In one of the TERMINATOR movies, a giveaway, or ‘tell,’ occurs when glistening sweat drips down the cheek of actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Up to that point, he could be either a good guy or a bad guy. At last, we know (unless the film director pulled a fast one on us).
Sometimes hints are subtle.
In a remake of CASINO ROYALE, 007 protagonist James Bond (played by actor Daniel Craig) observes a tell during a high-stakes poker game on the face of one of his opponents, Le Chiffre (played by actor Mads Mikkelsen), a man who finances terrorists.
Bond informs René Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), who is watching the game and whom he thinks is on his side, of the tell. Mathis, it turns out, works for Le Chiffre, but Bond does not know this.
Poker, like some other card games, involves both skill and luck. One’s success may be determined by bluffing. What cards one’s opponent thinks one holds may be important than the actual cards.
And the house of cards may collapse at any moment.
Thus the importance of the tell. If it is genuine.
Not unlike the present-day politics of the USA.
It is sometimes difficult to distinguish real news from fake news.
What the current POTUS says is fake news may be just the opposite.
And vice-versa.
If everything that came out of his mouth was a lie, it’d be easier to discern. But, unlike Marta Cabrera (played by actress Ana de Armas), the South American Latina domestic in KNIVES OUT, another successful 2019 film, he doesn’t vomit every time he tells a lie.
Recently at the Washington headquarters of the RNC Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of NYC and personal lawyer of the POTUS, went on air to claim fraud on the part of Democrats in the recent Presidential election. In a different setting, in a courtroom under oath, he would not claim fraud. Particularly being an attorney, he knows better than to commit perjury.
During his oral presentation, an odd dark-brown trickle ran down the side of his face. It seemed to be a combination of sweat and hair dye. Or sweat and something else. Many were watching.
