Language is the main means to codify human reality. It dominates in law, in reports, and even in the weather forecast on television. Images very often serve the only purpose of illustration, although films prove that they indeed are capable of communicating conceptual meanings.

Films are based on screenplays and, therefore, have a verbally codified conceptual background. Of course, most films need dialogues. But no film can live without any visual representation as a frame for action and dialogues. And some films do not contain any words.

As we barely see and hear inner dialogues on the screen, films have to invent a visual code in order to present states of mind. To do so, the only way of orientation leads along already given stereotypes from everyday life. And as films themselves are part of everyday life, they paradoxically represent another source of visual stereotypes.