Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her

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It's a movie, but find the scene a little bit disturbing and it just shows what I don't like about the RWS Tarot.
I get the impression the the reader goes more by the paintings instead to consider a wield field of possible interpretations.
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[Joan Marie]

It's a movie, but find the scene a little bit disturbing and it just shows what I don't like about the RWS Tarot.

I find this scene really funny. She looks at the cards for 10 seconds and then tells this super-elaborate story about the client. I think she has this story well-rehearsed and tells it to every client she has because it would fit just about everyone on some level.

Or maybe she has like 2 or 3 well-rehearsed stories, studies the client for a minute and decides which one to use, because ain't no way she got all that from just those cards in just 10 seconds.

What this scene shows me is why I don't care for most representations of card reading in movies. It's never just a normal thing. It's never fun or interesting. It's always scary and mysterious and weird. And they rarely involve the client at all past having them choose the cards. It's like, "pick the cards and then shut up. Madam Blah Blah knows all!" It's like getting a haircut or your nails done.

Glenn Close just sits there silently puffing away while Callista Flockhart deconstructs her.

[SaturnCeleste]

It's a movie, but find the scene a little bit disturbing and it just shows what I don't like about the RWS Tarot.

What this scene shows me is why I don't care for most representations of card reading in movies. It's never just a normal thing. It's never fun or interesting. It's always scary and mysterious and weird.

I totally agree! It is how they represent us in the movies that suck. Although I was watching Freud (I think it was) and they were using a RW deck and it was in the 1800's!

[Nemia]

I really liked that scene because it's such a good reflection on the Glenn Close character. The reader is wonderfully precise and insightful but the querent only waits for ONE validation. As soon as this doesn't come, she disregards the whole thing.

And that happens in tarot, with querents but also when reading ourselves. You want this ONE answer. and if it doesn't come - clarification cards that make the waters even murkier, and a second reading...

The movie is committed to representing characters, not how a tarot reading works. I saw this many years ago and still think it's a nice way of foreshadowing the character's behaviour.

(this is not the complete scene - if you watch the whole movie, you can see how the querent shakes off the whole thing) (and having re-watched the secene again I totally agree that the reader uses cold reading techniques not from the cards)

[stronglove]

hahaha thanks for posting this, it is hilarious! (as well as toe-curling ‘off’)
as a psychologist i recognize the strategies used here to impress, unbalance and unsettle your ‘client’, as it is used by lots of amateur shrinks and con-artists who have watched too much tv and read too many self help manuals. sigh.....
but i know that if you pay enough attention there is a lot you can tell ‘just by looking at her’, as the movie title states (didn’t know it, haven’t watched it) but it has nothing whatsoever to do with the cards.
this is exactly why i hesitate to read for others, because i know my psychologist self is always chomping at the bit to shove my intuition and inner knowledge aside and take over

[Joan Marie]

The movie is committed to representing characters, not how a tarot reading works. I saw this many years ago and still think it's a nice way of foreshadowing the character's behaviour.

This is true of course. They use tarot for exposition, in this case to give us a description of the character. To my taste though this is a bit heavy-handed. As a viewer i feel like I'm being smashed over the head with her backstory by an ageing pixie.

They barely even show the cards at all really. The reading is clearly just a device to get the character description out of the way.

I saw a movie recently called "45 Years" about a long married couple and right at the beginning they pan the camera all around their very comfortable home and show some framed photos of the couple with their dogs. Right away, I know this is movie-making shorthand for "they have no children." This turns out to be a huge plot point in the story that I saw coming a mile away.

I'm not a big fan of that kind of writing but maybe I'm old have seen too many movies!

[Nemia]

Well... I saw this movie many many years ago, in the early 2000s. It's funny - I was much less experienced in tarot then and much more easily impressed by the reader. Much less so now! Just looking at thequerent you can throw around phrases like she did.

If I remember this movie, and I think I do because I see very few movies but those I do stay with me - it's an unusual concept, it tells the stories of people in circles that touch each other. there is no focus, no protagonist. You meet people, the movie continues, you meet others etc. No spoilers here and maybe I wouldn't like it today but back in the day, I did.

And the querent's reaction to the reader, her words, her presence, was nicely placed. Yeah, a bit too heavy-handed foreshadowing perhaps.

Now I have to watch the whole movie again.

I haven't seen many movies where tarot cards or readings appeared at all. But that's perhaps because I prefer vintage movies - film noir, screwball comedies etc? Oh I'd love Mrs Miniver to take out a pack of cards

[Merrick]

This begs the question, other than documentaries, what films do a good job portraying tarot readings? Most of the ones I can think of present them as scary/spooky or use it to tell us we can disregard a character because they’re into silly stuff like tarot.

[Papageno]

I find this scene really funny. She looks at the cards for 10 seconds and then tells this super-elaborate story about the client. I think she has this story well-rehearsed and tells it to every client she has because it would fit just about everyone on some level.

Or maybe she has like 2 or 3 well-rehearsed stories, studies the client for a minute and decides which one to use, because ain't no way she got all that from just those cards in just 10 seconds.

how true, I totally agree.

It's like getting a haircut or your nails done.

It would have been nice if she did get her hair and nails done, she looks like she just fell out of bed; and that attitude/demeanor.
I mean really, if you're a professional, look and communicate like a professional.

Glenn Close just sits there silently puffing away while Callista Flockhart deconstructs her.

Glenn Close looks like she's the one who's deconstructing Callista Flockhart.

[Papageno]

This begs the question, other than documentaries, what films do a good job portraying tarot readings? Most of the ones I can think of present them as scary/spooky or use it to tell us we can disregard a character because they’re into silly stuff like tarot.

I nominate: The Red Violin

[Charlie Brown]

The only truly great representation of tarot in American visual storytelling is undoubtedly Father Dowling Mysteries.

[Dobbins]

I could see why this scene could be a cause for concern for serious seekers.

But personally I take in mind that it's a movie, so it will reflect the mainstream viewpoint and expectations. My personal belief is anything I want to understand deeply, whether the be economics, technology, tarot or politics I have to move away from the mainstream point of view. So I never put that much weight on the mainstream view and might even go the opposite direction to find the truth of something. Most people won't do that though.