Within this short comedy 'Rupture' I learned the true meaning of using everyday objects as comedy, which was a great inspiration for me. All of Pierre Etaix's films are a must see for any movie fan. Currently I am in pre-production for my own physical comedy which Pierre Etaix is a major inspiration, as well as Jacques Tati which I will discuss in the future.
“Life doesn't make any sense, and we all pretend it does. Comedy's job is to point out that it doesn't make sense, and that it doesn't make much difference anyway.”
While writing comedy requires a lot of creative and intuitive thought, it is also very difficult for performers to act out the screenplay, especially if physical action is required and even more so when it comes to physical comedy. The above video is again 'Duck Soup' (1993) which shows the famous mirror scene. If the Marx brothers hadn't repeated this sketch over and over again in there vaudeville days, then this sketch would have taken months of training to perfect. This scene truly shows how so much physical training is required to make people laugh. And the Marx Brothers act out this scene so well, that it is one of the greatest scenes of comedy history.
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die." Mel Brooks
The link above will take you to a website which shows you an early draft of one of the greatest comedies of all time, 'Duck Soup' (1933). When looking at this screenplay, I found out that it is extremely detailed on almost every single movement that the Marx's brothers make within the film. From reading this screenplay, I learnt that to write a physical or slapstick comedy, one must go into agonising detail to describe each individual action, no matter how small. And even though Groucho Marx was, in my opinion, the funniest man that has ever lived, Jack Ruby did right all of his dialogue for this motion picture...
"Humour heightens our sense of survival and preserves our sanity" Charlie Chaplin
