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- Aug 18, 2002
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Just a general thread for th discussion of body language - esp. as there is a two parter on it on Channel 4 coming up. The minise doesn't do much (its all done in Flash so I suspect it might be enable closer to the time so keep an eye on it):
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/B/bodytalk/
The great Charlie Brooker delivers his typically acserbic review of it in today's Guarian guide and it sounds great (OCRed so there might be errors):
And by Jove I think I will!!
Emps
http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/B/bodytalk/
The great Charlie Brooker delivers his typically acserbic review of it in today's Guarian guide and it sounds great (OCRed so there might be errors):
You should always judge I people by their actions, not their words. Obvious, really. You wouldn't believe Peter Kurten, the "monster of Dusseldorf" who murdered nine Germans in 1929, had your best interests at heart just because he told you he did. Especially if he was sticking a bread knife in your eye at the time.
"Actions, not words" is the mantra of Body Talk (Mon, 8pm, C4), an absorbing two-parter in which Dr Peter Collett examines the body language of the rich and famous in a bid to prove what tossers they are. And succeeds.
Programme one deals with the language of power, and concentrates on politicians. Collett identifies the characteristic movements (known as "tells") that Blair, Bush and co make whenever they're feeling nervous, confident, aggressive, or sexually aroused. Actually, he doesn't cover arousal. Thank Christ.
Take Gordon Brown, who can't sit still when Blair is speaking. Collett observes him at a Labour party conference, anxiously fidgeting his way through a well-received speech from Blair. On fast motion, he turns into Robert Lindsay in GBH.
Blair, meanwhile, has a habit of sliding his hands into his front pockets when he's feeling awkward. He thinks it makes him „ look relaxed: in reality, it makes him look like an embarrassed 3 shop-window dummy with some sort of bum disorder. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he often affects this stance when he's required to pose alongside psychotic, lying drink-drivers. Called George Bush.
Bush is a body language goldmine. He often looks more like a frightened boy than a president, albeit a frightened boy with 24-hour access to the most fearsome nuclear arsenal the world has ever seen. Whenever Bush feels scared and out of his depth, he chews the inside of his mouth. Alarmingly, he chews the inside of his mouth pretty much all the time. That's probably how he choked on that pretzel.
There are other examples of Bush's giveaway buffoonerisms, including some fascinating games of physical one-upmanship between him and Bill Clinton. Ask the pair of them to walk side-by-side and it quickly degenerates into a hilarious dick-swinging contest, with each attempting to stride in a more commanding, statesmanlike manner than the other. The berks.
And this is just the stuff that's been caught on camera. I'd love to see Bush's private body language: the faces he pulls while trying to pass a particularly rigid stool for instance, or the delighted reeling jig he doubtless performs each time he bombs another town full of unarmed brown folk. Or when he was choking to death on that pretzel — I'd love to have seen the way his legs shook and popped around as he clawed at his throat, desperately gulping for air. Hoo, boy — if the White House have CCTV footage of that they should release it on DVD, backed with comic piano music and a voiceover track of Iraqi schoolkids laughing at his hateful, shuddering face.
Anyway. It's a good programme and you should watch it.
And by Jove I think I will!!
Emps