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In Federio Fellini's The White Sheik, (1952), there is a brilliant four-minute scene where the prostitute Cabiria, played by Fellini's wife, Giulietta Masina, must comfort the main character Ivan Cavalli, played by Leopoldo Trieste. Cavalli has been abandoned by his new wife on their honeymoon, and as part of a nocturnal ramble, he meets Cabiria and her fellow prostitute in a deserted square. Learning of Ivan's situation, Cabiria tries to cheer him up. She offers him a cigarette and mops his brow. Then a sack of wedding-favor candy falls from Ivan's pocket. The candy provides Marina with the main piece of business she will use as an actress to externalize her feelings in the scene. First, she politely offers the bag of candy back to Ivan. Then she stops and cocks her head to the side. "May I have one?" she asks. She pops a piece of the candy in her mouth as Ivan produces some photographs of his wife. Marina chews energetically with her mouth open. Her interest is piqued. The first snapshot shows a very young girl. Scandalized, Marina stops chewing and, one could almost say, "chokes" on the candy. Ivan explains that the picture was taken years ago when his wife was at her first communion, and Marina resumes chewing the candy, this time with her mouth closed, more thoughtful perhaps, while Ivan shows additional photographs commemorating various stages of his wife's growing up. Then, as Ivan nears the end of his collection of snapshots, Cabiria starts digging into her cheek with her tongue, searching for that last piece of the candy. Throughout the scene, Fellini's camera is generally placed to the left, Cabiria's side of the three-character grouping. Always Marina is nearest the camera, and the audience gets a clear view of her facial expressions. The brilliance of the scene lies in its economy. Marina's lines of dialogue are minimal. For the most part, she merely listens and reacts, but with Fellini's connivance, Masina "steals" the scene with her pantomime of eating candy. The "stealing" is a nice stroke, however. At this point in the movie, viewers have witnessed enough of Ivan's grief over his wife's departure. It is important that the viewers recognize his grief is still acute, but they...