A Close-Up on the Close-Up

In Bela Balazs's essay "The Creative Camera; The Close-Up; The Face of Man," he breaks down different aspects of film having psychological effects on the viewers and how that distinguishes film from other arts. In the portion specific to "The Face of Man" he first argues that the close-up pulls the viewer out of the world in which they are identifying with space and inserts them into a world in which they are identifying with the emotions of the person in the close-up. He writes, "Facing an isolated face takes us out of space, our consciousness of space is cut out and we find ourselves in another dimension: that of physiognomy." (131).  Because these emotional elements are not perceived in space, (happiness can't be described as big or small) us as viewers are able to have a more emotional response to the close-up. We are honed in on the subtleties the actor is expressing. He later relates this to Dulac's Jeanne d'Arc by explaining the way these close-ups, specifically between Joan and her accusers, give way to major, emotional battles that take place solely in the emotions of the actors. This is as opposed to literal battles that take place in space, such as a scene displaying a fistfight. He also notes that the effectiveness of these silent battles stems from the fact that they take place in silent film. He notes, "We saw conversations between the facial expressions of two human beings who understood the movements of each others' faces better than each other's words," (134). This made me wonder if this belief behind that quote came solely from the fact that it was a silent film. Or Is it possible for a film with dialogue to wage these silent battles solely through close-ups?