Originally posted by Chris Knipp
I'm surprised you are linking talkiness with quality

I wouldn't be so categorical in my thinking. I do think that in general and gradually scenes and dialogue lines have been getting shorter in mainstream American Cinema. Especially if you compare the AVERAGE Hollywood film of the Golden Era with its contemporary counterpart. Dialogue has gotten less refined, downright crude actually, often with vulgar wisecracks and allusions to most lowbrow, pop culture (which ends up making the films sound dated in record time). I'm only speaking in general here. There's always and there will always be good and bad movies, of course.

I thought you liked films to be pure visual poetry, story line and talk be damned.

I am not a rigid or dogmatic person. I hope your attempts to box me in are simply meant to ellicit discussion. Yes, I give priority to aspects of film that are purely cinematic not, for instance, borrowed from literature. But "story line and talk be damned" is something I would never utter. I enjoy and appreciate skilled storytelling and smartly-turned dialogue as much as anybody. But some films I love, like Bunuel's L'Age d'Or, are indeed "pure visual poetry".