SCREEN DIRECTION
The use of screen direction to tell stories goes far beyond westerns and war movies. In the scene below, we see two women together in the first and last shots, but none of the others. Yet screen direction establishes a relationship and tells us what is happening.
A bit of setup: they are searching for a little boy in a Paris outdoor market. In the first half they are looking in opposite directions. In the second half they are obviously running toward each other. The director and editor skillfully used screen direction to tell this story.
The Search
Note how the woman in the yellow coat (Audrey Hepburn) moves R-L during the search, and the woman in the white coat goes L-R. But once the boy is found, they reverse, so we assume they are coming together.
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