 |
| Walter Forde: Would You Believe It? (GB 1929). |
Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM): Slapstick.
Programma a cura di Steve Massa, Ulrich Rüdel
Steve Massa, Ulrich Rüdel (GCM 2023):
" The early European clowns took the film world by storm. Under a myriad of monikers – from Cretinetti to Onésime to (the first, French) Patachon – their antics quickly traveled around the globe. Substantially advanced by the art of Max Linder, they dominated screen comedy throughout the silent era. Not only did their gags and comedy language transfer, but also their stage tradition influences – clowning, circus, variety stages, music hall, and its international equivalents, such as vaudeville or the Bavarian Brettl. The most obvious adaptation was silent comedy in the United States, but the rest of the world’s movie population got into the act as well. "
" We continue the exploration of themes, gags, shared roots, mutual influences, imitations, and the ubiquitous themes of the human condition and modern societies that we began with our “European Slapstick” program in 2019. Also followed are the traces of stage and circus forms, the various approaches to physical and light comedy, comic timing precise or blunt, and perhaps even cruel and unusual gags, as slapstick took hold of cinema in both Europe and the United States. "
" As heritage from commedia dell’arte and the circus, cretins and clowns populated the early French and Italian world of comedy. Most obviously this is the case with Cretinetti (variously known as Lehmann, Foolshead, Boireau, Gribouille), André Deed, whose martial adventures see him sporting “Little Tich”-type shoes and anticipating the bridal chase of Keaton’s Seven Chances (1925). Most prominent among the American comics to take up this kind of frantic, whiteface approach was prolific Larry Semon, aptly known in Italy as Ridolini. Quite in contrast to Semon, or for that matter his later namesake, was the American film career of the first screen Toto, Armando Novello. Although his career did not quite soar as intended, his extant work for Hal Roach provides a valuable record of his comic talent (his replacement Stan Laurel adapted much better). The era’s most prominent and respected circus clowns, the Fratellini Brothers, show up in an early, cruel Zecca short, and later strive to preserve their art in a 1920s French feature, much like the famous Swiss clown Grock did two years later. "
" One of the main conventions of early slapstick was the obligatory chase. Starting in the first Pathés, it ruled for many years, and was brought to perfection in America by practitioners like Mack Sennett and Harold Lloyd. The British comedian/director Walter Forde also demonstrated his mastery of the form in features such as Wait and See (1928) and Would You Believe It? (1929). "
" Women in silent comedy are not always nasty or barrierbreaking, but are still often very funny even where they play less critically, but warmly with comic stereotyping. This is certainly true for matronly Olga Svendsen, a member of Lau Lauritzen’s Nordisk stock family of actors in the 1910s, and a forceful presence in Danish comedy into the 1930s. Presumably appreciated by Mack Sennett (yet unwilling to cross the pond and accept an offer), she’s now ripe for rediscovery, as she anticipated character comediennes like Margaret Rutherford, and was often teamed by Lau with the equally rotund – and funny – Oscar Stribolt. "
" Other women in comedy sometimes turn out to be men in drag. In the latter class of the comic performing arts, it was hard to surpass either Chaplin brother, but the immensely funny Syd was at the peak of his career starring in 1926’s Oh! What a Nurse! This was a follow-up to his 1925 Charley’s Aunt, and another drag “tour de farce” that’s been unseen for nearly a century. Other comics skilled in the art of drag include burly Bavarian Georg Rückert, adamantly determined to marry skinny Karl Valentin in Karl Valentin’s Hochzeit (1912), but fatally crushing him in the process, and Marcel Peréz, one of the few comics whose career remarkably spanned both early French and classic U.S. slapstick. "
" Odd couples, thick and thin, tall and small, were a staple of stage and circus, and indeed literature. Among the lesser known but enduringly funny teamings are slapstick veteran Slim Summerville and Bobby Dunn. After they announce their return in an early 1922 promo f ilm, we revisit Denmark’s answer to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the always gentle (arguably sometimes sluggishly so) Pat and Patachon, in one of their later silents, adding rooftop antics to domestic comedy. 1929’s Højt paa en kvist (The Mannequins) presents a return to old form and charm, thanks in no small part to the support of Marguerite Viby (who was to become a major f igure in Danish sound comedy) and Nina Kalckar as the dancers the comedians are smitten with. A testament to the popularity of their Danish and American (Laurel & Hardy, that is) inspirations, the German team “Beef and Steak” was created by Kurt Gerron (Der Blaue Engel) and Sig Arno (The Great Dictator), two of the major comic stars of Weimar cinema’s Jewish German comedy transition. Alas, only fragmentary footage survives of their two features as a comedy team. "
" Domestic comedy is also reliably provided by Charley Chase, marrying the traditions of gentleman comic Max Linder and everyman Harold Lloyd, seen in his sole silent feature (made during the transition to sound), Modern Love (1929), a Universal production wisely following his Roach/McCarey established characterization and comic modus operandi. "
" A major comic admired by intellectuals such as Bertolt Brecht was Bavaria’s Karl Valentin, whose cinema career extended from 1912 to 1941, yet was riddled by Filmpech, or movie misfortune. The rediscovery/re-release of his early silent shorts directed by Walter Jerven in 1929, which led to his sole silent feature, Der Sonderling , screened at the 2019 Giornate, is mirrored here with screenings of three of his silent shorts. "
" It is very likely indeed that it was also Jerven who, through a 1943 one-reel German compilation f ilm, “accidentally preserved” (to borrow Ben Model’s term) rare footage of the shooting of Max Linder’s last feature, Max, der Zirkuskönig / Le Roi du cirque (1924; shown at the 2021 Giornate). Here it is paired with similarly brief and precious footage, courtesy of Filmmuseum Wien, of the only behind-the-scenes footage of Linder known to survive today, irrespective of a number of documented newsreel appearances throughout his career. "
" We hope this second deep dive into the depths and deviations of silent comedy, known and unknown, proves inspiring in these troubled times, and leaves you laughing (as well as wanting more). "
" This series is dedicated to the memory of David Wyatt (1948-2022) – a true devotee and scholar of silent film comedy. " Ulrich Rüdel, Steve Massa
No comments:
Post a Comment