spying with the voyeur

Here's a chance to appreciate Gary Farmer's turn as the character Nobody in Jim Jarmusch's film, Dead Man (1996). He takes William (Johnny Depp)'s hat from beside where Depp is sleeping (~40 mins in) and tries it on after first sniffing it.
Farmer then proceeds to mouth not once, but twice, a very casual, uninhibited phrase of gibberish, such as he might do - we'd imagine - if he were, in fact, the owner of the hat. Depp wakes up at a point and glances over, but the editing ensures we know that he is surreptitiously watching, and that Farmer's character is quite unaware.

It's wonderful stuff, made all the more powerful by us having a sense that we are spying on Farmer's character when he thinks he's truly alone (and let's face it, it's only when we believe ourselves to be alone that we can remove our masks). While Farmer doesn't mug self-consciously, his jaw movement is nevertheless so silly that we learn how Farmer's character feels about his sleeping partner. He even double checks that Depp is asleep before repeating himself. This juxtaposition of shots serves a few emotional purposes: It not only confirms to us that were are getting the uninhibited Nobody (since we see him check to confirm William's asleep) but a prior CU of William glancing briefly at Nobody imitating him, then silently drifting back to sleep, implies William's acceptance of Nobody. A fine moment.