Nonverbal Communication in Romantic Exchanges of Western Culture
Mitchell J. Branly
COM 306: Intercultural Communication
7/10/2015
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Nonverbal communication is an essential component of human interaction. This form of
communication is learned through culture, and is a necessary element of experiencing a culture.
This relationship is deeply intertwined, and nonverbal communication is also a reflection of other
aspects of a culture. One of the primary artistic expressions of culture in the modern era is
cinema. This field study is a content analysis of five romantic scenes from five different nations
of Western culture. The scenes are taken from films made in Germany, France, Italy, the United
Kingdom and the United States. Romantic scenes were chosen to get a baseline for nonverbal
communication in romance as portrayed through a culture’s cinema.
This content analysis covers nine different forms of nonverbal communication. The basic
forms of communication analyzed were proxemics, kinesics, chronemics, paralanguage, silence,
haptics, and artifactual communication. Two of those categories, proxemics and kinesics, were
broken down into two categories to account for the various ways they are expressed in a
romantic setting. Proxemics was broken down into intimate and casual distance, while kinesics
was broken down to hand gestures and eye contact. The scenes analyzed were each taken from a
dramatic film made in a different country. The movies are The Lives of Others, from Germany,
Amelie, from France, The Best of Youth, from Italy, Pride and Prejudice, from the United
Kingdom, and Closer, from the United States. In order to account for variations in culture over
time, each of the films chosen were made within a span of five years, with Amelie (2001) being
the oldest and The Lives of Others (2006) being the most recently made. In each, a romantic or
particularly intimate scene was chosen as an example of romantic expression within the culture.
The results of the analysis showed that the most important forms of nonverbal
communication in these romantic scenes were casual distance proxemics, which appeared in four
of the five scenes, and prolonged eye contact kinesics, which was in all five scenes. Prolonged
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eye contact was not surprising to find as it is an important aspect of romantic communication in
Western cultures. Casual distance proxemics was slightly more surprising. Based on this
analysis it is possible to assume that maintaining a casual distance until some form of assurance
of romantic connection is made is important in Western cultures. Also surprising is the relatively
low number for haptics. Touch can be a fundamental form of nonverbal communication, and yet
two of the five scenes did not have strong nonverbal messages sent through touch. In the scene
from the German film, The Lives of Others, the two characters do not ever touch or achieve an
intimate distance between each other, and yet the scene maintains a deeply intimate feel. Much
of the communication is verbal, with only casual distance proxemics and strong eye contact
being the primary nonverbal communications. This contrasts starkly with the scene from the
French film, Amelie, where the communication is entirely nonverbal. The two characters in this
scene never speak, and immediately move to an intimate distance. This scene also had the
strongest use of haptic communication and the only case of hand gestures being used for
nonverbal communication. Paralanguage was only evident in the UK film, Pride and Prejudice,
and this was not surprising as this scene had by far the most dialogue. In a highly verbal
exchange, intonation becomes a particularly important method of communicating additional
meaning. No instances of artifactual communication were clearly evident in any of the scenes.
The results on the whole were an interesting glimpse into the artistic view of romantic exchanges
within a culture.
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Scenes –
The Lives of Others (Germany, 2006) “I’m Your Audience”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKHarwAzgXw
Amelie (France, 2001) “Speechless Kiss”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQutB3mYc84
The Best of Youth (Italy, 2003) “The Spirit of Matteo Blesses Nicola and Mirella”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOXvgCiKRcE
Pride and Prejudice (United Kingdom, 2005) “Darcy Proposes”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJX5_rj2lZg
Closer (United States, 2005) “Kiss Scene”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnWM-CcTeos
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Data Chart -
Proxemics Intimate
The Lives of Others Germany
Amelie - France
The Best of Yourth - Italy
Pride and Prejudice - UK
Closer - US
Totals
0
1
1
0
1
3
Nonverbal Communication in Five
Romantic
Proxemics Kinesics - Hand
Casual
Gestures
1
0
1
1
1
4
Scenes of Western Cinema
Kinesics - Eye
Contact
Chronemics Paralanguage Silence
1
0
0
0
1
1
0
1
1
0
0
1
1
0
1
0
1
1
0
1
5
2
1
3
0
1
0
0
0
1
Haptics Artifactual
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
3
0