Film Comedy Research Articles

Woman Exploitation in Warkop DKI Poster Film

The research aimed to determine a representation of women in the poster of Warkop DKI comedy film (Dono, Kasino, Indro) in 1980-1989 from a woman point of view. The involvement of women as models in the film poster media was not yet clear in terms of their roles; however, women could be used more as commodities of capitalism to reap profits. In the patriarchal rule, men were assumed to be created as culture-making in the other women were subordinated. The research applied a descriptive qualitative methods by collecting data using documentation techniques. The collected data was reducted, presented, and concluded. Roland Barthes’ semiotic theory was used to analyze poster design elements that contained the exploitation of the female body. The research results find that (1) women in the film poster media are only subordinated to the poster to attract men, potential viewers. (2) Film posters show sexual exploitation and eroticism that is made into a high-selling and quite promising commodification.

La frígida y el donjuán: sexualidad, género y nación en el cine y la cultura popular del tardofranquismo

This paper studies the relationship between gender, sexuality and nation in late Francoist popular culture, exploring and comparing different and conflicting representations of masculinity and femininity. The analysis focuses mostly on how popular film comedy engages with existing sexological discourses disseminated through medical essays or sex manuals. In this sense, attention is particularly paid to filmic representations of marital relations and to the cultural pervasiveness of the figure of the polygamous, lustful, and adulterous macho ibérico. It is contended that sexological discourses expressed concern about a ‘sexual divorce’, which referred to the inability of men and women to function sexually together. At the same time, anxieties were voiced about the so-called female frigidity. This condition was blamed on the sexual ineptitude of Spanish men, which ultimately rested on the primitive and selfish character underlying their national and racial nature. Finally, it is argued that these discourses showcase diverse narratives about gender and nation against the backdrop of a crisis of masculinity.

You Haven’t Seen the Last of Men

The Full Monty (Peter Cattaneo, 1997) is much acclaimed as a comedy film. Yet, its screenplay is based on a serious context, contemporary of its shooting—the industrial crisis in the North of England—and deals with its societal effects—a major shift in gender roles and patterns. The real achievement of the male characters is that they resolve gender conflicts adopting cultural practices traditionally reserved for women, asserting their masculinity while posing as sex objects. At a time when men–women relationships are at the heart of debates in the Western World, this article seeks to demonstrate that the movie has a quasi-universal dimension by suggesting that, rather than a reversal of gender roles, a new kind of balance can emerge, with all its attendant “contradictions.”

A Rose by Any Other Name May Smell Different

Using William Shakespeare’s name is considered helpful for marketing films in English-speaking regions because of the authority that this name wields. This article reveals a different marketing landscape in Japan, where film distribution companies are indifferent to associations with Shakespeare. For example, when Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus (2011) was released in Japanese cinemas, it was retitled The Proof of the Hero; the Shakespearean association was deliberately erased from the Japanese title. Such a marketing policy should be situated within a wider trend of promoting non-Japanese films in Japan. It is possible to point out three major reasons: the unpopularity of American comedy films, the relative unpopularity of theatre, and Japanese distributors’ heavily localised marketing policies, which are often criticised by fans on social media.

The Feel-Good Film

In film criticism, “feel-good films” are widely dismissed as intellectually undemanding and sentimental entertainment. This study identifies key characteristics, emotional effects, and aesthetic qualities of feel-good films from the audience’s perspective. Although the feel-good film does not appear to be a genre in its own right, it is more than just a rather vague category. Romantic comedy films with a substantial share of drama are shown to be the most prototypical feel-good genre blend. Fairy-tale likeness and perceived lightness were indicated as key characteristics of these films. Yet for all their focus on happiness and relaxation, the emotional trajectories also involve serious conflicts and are experienced as profoundly moving. Moreover, preferences for feel-good films differ greatly, depending on gender and age.

Nilo Couret, Mock Classicism: Latin American Film Comedy, 1930–1960.

With its striking cover image of famed Argentine comic Luis Sandrini, Nilo Couret’s Mock Classicism: Latin American Film Comedy 1930–1960 may appear simply to be a new addition, albeit it a theoretically sophisticated one, to the existing literature on Latin American stardom. But such surface impressions belie Couret’s more substantive project of mobilizing the star discourses surrounding Sandrini, his fellow Argentine comic Niní Marshall, and Mexico’s legendary Cantinflas in order to question the problematic conceptualization of Latin American film history, especially its marginalization of popular film comedy within the limiting discourse of national cinema. Couret proposes an alternative approach that reframes the comedy genre around affect studies, in which the nature of spectator engagement becomes central. Discarding the conventional organization of film histories, a point reflected in the volume’s title as it relegates historical, geographical and genre concerns to a subtitle, Couret highlights instead what he calls ‘mock classicism’. ‘Mock’ here is used as both an adjective to depict the result of comedic assaults on the Hollywood style, but also as a verb to describe the visual and aural weakening of the self-contained illusion of Hollywood’s narrative mode through the comic actor’s disruption of the onscreen illusion. Couret’s goal is to demonstrate how, through specific comedic practices associated with these three star discourses, Latin American film comedies produce a classical mode of spectatorship different from the classicism figured by Hollywood.

Parody film as a postmodernist deconstruction in cinematography

Lately, the research of Parody film as a part of film discourse have reached its peak in the history and philosophy of science. The polycode essence of the concept of film discourse prompts changes and modifications in the interpretation of Parody film. Therefore, the subject of this analysis is Parody film. The goal of this research consists in examination of the peculiarities, meaning, and role of the concept of “parody film”, which is a creative work intended to ridicule the plot through satirical or ironic imitation. Research methodology is based on the method of analytical study of sources for clarification of the logic and content of the concepts of “parody”, “parody film”, and “film discourse”, as well for revealing the essence of parody film as a postmodernist deconstruction in cinematography. The article also employs the methods of comparative analysis and the concept of local cultures. The scientific novelty of this research consists in systematization of the existing knowledge on parody film in the light of film discourse, which being the phenomenon at the intersection of multiple disciplines is in the epicenter of scientific inquiries in linguistics, literary studies, sociolinguistics, philosophy of semiotics and film semiotics, critical discourse analysis, and theory of cinematography. The theoretical importance lies in characterization of the concepts of “parody”, “parody film”, “comedy”, “comedy film” in the context of modern knowledge of moviemaking and cinematography. The acquired results give a better perspective on the role of parody film in art and life of the society. The Interpreters fight for cinema, on the one hand adoring it as the art with unlimited capabilities, while on the other – neglecting the fact that it should need the unpretentious demands of the audience. The author claims that in a broad context, the parody film of the XXI century is not aimed at parodying a literary text. The filmmakers rather consider and use parody film as a means for drawing attention of various life circumstances.

‘I’m not a Muslim. In fact, my name is Katie.’: Muslim-drag in the C4 documentary My Week as a Muslim

ABSTRACT In the UK Channel 4 documentary, My Week As a Muslim, an English, white woman named Katie donned a hijab, a prosthetic nose and copious amounts of brown foundation to disguise herself as a Pakistani Muslim so that she could spend a week experiencing Muslim culture and appreciate her position of white privilege. Although My Week as a Muslim was attempting to challenge many of the dominant stereotypes of Muslim women found in much of Western media, it was highly problematic in the way the entire experiment echoed the narrative conventions of cross-dressing comedy films. The documentary concluded with a final ‘reveal’ sequence where Katie removed her hijab, prosthetic nose and wiped off brown make-up to show her new Muslim friends that she merely had been performing Muslim-ness for the past week. Not only did this reinforce misconceptions that there are significant differences between British people and Islam (Katie could only pass as Muslim through the use of prosthetics and elaborate make-up) but the ‘hilarious’ reveal of the cross-dressing narrative also suggested the superiority of the Muslim-drag performer in comparison to the foolish people who were deceived by the act.

Notes toward an untimely Soviet comedy: Eisenstein’s MMM

ABSTRACT Between 1932 and 1933, in the context of a new mandate for cheerfulness in Soviet cinema, Sergei Eisenstein, recently returned from a frustrating sojourn abroad, undertook an exercise in genre: the beguilingly titled comedy MMM. The project, which was never completed, has been almost completely overlooked in studies of the director’s works. Against this tendency of Eisenstein scholarship, this paper presents MMM as a serious and highly developed experiment in genre, using archival material – including notes, screenplays, director’s scripts and drawings – to read the work as an expression of Eisenstein’s cinematic process at its most formally inventive and ideologically intricate. The script, composed entirely in verse, is the director’s only fully-conceived attempt at film comedy. It follows a sprawling series of incongruous historical encounters as visitors from medieval Rus’ materialise in contemporary Moscow. The absurd fantasia that ensues is not only Eisenstein’s attempt to probe an increasingly ideologically unstable Soviet reality, but is also his occasion to explore, through self-reflexive comedic techniques, the nature and limits of the cinematic medium, as well as the theoretical question of the mutability of static form and the implications of this conundrum for character, narrative and genre.

The Elegant Beast: Kawashima Yūzō's modernist stage

ABSTRACT The Elegant Beast (Shitoyakana kedamono, 1962), is a post-war satire directed by Kawashima Yūzō (1818–1963) that aims criticism towards post-war modernity represented by a struggling middle-class family dealing with the transformation of Japanese urban life in the late 1950s and early ‘60s. This essay analyses the modernist cinematic aesthetics of the film and introduces the common themes of nihilism and a subversive tendency that Kawashima Yūzō persisted with since starting out with his programme picture comedy films. I contend that The Elegant Beast demonstrates Kawashima’s position as a leading precursor to the modernist cinema of the 1960s, for his engagement with associated themes of modernism such as nihilism, a subversive tendency in the Bakhtinian carnivalesque tradition, and a self-reflexivity. I further suggest that in The Elegant Beast, Kawashima explores the possibility of a theory of film through the practice of film.

Defiant Denial is Self-Defeating

In what is arguably one of the most iconic scenes of the comedy film “The Naked Gun”, police lieutenant Frank Drebin confronts his antagonist Vincent Ludwig on top of the stands in a baseball stadi...

From Sufism to communism: incarnations of the Uyghur song ‘Imam Hüsäynim’

ABSTRACT ‘Imam Hüsäynim’, a traditional song about the martyrdom of the Shi’a Imam Husayn ibn Ali, has been popular among the Uyghur Sufis in Khotan, an oasis town in Xinjiang, or Chinese Central Asia. People perform it in the dastan epic, mäshräp gathering, and localized samāʿ ritual. The categorization of these repertoires is based not only on musical styles but also on religious meanings, which makes ‘Imam Hüsäynim’ a song that can be used across repertoires. Although the song is about a Shi’a Imam, the Uyghur people, who are dominantly Sunni Muslims, do not associate it with Shi’a Islam but receive it as a song about the history of Islam in general. Outside the Sufi community, the song’s melody has been adapted as the theme song of a comedy film and a propaganda song to promote a county’s image. These incarnations of the song have lost the meaning of ‘Imam Hüsäynim’ because of radical changes of its text and context. Why has this particular melody been appropriated in these various ways, and what are the dynamics among its different versions and incarnations? Based on ethnographic research in Khotan and relevant ethnomusicological literature, this article will discuss the factors that determine the meanings of ‘Imam Hüsäynim’ and its incarnations, and the broader issue of repertoire crossover.

The name of a comedy film in the aspect of linguistic creativity

The article aims to identify the specific features for forming the name of a comedy film from the point of view of linguistic creativity. The research is based on 30 British comedy films, which were released between the 1960s and 2010s. Five highly rated films were selected from each decade. The developed algorithm for analysis includes several steps which makes it possible to sequentially study the following aspects, in terms of linguistic creativity, that are critical for specific features in the formation of comedy films’ names: 1) source of the name, 2) structure of the name and 3) correlation between the name and the whole verbal structure of a comedy film. It was found that the degree of structurally semantic modifications of a film name’s initial source presupposes a film name’s creative potential. The influence of comedy film names’ creative potential on the choice of certain expressive means for constructing and developing the plot line of a comedy film was also determined. Data obtained in the study indicates that a film name can produce a certain multitude of verbal components, which are pivotal to the whole language structure of a comedy film. Moreover, the quantity of verbal components, ‘produced’ by a comedy film name, allows one to judge its linguo-creative possibilities.

Antisemitism in Film Comedy in Nazi Germany by Valerie Weinstein

Antisemitism in Film Comedy in Nazi Germany by Valerie Weinstein

Chaplin, Keaton, and the Marx Brothers: Film Comedy as the Collaboration of Camera, Narrative, and The Viewer

Chaplin, Keaton, and the Marx Brothers: Film Comedy as the Collaboration of Camera, Narrative, and The Viewer

Terrorist-Turned-Entrepreneur: Basque Masculinities in Fe de etarras

This essay examines representations of masculinity in Fe de etarras (2017), a dark comedy film directed by Borja Cobeaga and written by Cobeaga and Diego San José. This film is groundbreaking in its comedic treatment of the Basque separatist terrorist organization ETA, which permanently dissolved five months after the film's release. This essay situates the film in the context of ETA's disbandment, a turning point in Basque-Spanish relations and Basque cultural production, as well as during Spain's ongoing economic and political crises. Fe de etarras serves as an example of how Spain's post-ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasuna [Basque Homeland and Freedom]) recessionary culture envisions economic recovery and unification as hinging on a particular masculine ideal. By tracing the protagonist's redemptive arc from ETA terrorist to Madrid-based business owner, this essay shows how the film promotes entrepreneurial Basque masculinity while disposing of the competing warrior ideal that has died out with ETA. In Fe de etarras, the conversion of the obsolete, terrorist holdout into entrepreneur is key to Spain's recovery. This essay links the film's conservative gender politics to its limited reimagining of Basque identity, contending that the film exemplifies how commercial cultural products preserve the status quo during moments of transition.

Editor's Introduction

Editor's Introduction Catherine Chatterley In this issue, we launch our first Scholars Forum. The Forum will be a section of an issue that brings together a group of leading experts in a sub-field of antisemitism research to discuss an important new book, a controversy, or a specific question. The subject of our first Forum is Madga Teter's new book, Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth (Harvard, 2020), a historical study based on printed and archival sources in 10 languages from eight countries over a period of eight centuries. The participants are leading experts on the subject of ritual murder accusations across Europe from the Middle Ages to the modern period: Elissa Bemporad, Hillel Kieval, Miri Rubin, Paola Tartakoff, Magda Teter, and Robert Weinberg. Our first article is a fascinating new study of Ingrid Rimland by Ben Goossen. Rimland was the wife of Ernst zündel and the founder of his Holocaust denial website in California (zundelsite.org). Goossen explores her life and work as a writer of popular Mennonite historical fiction, including her childhood in Nazioccupied Ukraine and her working relationship with several leading Mennonite intellectuals, before explaining her embrace of neo-Nazism and turn toward Holocaust denial and antisemitism. Samuel Ghiles-Meilhac's article on Houria Bouteldja and the Indigènes de la République provides readers with an intelligent appraisal of the Algerian-born French activist and the political group she founded in 2005. The article traces the history of this activist group and analyzes their public interventions and commentary on subjects concerning Jews including antisemitism, the Holocaust, zionism, Israel and Palestine, and terrorist attacks against Jews in France. Of particular interest is the Indigènes' concept of "state philosemitism," a term they coined to describe the French government's supposed privileged treatment of Jews resulting in the supposed special attention given to antisemitism above other forms [End Page 231] of racism in French public life. Likewise, Jews are accused by the Indigènes of being instruments of the French state and of European racist imperialism in general, and are told to reject their "false whiteness," which includes both zionism and their assimilated French identity. Finally, Philip Spencer provides readers with his reflections on the work of Robert Fine, who passed away in 2018. The focus of the article is on the problem of antisemitism on the Left and how Robert understood its development and persistence. Having worked closely with Fine for many years, Spencer is the perfect interpreter of Fine's work and the major intellectual influences on his thinking (Marx, Arendt, and Habermas). Robert Fine was dedicated to the concept of universalism and worked within the intellectual universe of the Left to try to provide a critique of, and an alternative to, its "self-inflicted failures." This issue's wide-ranging book reviews include a study of antisemitism in the comedy films of Nazi Germany, of the early roots of racism (including its antisemitic variant) in medieval society, an analysis of post-Vatican II Catholic doctrines on the Jewish people, a critical examination of Holocaust memorialization in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, a history of an American blood libel story in 1928 Massena, New York, and new biographies of zygmunt Bauman and Theodor Herzl. Sadly, antisemitism research has lost another two important senior scholars: Richard Levy (1940–June 23, 2021) and Manfred Gerstenfeld (1937–February 25, 2021). Richard will be missed by this editor as he was a very generous and helpful member of our advisory board. As always, I thank our authors, book reviewers, and expert readers for sharing their talent, expertise, and generosity with this publication. [End Page 232] Catherine Chatterley Founding Editor-in-Chief Copyright © 2021 Canadian Institute for the Study of Antisemitism

Прецедентные феномены в британских кинокомедиях: воспроизводимость и лингвокреативный потенциал

Прецедентные феномены в британских кинокомедиях: воспроизводимость и лингвокреативный потенциал

ЛІНГВОКУЛЬТУРНІ ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ІРЛАНДСЬКОГО СЛЕНГУ ТА ЇХ ЗБЕРЕЖЕННЯ У ПЕРЕКЛАДІ

The article presents the results of the linguocultural theory that is one of the most actively developing areas of linguistics. It is caused by the fact that modern linguistics contains a significant amount of material concerning cultural concepts and linguistic personality. The notion of linguistic and cultural type is considered a recognizable image of a particular culture’s representative, the totality of which is the culture of a society. The study is based on an analysis of the Irish linguistic and cultural types of the famous film “The Stag” - the debut film comedy directed by John Butler, as well as the novel of Patrick McCabe – “A Dead School”. At the heart of the story is a conflict between two characters, Raphael Bell and Melaki Dagen, who, in a worldview and generational way, reflect the clash of two different models of Ireland perception. The study found that the self-esteem of Irish drinkers and everything related to drinking is widely circulated in modern society. Therefore, the topic of drinking, and often even alcoholism, is perceived as specifically Irish.Particular attention was paid to the existence of slang in the Hiberno-English language. The survey called “Usage of Irish slang” was conducted and analyzed. The survey involved 76 respondents of all ages who replied to messages on the social network Facebook. It was also found that due to slang, a completely new form of communication emerged – netspeak, which combines both oral and written forms of communication. Based on the survey and experiment mentioned earlier, there were managed different types of slang: general slang and special slang.

Comedy Films of Malaysian Studio Era: A Social Culture Criticism

Comedy Films of Malaysian Studio Era: A Social Culture Criticism