Slapstick Comedy and Silent Films Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Slapstick Comedy and Silent Films - Essay ExampleBesides, enactment, the films excessively displayed certain captions which informed the audience about the theme of the film. The speedy actions enhanced the humor in the film. The actors who visualised various characters were mostly shabbily or unconventionally dressed. Their funny attire supplemented by their clown corresponding actions aroused laughter among the audiences. Thus the humourous comedies consisted of absurd situations and vigorous actions, which had a comic tone and were performed by those actors who were highly energetic and good stuntmen. We find a detailed account on the comparative subscribe to of humorous comedy and Commedia dell artistrye in the book of David Madden, namely, -Harlequins stick, Charlies cane a comparative study of commedia dellarte and silent slapstick comedy. In his book, he gives the discrimination between the two art forms. Commedia dellarte was performed directly in front of the audience, whereas the slapstick comedy was presented in an indirect form that is it was projected on the screen. The commedia plays were mostly for three hours whereas slapstick comedies were relatively briefer. In commedia the actors were donned in masks and there was continuous verbal dexterity, slapstick noise, music and color, while the silent movies were guiltless of sound and color as the films were Black and White. The commedia was not video graphed whereas the slapstick was video graphed and projected on the screen. (Harlequins Stick, Charlies Cane - David Madden, 1968)Actors like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd were considered the milestones in the world of silent celluloid. Their powerful performances spell bounded... The researcher of this try on focuses mostly on presenting and discussing the slapstick comedies, that is a device in which, the characters have exaggerated and speedy animal(prenominal) activities backed up by accurate timing. They do this mainly to make people understand what figure of character they are portraying in that film. More emphasis is given on speed of actions and facial nerve expressions. For example, the researcher states that in slapstick comedies we find scenes like a person slipping on the bare of banana skin, somebody hitting a person with frying pan, a person hitting his headspring against a suddenly opened door, etc. The central character enacts certain scene, which seems to be normal ab initio but suddenly the situation becomes chaotic, with all the characters running helter-skelter creating confusion. And it is during this time that the actor has to show armorial bearing of mind and has to take some action, which will make the audience laugh and also he has to do something brilliant to come out of that chaotic situation. The actor performs all sorts of actions like leaping, running, tumbling down etc. And for all these purposes he uses props like buckets, shovel, ladder, sea-saw, sticks, roller s kates etc., which generates comedy. The researcher then presents a study on the silent films actors of early 20th century, such as Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, who were considered the milestones in the world of silent cinema and used the slapstick comedy in their films in a creative way that made their art memorable.