Author Topic: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"  (Read 10095 times)

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2009, 02:39:53 pm »
Perhaps the twitch is a nervous reflex, a response to Ennis using the word love after what Alma has just seen on the landing.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"
« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2009, 02:57:46 pm »
Now I feel like looking at the movie again to see how Michelle dealt with this description... or how/if it was translated somehow into the film.  It's amazing... this is a detail I've never thought about before even after all these years.

the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie

Offline southendmd

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Re: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2012, 01:43:24 pm »
Here's a fun thread I never saw before.

I agree that a twitch implies something reflexive, involuntary.  I suppose it could mean any of the things mentioned above, but I'd vote for shock. 

Another great example of Annie's use of ambiguous phrases that makes the reader do the work.

Regarding Ennis's feelings towards his daughters, there is one harsh line that occurs later, after the Thanksgiving debacle:

He didn't try to see his girls for a long time, figuring they would look him up when they got the sense and years to move out from Alma.

Offline Sason

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Re: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"
« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2012, 02:07:25 pm »
I've always found that line disturbing. To me it implies that Ennis is incapable of recognizing his daughters' need for him, despite his own negative feelings for Alma.

The very first time I saw the movie, the single line that got to me the most was the forlorn sounding and unanswered "Bye daddy! Bye!" when he storms out of Alma's house.

I think it conveys AP's line very well.

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Offline RouxB

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Re: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"
« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2012, 04:35:14 pm »
I see the twitch as a forced smile-a nervous reaction. Despite what she has just seen, she is still trying to maintain some semblance of manners for company. Her husband says something any mother would find endearing and the natural response would be to smile. But when said husband has just been caught kissing the hell out of a man, well...

 O0

Heathen

Offline southendmd

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Re: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"
« Reply #15 on: May 23, 2013, 10:37:23 am »
*twitch*bump*

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"
« Reply #16 on: June 09, 2013, 09:18:39 pm »
I wonder if it could be that she's wondering if Ennis really does love the girls.  At any point in the story does he truly acknowledge love for Alma?

I'm sure that it's not rage she's feeling after what she sees, but rather shock.  However, for her to witness Ennis cheating, and then have him come into the apartment and mention the word "love" had to piss her off.


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline Brown Eyes

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Re: Regarding the line "Alma´s mouth twitched"
« Reply #17 on: June 09, 2013, 10:52:45 pm »
I love the incredible minutiae of Brokie discussions sometimes.  It's fun to read things I wrote here several years ago at this point!  I feel like reiterating something I wrote way back in 2009...  I feel like a twitiching mouth is such an Ennis form of expression or repression.  It's an odd moment to notice a similarity between Ennis and Alma.

I think that simple little phrase 'Alma's mouth twitched' implies a world of bottled up emotions.  I think shock is probably the primary thing in this instance, but it probably also involves a bit of everything that people have mentioned in this thread.
the world was asleep to our latent fuss - bowie