A movie cliche that I am really beginning to despise (1 Viewer)

When a man and woman are close to one another and professing their love, the man's eyes are still and steady, while the woman's are almost always darting back and forth, looking at one of his eyes, then the other, etc. in rapid fashion. I do not understand why women are directed to do this (in my experience in real life they rarely do this). Do filmmakers think it makes them more attractive? It's one of those damn traditions dating back to the thirties that movies have not yet overcome, and once you become aware of it, it's simply damn distracting! I was just watching the sequence in MARY SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN in which Kenneth Branagh is proposing to Helena Bonham Carter, and saw this cliche in full force and decided to finally vent about it.

Wish all aggrivations in life were as silly and small as that!

(Smiley face...another cliche!)

I'm not sure it's a thing that's "directed."

Nystagmus.

I remember way back when in a Michael Caine interview he mentioned this very thing as a weakness among certain actors (men and women) and that a good actor will avoid the eyes darting back and forth. I don't recall the details of that interview but that little factoid always stayed in my head.