درسنامه فیلم اول

Hi, this is AJ, and welcome to our movie technique lesson, part 1.

This is from the movie “When Harry Met Sally”. It’s one of the early scenes. This is a movie about a man and a woman who meet each other several times during their life. In the beginning they don’t really like each other, then gradually they become friends, and eventually they get married.

The scene we’re going to watch is from the beginning of the movie when they first meet. It’s the first time they meet. They’re driving in a car together from Chicago to New York. It’s a long trip, like eighteen hours.

They don’t know each other, they just found each other to help share the transportation. During the trip, while they drive, they have a conversation. We’re going to watch the scene now, and I’ll explain the different words and phrases that they use during their conversation.

Let’s begin. Go to fullscreen, and let’s play.

Sally: I have it all figured out.

AJ: “I have it all figured out.” That means, I have everything understood, everything is resolved. All the problems are solved, she has everything planned out, everything understood.

Sally: It’s an eighteen hour trip which-

AJ: “It’s an eighteen hour trip.”

Sally: Breaks down into six shifts of three hours each.

AJ: “Which breaks down into six shifts of three hours each.” To break down into means to divide into, so she’s dividing the whole trip into six shifts of three hours each. Breaks down into, divides into.

A shift is a time period for work, so she’s saying, “Shifts of three hours each”. So they’re going to drive for three hours at a time, that’s one shift, that’s one period of work.

They’re going to alternate, so she’ll drive three hours, he’ll drive three hours, she’ll drive three hours, he’ll drive three hours. Each one of those time periods is a shift. It’s a period of work.

Sally: Or alternatively we could break it down by mileage.

AJ: “Or alternatively we could break it down by mileage.” She’s saying, instead of organizing the trip according to time, we could organize the trip according to mileage. How far they drive.

Sally: There’s a map on the visor.

AJ: “There’s a map on the visor.” A visor is a window shade. It’s a little piece of plastic or whatever that you can put down, and it blocks the sun so the sun doesn’t shine into your eyes. That’s called a “visor”, it’s basically a shade to block the sun.

Sally: That I marked to show the locations where we can change shifts.

AJ: She’s saying, I marked the map. The map is on the visor, and I marked the map to show the locations where we can change shifts. Where they can switch drivers.

Harry: Grape?

AJ: He grabs a grape from the back of the car, starts eating them, and they have seeds in them. He offers her a grape, he says, “Grape?” Like, “Would you like a grape?”

Sally: No, I don’t like to eat between meals.

AJ: “No, I don’t like to eat between meals.” She doesn’t want to have a snack. Then he spits. He’s trying to spit out the window, but the window is up, so he actually spits onto the window.

Harry: I’ll roll down the window.

AJ: Then, kind of joking, he says, “I’ll roll down the window.” To roll down the window means to move the window down. With old cars they used to crank, or “roll” the window down. You had this motion of circular motion.

Of course, now we have electronic windows, and we don’t have to do that, but in the past we had to roll down windows. We still use that phrase, even though they’re electronic we’ll say, I’m going to roll down the window.

Harry: Why don’t you tell me the story of your life?

AJ: Then he says, “Why don’t you tell me the story of your life?” That means, tell me everything about your life.

Sally: The story of my life?

AJ: She just asked, “The story of my life?”

Harry: We’ve got eighteen hours to kill before we hit New York.

AJ: “We’ve got eighteen hours to kill before we hit New York.” To kill time just means to spend time, to waste time, to use time. If you say, we have eighteen hours to kill, it gives the idea that there’s a lot of time, and you need to waste it. It’s a lot of time, and you have nothing to do, so you have to kill the time.

You have to find a way to use the time. You have to find things to do to fill up the time. They have a long trip, eighteen hours to kill.

Then he says, “Before we hit New York”. Now we sometimes use this word “hit” to mean, “to reach”, or “to arrive”. If we say, I finally hit New York, it means I finally arrived in New York.

Sally: The story of my life isn’t even gonna get us out of Chicago.

AJ: “The story of my life isn’t even gonna get us out of Chicago.” In this scene she’s supposed to be very young, like twenty-two, so she’s saying she has not done anything yet in her life, so her story of her life is very short, so it won’t get her out of Chicago. They’re just leaving Chicago now. It’s a short story, so they’ll still be driving in Chicago when she finishes.

Sally: I mean, nothing’s happened to me yet.

AJ: “Nothing has happened to me yet.”

Sally: That’s why I’m going to New York.

AJ: “That’s why I’m going to New York.”

Harry: So something’ll happen to you?

Sally: Yes.

AJ: “So something will happen to you?” She says, “Yes.”

Harry: Like what?

AJ: “Like what?” Means, “For example?”

Sally: Like I’m going to journalism school to become a reporter.

AJ: “Like I’m going to journalism school to become a reporter.” Journalism school, it’s to learn how to write the news or to be a reporter on CNN or the BBC, so she wants to be a reporter. She wants to write news articles.

Harry: So you can write about things that happen to other people?

AJ: “So you can write about things that happen to other people?” He’s kind of joking with her. She’s saying, I want something to happen to me. But he’s saying, “Ha, so your job, you’ll write about other people and what they do.”

Sally: That’s one way to look at it.

AJ: “That’s one way to look at it.” She says. That’s one opinion.

Harry: Suppose nothing happens to you.

AJ: “Suppose nothing happens to you.” “Suppose” means “assume”, or “imagine” that nothing happens to you.

Harry: Suppose you live there your whole life and nothing happens, you never-

AJ: “Suppose (imagine) that you live your whole life there, and nothing happens.”

Harry: You never meet anybody-

AJ: “You never meet anybody.”

Harry: You never become anything, and finally-

AJ: “You never become anything, and finally…”

Harry: Finally you die one of those New York deaths that nobody notices for two weeks until the smell drifts into the hallway.

AJ: “Until finally you die one of those New York deaths where nobody notices until the smell (from your dead body) drifts into the hallway.”

To “drift” means “to move”, so to “drift into the hallway” means “to move slowly into the hallway”. To “drift” means “to move slowly”.

He’s saying, again he’s joking with her, kind of teasing her, saying, “What if you go to New York, you do nothing, and then you die alone, nobody knows you’re dead until they can smell your body in the hallway. The smell from your dead body moves slowly into the hallway, and finally they notice.”

Sally: Amanda mentioned you had a dark side.

AJ: “Amanda mentioned you had a dark side.” Amanda is a friend who knows both of them, and a dark side is a serious side. A dark side means your serious side, a serious part of your personality. It can also mean the negative part of your personality, so she’s saying, “My friend mentioned that you were very serious and somewhat negative.”

Harry: That’s what drew her to me.

AJ: “That’s what drew her to me.” He’s saying, “That’s what attracted her to me.” Amanda. Amanda is his girlfriend, and her friend. He’s saying it’s his serious side, it’s his negative, dark side, or part of his personality, that’s what attracted the girl, Amanda. “That’s what drew her to me.”

Sally: Your dark side?

Harry: Sure.

AJ: “Your dark side, that’s what attracted her?” “Yes, sure.”

Harry: Don’t you have a dark side?

AJ: “Don’t you have a dark side?” He’s asking her, “Aren’t you serious? Don’t you think about serious, bad things?”

Harry: No, you’re probably one of those cheerful people who dots her I’s with little hearts.

AJ: “You’re probably one of those cheerful people who dots her I’s with little hearts.” “Cheerful” means “happy”.

“Who dots her I’s with little hearts.” To dot an I, he’s talking about the letter I. H I J K, right? The letter I. The letter I, the small version, there’s a dot on top. There’s an I and then there’s a dot.

He’s saying, “You’re probably so happy, you’re probably so cheerful and happy that instead of a dot, you draw a little heart on top of each of your I’s whenever you’re writing. You’re one of these super cheerful people that you put little hearts above the letter I whenever you write.”

Sally: I have just as much of a dark side as the next person.

AJ: “I have just as much of a dark side as the next person.” That means, “I am just as serious as everyone else. Just as serious and negative.”

Harry: Really? When I buy a new book I always read the last page first.

AJ: “When I buy a new book, I always read the last page first.” He says.

Harry: That way in case I die before I finish I know how it ends.

AJ: “That way in case I die before I finish I know how it ends.” He thinks about death, and he reads the last page of a book just in case, so he knows how it ends before he dies. He’s trying to say, “I’m very serious, because I think about death.”

Harry: That, my friend, is a dark side.

AJ: “That is a dark side.”

Sally: That doesn’t mean you’re deep or anything, I mean-

AJ: She says, “That doesn’t mean you’re deep or anything.” To be “deep”, when we describe a person as “deep”, it means they are serious and intelligent and wise.

To be “deep” means to be serious and intelligent and wise, but especially serious. In a good- A dark side has a little bit of a negative feeling, but “deep” has a little bit more of a positive feeling. She’s saying, “Just because you think about death doesn’t mean you’re intelligent and wise and serious.”

Sally: Yes, basically I’m a happy person.

AJ: She says, “Yes, basically, in general, I’m a happy person.”

Harry: So am I.

Sally: And I don’t see that there’s anything wrong with that.

AJ: “I don’t see that there’s anything wrong with that.” She’s saying there’s nothing wrong with being a happy person.

Harry: Of course not, you’re too busy being happy.

AJ: He says, “Of course not. Of course you don’t think it’s wrong, because you’re too busy being happy.” He’s constantly joking with her during this.

Harry: Do you ever think about death?

AJ: “Do you ever think about death?”

Sally: Yes.

Harry: Sure you do, a fleeting thought that’s just in and out of the transom of your mind.

AJ: He says, “Sure you do. Sure you think about death, but it’s only a fleeting thought that drifts in and out of the transom of your mind.” That’s kind of a long one, let’s look at little sections of it.

“A fleeting thought.” Fleeting is something that’s very short, very quick, very brief. He’s saying it’s just a brief, a very short thought only. “When you think about death it’s a brief thought, a fleeting thought. And this short thought, it drifts in and out of the transom of your mind.”

A transom is a window above a doorway. It’s kind of a metaphor. He’s saying that, “This quick thought about death, it only just comes into the window of your mind, and then it goes out of the window of your mind very quickly.”

Harry: I spend hours, I spend days-

AJ: “I spend hours, I spend days.” He’s saying, “I think about death for hours and days, for a long, long time.”

Sally: And you think this makes you a better person?

AJ: “And you think this makes you a better person?”

Harry: Look, when the shit comes down, I’m gonna be prepared, and you’re not, that’s all.

AJ: He’s saying, “When the shit comes down, I’m gonna be prepared, and you’re not, that’s all I’m saying.”

“When the shit comes down”, that means “When bad things happen”. It’s an idiom, “when the shit comes down”, “when bad things happen”.

Harry: All I’m saying.

Sally: In the meantime you’re gonna ruin your whole life waiting for it.

“In the meantime you’re gonna ruin your whole life waiting for it.”

AJ: “In the meantime” means like “meanwhile”, and “to ruin” means “to destroy”. She’s saying that, “While you’re thinking about death and all this terrible stuff, waiting for something bad to happen, you’re going to ruin, you’re going to destroy, your life. You’re going to make yourself super unhappy.”

Then he spits again, and then it gets later in the day, it’s nighttime and they’re talking about something else.

Sally: You’re wrong.

Harry: I’m not wrong.

AJ: “You’re wrong.” “I’m not wrong.” Now they’re talking about the movie “Casablanca”. They’re talking about the very end, the last scene, the last part of the movie “Casablanca”.

And in “Casablanca”, there are a few different characters. They talk about the actors. There’s Ingrid Bergman, who is the woman, and there’s Humphrey Bogart, who is this guy who runs a bar in the city of Casablanca. You should watch that movie, it’s a good movie.

They’re arguing, because in “Casablanca”, what happens is this woman, she leaves the guy. She leaves Humphrey Bogart to be with another man, and the other man is going to become the president of Czechoslovakia. She chooses the other guy, and Humphrey Bogart’s character encourages her to leave. He wants her to leave because he wants her to be safe, he loves her.

They’re arguing about why this woman leaves, why does she leave Humphrey Bogart’s character? Why does she choose the other guy?

Sally: You’re wrong.

Harry: He wants her to leave.

AJ: “He wants her to leave.” Harry, in the movie, he says, “Humphrey Bogart, he wants the woman to leave.”

Harry: That’s why he puts her on the plane.

AJ: “That’s why he puts her on the plane.” He puts the female character onto the plane, because he wants her to leave. He wants to protect her. That’s his argument.

Sally: I don’t think she wants to stay.

AJ: I don’t think the character in “Casablanca”, she doesn’t want to stay.”

Harry: Of course she wants to stay.

AJ: He says, “Of course she wants to stay. She wants to stay with Humphrey Bogart, but she leaves.”

Harry: Wouldn’t you rather be with Humphrey Bogart than the other guy?

AJ: “Wouldn’t you rather be with Humphrey Bogart than the other guy?” He’s asking her opinion, “Which character would you choose if you were the woman?”

Sally: I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in Casablanca.

AJ: “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in Casablanca.” Now Sally, the real woman in this movie, she’s imagining that she’s in “Casablanca”, she’s imagining she’s that character. And she’s talking about what she would choose. She’s saying, “If I was that woman, I would not want to stay in Casablanca.” It’s a town in Morocco.

Sally: Married to a man who runs a bar.

AJ: “Married to a man who runs a bar.” She’s like, “I don’t want to be married to a man who runs a bar.” To run a bar means to operate a bar or to manage a bar. So she’s saying that she would not marry a man who owns a bar or manages a bar.

Sally: That probably sounds very snobbish to you, but I-

AJ: She says, “That probably sounds very snobbish to you.”

“Snobbish” means “superior” or “arrogant” or “elite”. Someone who is very high class, they can be snobbish. They think everyone else is inferior.

She’s saying, “This probably sounds snobbish.” Because she’s saying, “I would not marry a guy who worked in a bar.” She’s saying she’s better than him, she’s superior. “Snobbish” is “superior”, or even “elitist”. We might use that word too.

Harry: You’d rather be in a passionless marriage?

AJ: “You’d rather be in a passionless marriage?” “Passionless” means “without passion”, “without excitement”. He’s asking her.

Sally: And be the first lady of Czechoslovakia.

AJ: “And be the first lady of Czechoslovakia.” A first lady is a woman who is married to a president or leader of a country. You have the president, his wife is called the first lady.

They’re saying, “Oh, in the movie, she leaves with a guy who will become the president of Czechoslovakia, therefore she will become the first lady of Czechoslovakia.”

Harry: And not live with a man you’ve had the greatest sex of your life with, just because he owns a bar, and that is all he does.

He’s saying, “You would not want to stay with the man you had the greatest sex of your life with, just because he owns a bar.” He’s saying that Humphrey Bogart and this woman in the movie “Casablanca”, they had great sex, and actually she would want to stay with him. They’re arguing about which character the woman should stay with.

Sally: Yes, and so would any woman in her right mind. Women are very practical, even Ingrid Bergman, which is why she gets on the plane at the end of the movie.

AJ: She’s saying, “Yes, I would go with the guy who’s going to become the president. I would not stay with the guy who owns the bar.” And she’s saying, “That’s my decision, and so would any woman in her right mind.”

She’s saying every other woman would agree with her. “Any woman in her right mind.” It means any sane woman, and rational woman, any intelligent woman, any sensible woman, any woman in her right mind.

“In her right mind” means sane, rational, intelligent. She’s saying, “Any rational, intelligent woman would make the same choice. She would go with the guy who’s going to become a president.”

She says, “Because, women are very practical.” Very practical. They make choices based on real world information, they’re not romantic. Practical is kind of the opposite of romantic.

Then she said, “So was Ingrid Bergman.” Ingrid Bergman is the actress in “Casablanca”. She’s the one who chooses to go with the president.

That is that, so that is the end of the first part of our movie technique lesson. I will see you in the second part.