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Black Comedy is becoming easier to discern.Mar 13 '01 (Updated Mar 20 '01) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line As we destroy the environment, become enslaved to our jobs, spend our money on quickly obsolete gadgets, question our institutions, lose all belief, Black Comedy drives out other humor. Black Comedy, or Black Humor as it is sometimes called, provides us one of the least appreciated, most individual, often influential forms of Motion Pictures. Perhaps the Black Comedy which had the greatest impact Worldwide was DR. STRANGELOVE (1964); the one that haunts us most in Post Cold War Society is CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971). Both films were directed by Stanley Kubrick. Hundreds of examples exist, however. But what is Black Comedy? First of all, it has nothing to do necessarily with Race or Racism -- although African-American directors like Spike Lee have created excellent examples of the genre: e.g., DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) or SUMMER OF SAM (1999). The actual category, I admit, does seem to be made for the experience of many People of Color in American Society. But so, again, what is Black Comedy? It is a form of satire which takes our expectations about a person, a group, a subject, an event, and turns those expectations harshly upside down, especially when they deal with neurosis, insanity, death, murder and sex perversion; conversely when they deal with love, marriage, childhood, the family, patriotism, heroism and any number of Society's Sacred Cows. Black Comedy bares aspects of those subjects that we deny or hold on to for dear existence. It is best defined, perhaps, by illustration. For instance, take a mild subject for the construction of a black comedy, Neurosis, a term which seems now rather old fashioned. In the 1920's and 1930's, as I may have observed previously, many works of art dealt with this popular subject for Freudian analysis. By definition, certain individuals lost their ability to act, and simply -- miserably -- they began to display repetitious, rat-like behavior. (Franz Kafka, continuously dealing with neuroticism, comes to mind as a Father of Black Comedy, even if few of us find him very funny.) In the Motion Pictures of those earlier times, Charlie Chaplin displayed the beginnings of Black Comedy in endless examples of neurotic behavior, triumphing over his problems for our amusement in his short subjects, in THE GOLD RUSH (1925), in MODERN TIMES (1936), etc. These early Chaplin films tended to sprinkle into his dark view the star dust of a happy ending (which may vitiate them in their being designated Black Comedy). The Coen Brothers, however, provide many undoubted modern examples of Black Comedy, such as RAISING ARIZONA (1987), FARGO (1998), etc, including neurotic BARTON FINK (1991), played by John Turturro, a paranoid and self-important New York playwright, who enters the rat race of Hollywood (and is eaten alive). [So little is done with Neuroticism these days, I suspect, because in the modern Global Economy, it is a given that most of us are "neurotic." No possibility of curing the disorder is any longer offered, and we must just get on with our lives as best we can. Hence, the term "neurotic," spoken on every college campus and psychiatrist's couch as late as the 1960's, has fallen into virtual disuse.] Let's take that extra step, to Insanity. Unfortunately, mental illness has always been a butt for comedy, indeed of much nervous hilarity. But the use of insanity in Black Comedy is often different. The idea here is that, in our crazy World, the Insane, rather than being "our" inferiors, may be the ones who make the most sense. James Whale's THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932) is sometimes listed as an early instance of this interpretation, and indeed, the wayward characters who gather under the roof of a fearful English autocrat illustrate the principle to some degree, but I am not completely convinced. THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), scarcely recognized for its comic charms upon release, offers a better example. Who is more fiendish, more insane? The Monster and his skittish Lady? or Drs. Frankenstein and Pretorius? As we sit on the cusp of Human cloning, the answer is obvious. The year 1944 brought us, by way of Broadway, the movie ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (Capra), with its references to movie monsters, introduction of euthanasia, and a perfectly sensible a pair of maiden aunts. Why should old bachelors or widowers or -- I'm not sure if people divorced in 1944 (lol) -- why should they live in lonely misery, when a glass of spiked Elderberry wine could dispatch them to Paradise? Such therapy seemed only a just and hospitable act to prim, kind (and crazy) gentle ladies. Though not a favorite of mine, possibly the most popular cinematic instance of Black Comedy and mental cases literally showing their superiority to the establishment remains ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (Forman, 1975). Based on a play adapted from Ken Kesey's novel, sane(?) Randal McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) inspires the patients of a mental hospital to rebel. A better film on the subject, in my opinion, is Peter Brook's MARAT/SADE (1966), set in a mental institution of Revolutionary France. The theme seems to be, Give an inch, lose a foot. An earlier entry, French Director Philippe de Broca' THE KING OF HEARTS (also 1966), has a Scots Highlander (Alan Bates) wandering into a French town destroyed by artillery in World War I. He finds inmates from a local asylum have taken it over; they judge nothing very nuts about what is going on around them. My favorite of black comedy on the subject of insanity is THE RULING CLASS, Peter Medak's brilliant 1971 satire of the British Establishment. The Second Earl of Gurney (Peter O'Toole) secretly cannot decide whether he is Jesus Christ or Jack the Ripper, while all those around him, and the society at large, kowtow and pay great respect to his actions and pronouncements. Then, let's try Death. One of the early Black Comedies, albeit a romantic one, on that subject is DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY (Leisen, 1934). The title character, Death (William Powell), declares a moratorium in order to figure out what motivates Human Beings. He discovers love. The great Ingmar Bergman reached a similar conclusion in his very dark (but curiously amusing) medieval parable, THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957), a true masterpiece of Black Humor. Tony Richardson, using Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood's adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel, satirized the denial and idealization of death in Hollywood, and the American Funeral Industry generally, in THE LOVED ONE (1965). A few critics at the time found the film wanting, but I've always thought it surreally and darkly humorous. Hollywood tends to treat Death himself with considerable deference. Hence: OUTWARD BOUND (Milton, 1930), ON BORROWED TIME (Bucquet, 1939), HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (Hall, 1941), BETWEEN TWO WORLDS (Blatt, 1944). Death is often an English gentleman (like Claude Rains). Some would call these Black Comedies, but to my mind they are too obsequious, and most of them lack the essential bite. And that brings us to Murder. Not surprisingly in a way, there are hundreds of examples of this subject in Black Humor. My favorite is KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS (HAMER, 1949), about Ascoyne Dascoine (Dennis Price), who ingeniously murders half a dozen relatives standing between him and a baronetcy, acquiring a wife and mistress in the bargain. The film has the additional advantage that Alec Guiness plays all the other Dascoines. A related black comedy that combined the need for revenge-murder with a whodunit was AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (Clair, 1945), adapted from Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians (a title already undergone one change, which may require another). An unrecognized little sleeper on the subject of murder is Malcom Mowbray's OUT COLD (1989). John Lithgow, Terri Garr and Randy Quaid get Terri's husband mixed up with the frozen meat, and complications ensue. Finally, murder as Black Comedy would not be complete without Chaplin's next to last great film, the 1947 MONSIEUR VERDOUX (suggested by an idea from Orson Welles). Based on the life of Landru, a Frenchman who married and murdered widows for their money after World War I, Verdoux maintains that he has been just a small capitalist, making a little money in the same way the munitions makers made immense profits off the murders of the women's husbands in World War I. Avoiding the gamier titles in the area of "sex perversion," let us turn to Crazy Ken Russell, whose films were black comedies, even when sometimes he didn't think so himself. Two of his later works should suffice: 1) CRIMES OF PASSION involves the weak fleshed efforts of a city street missionary (Anthony Perkins) to avoid Satan in the form of a gorgeous prostitute (Kathleen Turner). 2) SALOME'S LAST DANCE makes onyx-dark comedic points about British Victorian (and today's?) society by having Oscar Wilde attend an amateur production of his banned play Salome, staged in a brothel by friends (particularly his disastrous boyfriend Lord Douglas) and the employees. Set in Biblical times, the play involves, among other matters, King Herod's lust for his teen age step-daughter Salome, and her desire to kiss John the Baptist on the lips in any way she can manage it. The positive subjects for Black Comedy soon become less recognizable. Thus, THE ADDAMS FAMILY and ADDAMS FAMILY VALUES (Sonnenfeld, 1991 and 1993) are gently dark takes on Cartoonist Charles Addams' twisted parodies of the nuclear family. Young love turns dark in PRETTY POISON (Black, 1968) when Anthony Perkins (again!) and nubile Tuesday Weld set each other aflame. (And we must not forget Oliver Stone's widely misunderstood NATURAL BORN KILLERS [1994] on the subject of young love.) Patrick Dempsey finds love problems of a different kind with SOME GIRLS (Hoffman, 1988) while Don Johnson eventually learns to accept his pet instead of apocalyptic love and underground small town life in L.Q. Jones' Sci-Fi fantasy A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975). Best of all, possibly, love and age are united in an unlikely way by the marvelous HAROLD AND MAUDE (Ashby, 1972). Then, the wholesome subject of dinner comes into question, bizarrely, in Paul Bartel's EATING RAOUL (1982). (You are what you eat?). And that master of Black Humor, Peter Greenaway, combines love, dinner and revenge in THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER. None of those subjects will ever be quite the same after you see the films. They are not for viewers with weak stomachs. Stanley Kubrick, a more careful genius, was essentially a Black Ironist, obsessed by the hypocrisy of American Society, so much so that he lived most of his life in Britain, where he might be safe, maintain control and keep his outlook fresh. His first big personal film there, LOLITA (1962), essayed the subject of innocence corrupted, utilizing Vladimir Nabokov's famous novel. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) satirized our love (to the death) for order and machismo. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) laughed coolly at our scientific aspirations and feelings of Human Superiority. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971), though set in Britain, predicted a nightmare world of masses of modern youth whose boredom, and feelings of uselessness, moves them to find humor in the vicious. (We in America are just catching up to the punch line of this one.) And in FULL METAL JACKET he sent up our traditions of Patriotism, Heroism and Military Discipline. You want other kinds of Black Comedy? Name a subject: Perils of Courtship: THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (Hiller, 1964). James Garner becomes involved with Julie Andrews, complicating a Navy brass plan to make him the first casualty in the Invasion of Normandy. Marriage Itself: HOW TO MURDER YOUR WIFE (Quine, 1965). Jack Lemmon marries the beautiful Italian Virna Lisi. Sobers up and spends the rest of the movie trying to get rid of her. Heroism: CATCH 22 (Nichols, 1970). A marvelous cast (Alan Arkin, et al) half way succeed in realizing on film Joseph Heller's great puzzlement of a novel about that part of the human condition which is War. Celebrity: MYSTERY TRAIN (Jarmisch, 1989). My favorite of a score of Jim Jarmisch black comedies brings a number of pilgrims to Memphis, Tennessee, home of our new god: Elvis Presley. Three ironic tales happening simultaneously are told serially. Medicine: THE HOSPITAL (Hiller, 1971). Paddy Chayevsky questions the institution at a time when hospitals and the people who staffed them were considered sacrosanct. The Western: THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN. Forget the brave hero in this saturnine comic film about the warden of a western prison who tracks down a group of escapees ("led" by Kirk Douglas). There, those will get you started. Many of our great directors have used Black Humor as a condiment, not a main course. We find it, for instance, in the paradoxical relationship of Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and her hack screen writer paramour (William Holden) in Billy Wilder's SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950), generally a grim indictment of Hollywood. And it is scattered throughout Alfred Hitchcock's swart examination of a boy's relationship with Mom and The Girl: PSYCHO (1960). John Huston makes it a dessert of uncontrollable laughter at the end of THE TREASURE OF SIERRA MADRE (1948), when prospectors Howard (Walter Huston) and Curtin (Tim Holt) discover bandits who dogged them have discarded the gold dust, thinking it worthless sand! Black Comedy or Humor is becoming more and more popular, as most of our traditions and institutions grow vulnerable, as our Nation and the World becomes more unlivable. Try to get beyond shallow, trivial vulgar comedies like the SCREAM's to the real thing. Next time, a disturbingly honest film seems to turn the lives of its characters humorously livid, consider that you may have found a Black Comedy .  |
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