May
28th
Thu
28th
What you’re talking about is what the illiterate call the ‘back story.’ You don’t need it. Remember that the model of the drama is the dirty joke. This joke begins: ‘A traveling salesman stops at a farmer’s door’ -it does not begin: ‘Who would think that the two most disparate occupations of agriculture and salesmanship would one day be indissolubly united in our oral literature? Agriculture, that most solitary of pursuits, engendering the qualities of self-reliance and reflection; and salesmanship, in which…’ Does the protagonist have to explain why he wants a retraction? To whom is he going to explain it? To the audience? Is that going to help him get it? No. He must only do those things that help him get a retraction. The guy says to the girl, ‘That’s a lovely dress’ -he does not say, ‘I haven’t been laid in six weeks.’
— David Mamet, from On Directing Film.
