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It’s Not What You Say It’s How You Say It

Young Frankenstein (1974)
Dir. Mel Brooks
Written by Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks
Starring: Gene Wilder, Teri Garr, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn Cloris Leachman

Young Frankenstein, like all of Mel Brooks’ films, is many things. Firstly, a comedy, but it also touches upon different genres such as: satire, parody, homage…but more to the point could it be considered a Screwball?

This is the second Mel Brooks film that I have ever seen. The first that I saw this past summer was High Anxiety, a parody of suspense films—especially Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. It was funny—but not laugh out loud funny. YF took a while to grow on me but now I love it. I’ve also seen Blazing Saddles recently which I have to say was difficult to watch. I know that it was a satire but the number of n-words bandied about so casually threw me for a loop. Brooks has, what I would term a heavy-handed approach to humor. It slaps you in the face and punches you in the stomach. Both Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder wrote this film, so it is a little subtler in some ways than a pure Brooks’ film.

Another descriptive term that I would use would be deliberate, every word and movement is formulated to get the most absurdity out of it possible. This film is a parody of the old black and white monster movies so the pace of the film’s dialogue is rather slow. Gene Wilder has a singular way of expressing himself, he uses leisurely and measured tones interspersed with outbursts that come out of nowhere as his comedic markers.

YF is chock full of sight gags and verbal gags; every scene is full of jokes, jests, witticisms, quips, puns, double entendres; practical jokes, stunts, larks; informal cracks, wisecracks, and one-liners—you get the jist. Accents are especially important: added “zes” and “unds” along with a few German words for good measure are added to the mix for optimum comedic effect.

Upon the fifth or sixth viewing I’ve come to the conclusion that this is not a screwball. It is too many things to be considered a neo-screwball. Mel Brooks’ films taken as whole are screwy, definitely, but they are in a different comedy bracket—more of a pastiche. When compared to a film such as His Girl Friday YF’s dialogue is hysterical but the delivery is so different.

Women are not very important in this film, which is another reason why it can’t compare to other Screwball comedies. There are couplings and love triangles and inevitable marriages but this film is more about the individual gags then the narrative as a whole. This film definitely has some Bromance elements that I could potentially explore but that topic is for another day and another blog. On the surface this film has some of the tropes of classic screwball such as:
Ø Marriage (in some way shape or form, e.g. couple getting divorced, married, or re- married)
Ø Verbal gymnastics or sparring
Ø Physical Comedy (not required)
but overall it does not use them in the way that a Screwball film does.

An Aside

My Bromance Proposition

Film critic Andrew Sarris has defined the screwball comedy as "a sex comedy without the sex”.

Why are women superfluous in Bromance? They serve two functions: the to-be-looked-at women, usually strippers or random women that are displayed for viewing pleasure only, the second type is the shrew or the cruder term would be a bitch who serves to remind the male protagonist/s why they need or prefer their male companions. Other than as eye candy woman are underdeveloped character-wise. I am often left wondering why they are there; they are literally wastes of space. In comparison, there are very few films with genuine women friendships are depicted and men are the throwaway characters.

The significance of Bromance is the true romance and coming together is between the men. Women’s friends in films, like women in Bromances are not crucial they might provide momentary distractions and small amounts of comic relief but they fade into the background and never fully reappear. Male companions are actually present through the entire film; much to the dismay of screen wives and girlfriends. A case study of this would be the film The Hangover, the last scene of the film centers around the four main male characters. They have made it home from their Vegas trip half alive so that Doug can get married. They arrive just in time and he gets married, at the reception we have a brief glimpse of the bride and then no more the film ends with the men lounging in chairs discussing their wild trip. What a way to begin a marriage—hanging out with your male friends.

Classic Screwball was unique—women and men were equal or at least verbally equal, they sparred, they flirted, but mainly they had fun. For some reason this is no longer the case. The non-traditional couple is now the space for this type of relationship. Mother and Daughter a la Gilmore Girls or male/male combos via buddy films and bromances. One theory is that sex during the production code enforcement was absent and now that same sex-less state for obvious reasons is absent so it adds that missing element of sexual frustration has been funneled into common everyday frustrations.

Obviously the friendships and romances shown are fantasies and not real depictions of those relationships. Not many people can afford to keep the same routines that they have with friends in college into life after. Movies such as Knocked Up with Seth Rogen where he has no job except for a website that he runs with his friends and some money leftover from a lawsuit and he manages to live quite nicely without an actual job. Can you imagine female actresses in the male roles in Bromances? Are audiences even ready for such a thing…

I am very interested to see the new film, Bridesmaids (May 2011) starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, John Hamm. I’ve only seen the trailer a few times and it seems like it will be funny. It is being lauded as the female version of Hangover and I am hoping that it is in some ways. Much to my dismay I love Bromances—they embody things that I love most—they are raunchy, irreverent and funny; unfortunately, they only portray women as stereotypes. Trying to find a film that is the female version of a Bromance has been elusive and it will continue to be until I break down and write it myself. Like ethnicity is dealt with in films so is being a woman. There are many conclusions to be drawn from the depictions of women in films. What stands out to me the most is that as long as sex stands in the way women cannot have fun like their male counterparts. Plus the whole “looks” thing, if you have any sexual appeal, which you usually have to have in order to make it in Hollywood, then you are a sex object and the power that this creates cancels out anything else, and if you are unattractive, god help you, there is no place for you except as a creature to ridicule. Back to the original question can women have fun, be funny, and not be so concerned with finding a partner, and be likable, and simultaneously not be made a sex object? Is there even a market for this type of product? All questions for the future. Stay tuned for a post about the film Bridesmaids.

Looney Toons Personified

http://media.photobucket.com/image/looney%20tunes/Leg81012/looney-tunes-original-screen.png?o=9&sortby=sevendaysview


His Girl Friday (1940)
Dir. Howard Hawks
Written by Charles Lederer adapted from a play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur
Starring: Rosalind Russell, Carey Grant, Ralph Bellamy

*Note—dialogue is all shared, every person is special and provides something to the overall wonderfulness of the movie, it is definitely an ensemble cast.

I have watched this film many times: when I was a child my parent’s played the VHS rented from the Library every so often, when I was older when they would show it on Turner Classic Movies, and now as an adult as because it never gets old. I’ve watched it about ten times now and written about it already for this blog. I thought I would have another go and focus on how they use language in the film.

One day I a month ago I put it on and then I laid down—bad idea as I was falling asleep a few moments later I had a brief thought that I would somehow absorb and be able to understand the dialogue in the dream state better than I have before. Wrong, but I did come to the conclusion that no matter how much you concentrate on just the words they still manage to slip away. I was bolstered later after reading an article, Treatise on Hawks by Bosley Crowther, a New York Times movie reviewer from 1940 to 1967.

"He believes that it [dialogue] should be written almost like music, with the important words emphasized or scored and the rest of it allowed to flow off indifferently. That’s the way most people hear conversation anyhow, he thinks."

Great—how am I supposed to analyze something that for all intents and purposes is not meant to be heard as a whole? Well, all I can do is try…

Major themes and sub-themes and tropes worked out through dialogue in the film:
➢ Code switching
➢ Gender
➢ Pace
➢ Tragedy {silence}


Code switching

Opening sequence:
A lot of things happen in a relatively short amount of time. First the newsroom setting with its frenetic energy and pace is shown and then Hildy arrives by elevator with her fiancé Bruce. Below is summary, in order, of Hildy’s many different code-switching moments just in the first part of the film.

“Hiya Skinny”—newsroom boy

Telephone operators—knowing, joking

Bruce (fiancé)—soft tones

Fellow newsmen—“Hi Hildy”—earned respect from her—both in opening sequence and later in the jail newsroom bantering back and forth and joking about her hat etc.

Conversation with fellow woman, in the newsroom, gossip columnist condescending because Hildy is different she is/was one of the guys and holds a certain status as such

Walter-ex-husband, talking down, insults flying back forth, ramping up of conversations to climax, ebbs and flows and eventually crashes against the shore as tempers flare and cool alternately
o Gender: Battle of the Sexes
• wants to be spoiled by a man, Bruce “…treats her like a woman”
• “Newspaperman” because she is so good, she is allowed to be a “newspaperman” she has proved herself but by the end of the film she has backpedaled a lot
• Wants to be a “woman” AKA a Housewife after having experienced being a career woman
• one scene when she reverts to stereotypical behavior :the closing scene which has never jibbed well with me; it kind of sits there in film leaving a bad taste in you mouth in film that otherwise shows a smart, intelligent, and capable women. She begins as a “fast talking dame” and ends as a patsy, reduced to tears—effectively silenced—back in her old job tied to Walter again who continues to use her for his own purposes.
• the title actually hints at ending with the “His” attached to Girl Friday
• Pace
o * “…comedy that set the standard and style for fast talk.”
o * “…film reproduces speech at 240 words per minute, compared to the average pace of 100 to 150 words.”
o I will see how pace functions in the neo-screwball films so stayed tuned for that in other blog posts we will see if “verbal fluency” and “verbal sparring” are still important
• Moments of Silence or at least it seems silent because it quiets down but only momentarily:
• “The heroines of comedy know that silence is not a natural state but a moral and emotional one reached through speech. The heroines of comedy also know the difference between a silence pregnant with emotional or moral meaning and a silence born of or burdened by inarticulateness (DiBattista 19).”

An article I read, Making Light of Dark: Understanding the World of His Girl Friday by James Walter, lights upon the fact that the film combines elements of comedy and melodrama to create a world. The “tonal shifts” in the movie necessitates “acknowledging the film’s fictional world as a world”.
o Molly’s suicide attempt Newspapermen heckling Molly/very short time as they look down upon her broken body/out of place in this comedy Molly unlike Hildy is unable to communicate with the newsmen. They treat her differently because she cannot speak their language. Only in death or suicide does she merit their attention.
o End sequence when Hildy cries…stands out because most of the film in contrast she can hold her own with him. Walter meanwhile has constant stream of words coming out of his mouth as he cons and spins yarns out of the air and the constant click-clack of Hildy’s typewriter keys as she does what she does best but that all stops when finally becomes she becomes a stereotypical “woman” trailing behind Walter, willing to put up with him because she loves him


Closing thoughts
This film is not perfect but it is a perfect example of Screwball comedy during its heyday. Many of the themes that it deals with sub-textually are still struggled with in more modern films. Can women be smart, capable, and in love? Gender issues with regards to workplaces. Can women be funny? Many times, if modern films are any example, that answer would be no.



http://everygame.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/


*Fast-Talking Dames by Maria DiBattista

Here Meet My Baby Mama: Juno

The Hamburger Phone scene

Juno (2007)

Dir. Jason Reitman Written by: Diablo Cody

Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Allison Janney, Jason Bateman

Leah: Yo Yo Yiggady Yo.
Juno MacGuff: I'm at suicide risk.
Leah: Juno?
Juno MacGuff: No, it's Morgan Freeman. Do you have any bones that need collecting?
Leah: Only the one in my pants...
Juno MacGuff: I'm pregnant.
Leah: What? Honest to blog?
Juno MacGuff: Yeah. Yeah, it's Bleekers.
Leah: It's probably just a food baby. Did you have a big lunch?
Juno MacGuff: No, this is not a food baby all right? I've taken like three pregnancy tests, and I'm forshizz up the spout.
Leah: How did you even generate enough pee for three pregnancy tests? That's amazing...
Juno MacGuff: I don't know, I drank like, ten tons of Sunny D... Anyway dude, I'm telling you I'm pregnant and you're acting shockingly cavalier.
Leah: Is this for real? Like, for real for real?
Juno MacGuff: Unfortunately, yes.
Leah: Oh my GOD. Oh shit! Phuket, Thailand!
Juno MacGuff: There we go. That was kind of the emotion that I was searching for on the first take.

The 411: Girl Juno (Page) and a friend Bleeker (Cera) have sex once and she gets pregnant. Like any wisecracking teen would she deals with it by joking; "Yeah, I'm a legend. You know, they call me the cautionary whale." She finds a couple to adopt the baby and continues to live the ups and down of her teenage life.

Juno immediately came to mind when I was trying to think of a modern Screwball Comedy. I don't know that I've ever come across a movie that manages to pull of a teen pregnancy in the way that this film does. It is irrevrent and humane in it's dealings with the subject matter. And the dialogue is appropriatley lightning fast and brilliant.

There is a teenage couple, zany antics, sharp and fast dialogue, a slight touch of drama, and all of this in 96 minutes. What more could anyone ask of a teen pregnancy movie.

Su-Chin: I'm having a little trouble concentrating.

Juno MacGuff: Oh well I could sell you some of my Adderall if you want.

Su-Chin: No thanks I'm off pills.

Juno MacGuff: That's a wise choice because I knew this girl who like had this crazy freak out because she took too many behavioral meds at once and she like ripped off her clothes, and dove into the fountain at Ridgedale Mall and was like, "Blah I am a Kracken from the sea!"

Su-Chin: I heard that was you.

Juno MacGuff: Well, it was good seeing ya Su-Chin.

Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Screwball?

http://www.listal.com/viewimage/3857

A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Dir. Charles Crichton Written by: John Cleese & Charles Crichton

Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Tom Georgeson9

Otto: Don't call me stupid.
Wendy: Why on earth not?
Otto: Oh, you English are *so* superior, aren't you? Well, would you like to know what you'd be without us, the good ol' U.S. of A. to protect you? I'll tell you. The smallest fucking province in the Russian Empire, that's what! So don't call me stupid, lady. Just thank me.
Wendy: Well, *thank* you for popping in and protecting us.
Otto: If it wasn't for us, you'd all be speaking *German!* Singing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles..."

Searching for, what I call neo-Screwball comedies, is more difficult than I thought. I found a few pitiful lists--they contained mostly films that I've either thought of or ones that might have a few screwballish tendencies but never the real deal. This film, A Fish... was on one of those lists and so I dutifully ordered it from the local library. It came and I popped it into the DVD player, actually I carefully placed it in the player so as not to scratch it like any good Film buff would and sat back and relaxed.

The basic premise:

Set in London, four people come together to pull of an jewelery robbery. Within the group of four there are dyad's that have formed alliances previously to the group coming together. Wanda (Curtis) and Otto (Kline) are couple who pretend to be brother and sister-to make things easier-George (Georges) and Ken (Palin) are the other alliance. They all plan, plot, and execute the crime and make off with the loot. The next phase of the plan requires them to all separate and for one to take the jewels and hide them. After this they are supposed to meet divvy up the jewels; only they and don't and then they can't.

On the basis of a good comedy film it was one. I tittered in spots and enjoyed the performances of the leads but it missed the mark for me on several points if it is to be considered a Screwball Comedy. Mostly it was missing the complete zaniness of true SC. That oh-so-elusive element that makes SC'S still funny and refreshing so many years later.

I am all for vugarity, but I am not sure how I feel about the use of vugarity within a SC. One theory that I operate under is that the reason some genres of classic films exist, and in my opinion Rock!, are because they had to work around and underneath the MPPDA, aka the Hays Code, censorship does wonders for creativity. Two of my absolute favorite genres, Screwball Comedies and Film Noir benifitted wonderfully from the production code.

So while, I feel like the movie is wonderfully inventive and a lovely comedy it is not going to be labeled Neo-Screwball by me. But I reserve the right to change my mind;)