The subject of this post was originally going to be on an entirely different topic, which will be saved for a later time!
When I was doing research for that topic, I came across this TedxEmory talk on YouTube. The title of this video is, “Technology and the New Aesthetics of Violence.” I will warn you, there are some violent images shown from certain films in this video. So, viewer be warned! What does this video have to do with the Slapstick Festival? Well, there are a couple of reasons why I have decided to share this video.
The main reason why I even came across this video is that I was looking up the person presenting the lecture. Dr. Eddy Von Mueller is a lecturer at Emory University, and a former professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. More specifically, he was one of my professors while I was doing my film degree at GSU. Dr. Von Mueller had a dramatic impact on my education, and what areas of film history, theory, and criticism that I decided to focus on during my studies. In fact, you could say he was one of my favourite professors!
One of Dr. Von Mueller’s areas of expertise is in the study of animation. During the intro to this lecture, he explains that what he is attempting to explore is why violence in cinema can either make us laugh, cringe in fear or disgust, or make us cheer for a hero. Although most of the lecture is about gun violence is displayed in film, it can easily be transposed to other types of cinematic violence. It certainly makes a good starting point for how film studies explore how violence is portrayed in cinema and how different aesthetics can impact how an audience will react to that violence.
I’ve put a link to the video below… it’s a fascinating 20 minutes and takes me back to the film lectures that I absolutely loved!
Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance created one of television’s most enduring comic duos – Lucy and Ethel. Lucy and Ethel were neighbours and best friends on the beloved sitcom, I Love Lucy. The two were constantly getting into trouble with all of Lucy’s crazy schemes! I remember growing up watching these two in reruns and never failing to laugh at their antics! One of the most famous scenes involves the duo working in a chocolate factory and trying to keep up with the production line. The comic gem is below.
One of the surprises that I discovered when I was trying to do some research about Lucy and Ethel is the amount of references to these two characters in everyday life! So many articles came up about friends who describe themselves as Lucy and Ethel… or a situation that Lucy and Ethel would have gotten themselves into. I love this facet of popular culture… that something can endure and transcend its original medium. Two people can call themselves the “Lucy and Ethel” of their town and the meaning behind this is immediate, even if you aren’t fully aware of the source behind these names. I think I could even describe one of my own friendships as though the two of us were Lucy and Ethel!
There is so much written about I Love Lucy, and it has a fascinating spot in television history. The show had so much impact on American culture. I just wanted to write a little bit more about Lucy and Ethel. Apparently, Lucille Ball was quite lukewarm to the casting of Vivian Vance as Ethel. Ball had originally envisaged a much older woman in the role. Vance was made to wear frumpier clothes and was made to look older than she was. Ethel was married to Fred Mertz. Fred was portrayed by William Frawley who was 22 years older than Vivian Vance. It was rumoured that Ball and Vance did not get along during the filming of I Love Lucy. Fortunately, this rumour was false. Lucille Ball eventually warmed to the presence of Vivian Vance and her professionalism, and this led to them becoming close friends.
I Love Lucy is over 60 years old, but still holds a fond place in many hearts. Yes, some parts of it have aged… but it is still worth revisiting! Watching an episode almost always guarantees a smile and some laughter. Much of this laughter comes from the enduring friendship and antics of Lucy and Ethel.
Anita Garvin and Marion Byron – A Classic Comedy Duo
I hope everyone has seen our exciting event coming up in June! It’s so great that we will be able to present the Aardman Slapstick Comedy Legend award to that fantastic comedic duo, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders! The event has now sold out… so I’m hoping that everyone who wanted a ticket could get one! French & Saunders join a prestigious group of previous recipients, all of whom can be seen here.
I thought I would use the next few blog posts to look at famous female comedy teams of the past.
garvin byron
Hal Roach, producer of the Laurel & Hardy shorts, wanted to establish a female version of the comedic double act. Anita Garvin and Marion Byron were one of his attempts at a female pairing. They only made three shorts together, but one of them in now regarded as a classic of silent slapstick.
A Pair of Tights tells the story of two women out a on double date with two very cheap men (the tights of the title). The film follows the two pairs as they drive in a car that leads to a very funny and failed attempt at buying ice cream! I’ve included a link to an excerpt from the short below (ignore the annoying commentary, the quality was better than the full short that I found).
Both Garvin and Byron came from prestigious comedy backgrounds. Anita Garvin worked very frequently with Laurel & Hardy. One of her most acclaimed performances was the role of Laurel’s wife in Blotto. Garvin also appeared in shorts with Max Davidson, Charley Chase and James Finlayson. Marion Byron made him film debut opposite Buster Keaton in Steamboat Bill Jr. She was hired by Hal Roach and worked in shorts with Max Davidson, Edgar Kennedy and Charley Chase. Both women retired from acting quite early, but it is great to have their performances preserved on film.
One of the tasks that I’m doing for the festival now is organising its DVD library. It is very interesting going through all the titles… I enjoy coming across new and different films. One of the discs that I was reviewing contained two of Walt Disney’s very early animated shorts. I was already familiar with these shorts, but I thought I’d share a little bit of that information here.
In 1923, Disney developed a series of shorts that came to be collectively known as the Alice Comedies. Walt Disney directed all 57 of these shorts that were made between 1923 to 1927. They were loosely based on Alice in Wonderland and featured a live-action young girl who had various adventures in a cartoon world.
The first short, “Alice’s Wonderland,” was produced in Kansas City, Missouri at Laugh-O-Gram Films. This was Disney’s first studio which eventually ended up going bankrupt… but not before Disney moved to California and securing a deal to produce more of the shorts. Four young girls would portray Alice in these shorts. These shorts are now in the public domain.
I thought I’d research a bit more about the first Alice, Virginia Davis. She was in the first short made in Kansas City, and moved to California with her family to continue appearing in the series. Davis stopped appearing in the shorts after a negotiation in pay did not conclude in an increase. This was not the end of her relationship with Disney. She would eventually work for a short time in the ink and paint department of the Disney studios. She also provided uncredited voices in the classic animated film, Pinocchio. She spent her later career as an interior designer. In 1992, she was a special guest of the Le Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy.
One of my favourite events from the festival was the screening of Max Linder’s Seven Years Bad Luck. David Robinson’s excellent introduction gave some insight into what had been a very troubled life for the early silent film star. If you weren’t at the event, I thought I would share some more information about Linder.
Max Linder was the stage name of Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle. Linder originally started out on stage in the French theatre, and in 1905 had his film debut. In 1911, he also began directing his own films. Amazingly, since he has been largely forgotten, he was the highest paid star in the world in 1912!
Linder was very meticulous about his films, and often had notes about what types of music should be played with certain scenes. One of the great things about the screening of Seven Years Bad Luck is that there is a scene where Linder is playing the piano quite raucously. Accompanist Daan van den Hurk found the song that Linder was playing and used this in his piano score to the film!
The outbreak of World War I brought trouble to Linder’s life. He was seriously wounded during the war, and this experience also led to bouts of depression. After the war, Linder was invited to the US to make films. During the early 1920s, he made films for United Artists. I found a great clip on YouTube of Max Linder meeting Charlie Chaplin in 1917.
Unfortunately, depression caused Linder to kill himself in a suicide pact with his wife in 1925. Charlie Chaplin is said to have closed his studio for a day out of respect.
Max Linder made around five hundred films, but sadly most of these are lost! His daughter, Maud Linder, was largely responsible for re-introducing the world to this lost genius. She made a documentary about her father and re-issued some of his shorts.
One of the interesting facts that I found about a modern reference to Linder is in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds. A cinema in the film is having a Max Linder festival, and characters discuss Linder and Charlie Chaplin.
Last month, Harold Lloyd’s The Freshman was screened at our annual Silent Comedy Gala. I thought I’d take a moment to share some trivia about it.
“The more trouble you get a man into, the more comedy you get out of him” – Harold Lloyd
A little bit of trivia:
One of the more interesting things that I read about the film is that the restored version of the film that is now available is actually pieced together from the domestic and international versions of the film. Scenes were filmed in two different ways for each release… so some of what we see know is kind of an alternate version… but I’m sure equally as funny!
It was great fun to see Pete the Pup from the Our Gang shorts in the film!
Another thing that people might not know is that Harold Lloyd lost two fingers on his right hand when a publicity photo shoot went wrong in 1919. Lloyd used to wear a special glove that would hide this fact in his films shot after the accident.
This was Harold Lloyd’s most commercially successful silent feature.
I thought I would end this post with a video from Leonard Maltin sharing some of his Harold Lloyd merchandise – much of which is from The Freshman.
Has it really been five days since the festival ended? Just thought I’d post few links to some reviews and articles that were written about our events!
Please make sure you read a summary of the festival from Festival Director, Chris Daniels, that is available on our homepage. It’s great to read just how much of an audience we’ve reached this year! I spoke to an audience member a few days ago who attended the Gala and had never seen a silent film before in its entirety. She’s taken the festival programme as a guide to investigate more films – what a great thing to happen! I’m sure that’s just a small example of what’s happened over the past week!
Chortle, a comedy news website, wrote about two of our events recently. Barry Cryer’s conversation about Tommy Cooper was one of our events on Sunday, and the article can be found here. They also wrote about things you might not have known about The Young Ones that were discussed in our sold-out event with Alexei Sayle, Nigel Planer, Lise Mayer and Marcus Brigstocke.
Bristol 24/7 has a great write-up about our Chaplin Double Bill. You can read that article here.
Finally, make you you have a read of Paul Joyce’s blog about the Gala!
The festival might be over for this year, but reading these articles is a great way to relive some of those events!
Slapstick Festival will be welcoming one of the country’s greatest living actors, Simon Callow, to Bristol on the 21st January to present his personal tribute to Charlie Chaplin, a man he considers to have been a major influence on his own career.
In the following excerpt from Simon’s autobiography – My Life in Pieces: An Alternative Autobiography by Simon Callow (which can be bought online here) – we get an insight into what to expect from the show, which also features screenings of three of Chaplin’s masterworks; The Vagabond (1916), Easy Street (1917) and The Pawn Shop (1917 ) and features a live musical accompaniment by The European Silent Screen Virtuosi.
“During my lifetime, Charlie Chaplin, that multifaceted genius, more famous in his day than Jesus or the Buddha, has been consistently under-rated, not least by actors who, for the most part, profess themselves scornful of the ostentatiousness of his technical skills, nauseated by his sentimentality, and unamused by his comedy. I have always been bewildered by this view. I was introduced to his work by a grandmother who was addicted to it. In those pre-NFT, pre-video, prehistoric days, we would go all over London to catch them. Sometimes the tiny Clifton cinema on Brixton Hill would be showing a three-reeler alongside a Tartan movie, and the cinema in Waterloo Station was a pretty good bet, too, though you never knew what you might get. Of the feature films, especially the ones in sound, there was very little sight. My dear old grandma, a woman who otherwise betrayed very little sense of humour, would shake with laughter, tears rolling down her cheeks, as she re-enacted the scene in The Gold Rush where Chaplin eats his boot. She had no particular mimetic gifts, but somehow she managed to suggest the incongruous delicacy with which the little tramp addresses his task. When I finally saw the film, it was remarkable how much of it she had been able to convey, which I take to be a great tribute to him: it had made such an extraordinary impact on her. His absolute mastery of his own physical instrument is phenomenal, his expressiveness unparalleled. When, as a very young man, he was appearing with Fred Karno in a theatre in Paris, playing the drunken toff which was his most famous role before he created The Tramp, he was summoned at the interval to a box where he was gravely informed by a stocky bearded man with peculiarly penetrating eyes, `Monsieur Chaplin, vous eles WI artiste.’ It was Debussy.
“Both in conception and execution, Chaplin was in a league of his own. The character of The Tramp is a creation of the highest brilliance. In his great book Chaplin: Last of the clowns, the American critic Parker Tyler identifies the elements — the hat, the walk, the moustache — showing where they came from and how Chaplin assembled them; what is harder to explain is why the strange child—man with his tottering, oscillating walk, his bowler hat and his bendy cane is at the same time so funny and so affecting, or how Chaplin makes of him a universal image of humankind, indestructibly optimistic regardless of the setbacks inflicted on him by a capricious destiny. Where is he from, who is he? He has no name, being known only as The Tramp, though he is scarcely what we think of today as a street person. He has distinct sartorial and social aspirations; he is gallant and fastidious, and is a defenceless victim of Cupid’s dart, endlessly falling unsuitably in love at first sight. But he comprehends nothing of the world. He fails to understand that his adorable moues and dazzling smiles hold no sway against the musclemen and plutocrats to whom the women for whom he falls are attached, nor has he the confidence to assert himself against bullies and figures of authority, or the skills to hold down a job. In love and in work, he is unceremoniously shown the door, ending up over and over again in the gutter. But he always picks himself up, brushing himself down with some elegance, as if he were his own valet, proceeding, generally in the company of someone equally ill-favoured, to the next rejection, the next infatuation, the next dashed dream. Hope springs eternal. It is the inevitable repetition of failure, and the constant witty assertion of dignity, that speaks so deeply to us.
“From the beginning, even before the arrival of The Tramp, Chaplin the writer and director was ceaselessly inventive, and his increasingly ambitious structures take the modern world on board with growing complexity. In City Lights, The Tramp is nearly overwhelmed by the sprawling vastness of the metropolis; in Modern Times, he is literally chewed up and spat out by the great heartless machines he is called on to operate. He scarcely belongs to the world in which he finds himself, but, like a cat or a drunk, he negotiates it with crazy grace, dancing away from danger as the structure disintegrates around him. Politically speaking, Chaplin was a radical populist in the mould of Dickens: instinctively identifying with the disadvantaged, naturally suspicious of the establishment, acutely conscious of the dehumanising effect of organised capital. In the America of the Fifties, this meant that he was a de facto Communist, though he was no such thing.
“It was inevitably difficult for Chaplin to maintain the reckless improvisatory brilliance of his early movies. His projects took longer and longer to gestate and indeed to shoot, with a resultant loss of brio; his reluctant embrace of sound robbed them of some of their expressiveness and led to his adoption of somewhat ponderous narrative procedures. There is scarcely a moment of his own performances within them, however, that is without some touch of genius: in The Great Dictator, Hynkel’s dance with the globe and the barber shaving a customer to Brahms’ Fifth Hungarian Dance, the murderous bigamist’s dazzling prestidigitation as he counts up his ill-gotten gains in Monsieur Verdoux. It is in such moments that the golden legacy of Chaplin’s Music Hall background is at its most evident. Elsewhere characterisation and even mise-en-scene tend to creak; the liberal humanitarian message of the films is spelt out rather too clearly, no doubt. The truth is that Chaplin’s art was perfectly suited to the early cinema, and he exploited it more brilliantly than anyone else had done: the medium and the man were made for each other. Then the medium changed, and nothing that he was able to do, despite all his wealth and power, could stop it in its evolution. The Music Hall, too, had died, leaving him stranded in a different world of expression, a point movingly made in Limelight, which should, by rights, have been his last film.
“No actor and no film-maker can fail to learn from the early, pre-sound films, which, especially when shown with live accompaniment as intended, achieve a kind of perfection and create a kind of exhilaration which later cinema has found hard to match.”
Wow! It’s been a freezing start to January in Bristol. What’s amazing about January? Hopefully, you are reading this post as a festival fan! It’s now less than two weeks until Slapstick Festival 2017! There is such a great line-up of events this year. Make sure to check out the programme!
I thought I’d take the time this week to explore two of our events that are connected: NOTFILM and When Keaton met Beckett. NOTFILM is a documentary exploring the making of the cinematic collaboration of Buster Keaton and Samuel Beckett. The two famously (or infamously) collaborated on FILM, a silent chase film made in the 1960s. Ross Lipman is a film archivist who recently restored FILM, and it was this restoration that inspired him to make his own documentary about the film.
I’ve spent this evening reading a few articles about both films and wanted to share some of the more interesting facts that I’ve found. I’ve not watched either film yet, but I’m hoping to join the audience for what will be a fascinating look at this collaboration. The collaboration appeared to be a rocky one, with both Keaton and Beckett not truly understanding each other. Both events at the festival will provide insight into the work this pair put into the production of FILM. I’ll put the links to the articles at the bottom of this post.
FILM is famous for being Samuel Beckett’s only cinematic work. Buster Keaton was not originally the first choice for the role. Such names as Charlie Chaplin, Jack MacGowran, and Zero Mostel were considered. A great fact regarding this is that Buster Keaton WAS originally approached to perform in the US production of one of Beckett’s most famous plays, Waiting for Godot. Keaton turned it down. The original meeting between Keaton and Beckett regarding the film sounds like it was quite an awkward moment. Beckett was made to wait while Keaton finished an imaginary poker game. Once Beckett was invited in, Keaton only gave one word answers to any questions. Buster Keaton did not appear to be an enthusiastic host.
Leonard Maltin, the famous American film critic and historian, met Buster Keaton on the set of this film when he was 12. Apparently, he crashed the set to meet one of his silent film heroes! One other great bit of trivia is that the cinematographer for FILM, was Boris Kaufman. Kaufman was a cinematographer who worked on On the Waterfront and 12 Angry Men (to name just two). Kaufman was also the younger brother of director Dziga Vertov (Man with a Movie Camera).
NOTFILM, the documentary exploring the making of the film, will be screened at the Watershed on Wednesday the 18th at 11:30. Tickets can be purchased here.
Robin Ince (with special guests) will be presenting a screening of FILM during the event, When Keaton Met Beckett, at Arnolfini on Friday the 20th at 5:40. Tickets for this event can be purchased here.
Two events out of a festival packed full of great ones. It will be such a pleasure to see you at any of the events!
Chris was surprised and delighted when the comedian offered her time for free at short notice. Despite her amazing talent, Chris reported that “she was a comedy legend, but really nice, down-to-earth and humble. She would be incredibly nervous before she had to get on stage, but, as soon as she started, she had the audience in the palm of her hand.”
Victoria Wood, who died from cancer aged just 62 on April 20, hosted the Slapstick Gala in January 2013. She took over as The Gala’s master of ceremonies after Dara O’Briain had to pull out because of an unexpected clash with filming commitments in Africa for Comic Relief.
Graeme Garden, OBE, is a member of The Goodies and co-founder of Stand-Up for Slapstick. He was also a friend of Victoria Wood and worked with her on BBC Radio 4’s I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue. Back in 2013, he reached out to her just weeks before the event and she kindly agreed in an email, saying ‘Oh, go on then!’ Regardless of not having done stand up for years, the short notice and the travel to Bristol, she single-handedly saved the event.
She introduced the Gala of three films taken from the silent era, with stand-up comedy in between.
Chris said Victoria stayed to watch the other acts perform and caught up with her friends and fellow comedians, Graeme and Barry Cryer. He said, “she wrote afterwards to say she had a great time and said it was a ‘jolly festival’. We talked about future plans for the festival, such as talking about her top comedy moments. She just said, ‘who’d be interested in what I’d have to say?’ She really was very modest.”
She returned in 2015 for a celebration of Gloria Swanson, an actress and producer best known for her role as Norma Desmond, a reclusive silent film star in the critically acclaimed 1950 film Sunset Boulevard.
“Only last year she said she loved Julie Walters and would love to work with her again – maybe at the festival celebrating their work together. We had hoped it would take place next January, but sadly it will never be. She was an amazing talent and true professional. She will be greatly missed and my thoughts go out to her friends and family.”
“I feel honoured to have met her. We will always be grateful for that time she came to save the day.”
We are planning to host a show in Victoria Wood’s memory at the Slapstick Festival, which runs from January 19 to 22. The fundraiser, Stand Up For Slapstick, will take place on Sunday, June 12.
Victoria Wood At Colston Hall Hosting Slapstick Festival Gala 5
In Photos: When Victoria Wood Hosted The 2013 Slapstick Festival Gala
Back in 2012 we were thrilled and excited when the one and only Victoria Wood agreed to host our 2013 gala. As expected she hit the ball out of the park, taking on the roll with aplomb, insight, laughs galore and, of course, professionalim. Below are a selection of photos from that evening which we publish in lieu of the news of her passing earlier this week.
Sun 24th Jan | St. George’s | 12:40PM Tickets: £5.00/£7.50/£12.00 Under 12s £6.00
Ben Turpin is one of our finest and most neglected on-screen performers.
With his trademark crossed eyes and thick moustache he made scores of classic slapstick films alongside the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and ‘Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle’, Turpin’s true forte was impersonating the most dashingly romantic and sophisticated stars of the day and turning them into clumsy oafs. Almost forgotten today, in his heyday, he was one of the funniest and most successful slapstick performers in the business. Join Ian Lavender and discover this unique performer, illustrated with two complete Turpin classic shorts plus extracts from his best on-screen moments.
With live piano accompaniment from Stephen Horne. (70mins).
Sun 24th Jan | St. George’s | 2:30PM Tickets: £15.00/£12.00/£6.00 (plus booking fee)
Join us for a classic double bill of Lloyd’s finest onscreen comedy hosted by ‘king of the one liners’ and national treasure Barry Cryer. Harold appears in two of his finest comedy shorts ‘Now or Never’ (US 1921, 35mins) and ‘I Do’ (US 1921, 25mins). In addition Barry will be joined onstage by fellow ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ team mates Jeremy Hardy and Tim Brooke-Taylor who will lead a ‘Kazooalong’ audience accompaniment to two additional animated shorts including a rare Felix the Cat short. A delightful classic silent comedy double bill with a twist of clue. With live musical accompaniment from multi-instrumentalist Stephen Horne.
We’re thrilled to announce that one of the UK’s best loved entertainers, Matt Lucas, is coming to Bristol for a special Slapstick Festival launch event this December to be held in the beautiful St Georges. Matt is famous for his own brand of slapstick comedy, and has starred in a range of comedies from Little Britain, to Shooting Stars, and has appeared in major film productions like Bridesmaids. His own work is known for its light hearted appeal and acerbic social observations.
A former student of Bristol University, Matt Lucas is not only renowned for such hugely successful shows as Shooting Stars, Come Fly with Me and Little Britain, but also for the recent BBC comedy series Pompidou, his homage to ‘silent’ and visual comedy which “aimed to reinvent silent comedy for the twenty-first century”.
Titled Matt Lucas’s Banana Skin On 4th December Matt will be offering an exclusive insight into where he takes inspiration for his own comedy. He’ll be discussing his own career path, with a special guest host, and revealing the work behind his latest release, Pompidou. There will be a Q&A live with the audience afterwards. Matt says “I’m delighted to be invited to open Bristol’s Slapstick Festival. Graeme Garden has been harassing me to come for years and this time I could make it!”
Festival Director Chris Daniels is especially happy to be welcoming Matt to Bristol to help launch the 2016 festival, commenting… “Matt Lucas is a perfect match for Slapstick. Matt’s body of work is full of visual comedy and affectionate references to the silent era films and stars we also cherish, especially Chaplin, Keaton and Laurel and Hardy.”
