98751265df9Paul Merchant, Jr.0158f9ffdc23fbe192fc5189110473e127e778beAs the peasant girl is taking an outdoor nap (Griffith tarries for a brief moment before saying "Action!" for us to take a look at Peggy's pretty face), enter the Lord of the Manor who is taking a stroll. Asleep? At noon? He does not approve of self-indulging peasants. Besides, the Lord is thirsty--something he makes known to us by using a conventional "drinking gesture" (see tags "Mimed speech / Drinking" for parallels). Because the Lord does this angrily, wilful Peggy mirrors his anger and talks back. Look out for where Henry B. Walthall will turn his head as his attitude toward the girl takes a warmer turn. He talks to her as he talks; he turns to us as he thinks. As he thinks "Hmm, I like her anger," he turns his face toward the camera for us to take a note of this change of mood; but when the Lord shifts his gesticulatory tone from rude to self-consciously courteous he turns his face toward Peggy again; she mirrors his new manner. This the Lord enjoys even more, and for us to know it turns his face toward us. On a dramatic stage, when a playwright wants the public to know what a character really feels—by gosh, I like this wilful lass—they write this line into a play, and, between brackets, “aside.” What Walthall does here may be called “facial asides.”