Transcript Silent Comedy Series: Mr. Bean

Are silent films more artistic
and less mechanical as
compared to today’s action
films?
Engl 332
N. Langah
Silent Film
 Has no accompanying, synchronized recorded
spoken dialogue
 Invented 1860
 Silent film era is referred as ‘Age of the Silver Screen’
 Sound film began in late 1920s
Characteristics of a Silent Film
 emphasis on body language and facial expressions
 silent comedies are more popular due to natural comedy
What makes film ‘unreal’ or mechanical
production of art? (particularly sound film)
Arnheim’s theory:
 Accessories used in film: Camera equipment, staff,
lighting machinery create superficiality
 The scenes are illusionary
 Editing cuts out the originality
 Shooting from one angle and linking it with another
 The difference between a cameraman and a painter can
somewhat be compared with the role of a magician and
a doctor. The painter maintains distance from reality
while the cameraman plunges into and distorts reality
Silent films
 Is silent film a dumb pantomime (farce, drama)?
 Can speech be shown in a silent way?
 Why did we never miss the sound of walking feet,
rustling leaves, ticking of a clock, or fragrance of flowers
from silent films?
 How was revolver shot filmed in a silent movie?
 Artistic effects in films were also produced in a silent
film. For instance how did Charlie Chaplin or Mr. Bean
create the emotions of love, happiness or sadness in
their films?
Silent films
 In a silent film, lips are no longer word forming physical
organs but only visual expressions
 How is laughter, excitement, sadness portrayed in a
silent film?
 The absence of a spoken word concentrate the
spectator’s attention more closely on the visible aspects
of behaviour
 This changed when cinematographic techniques began
to be applied on films. Everyday things were portrayed
as ‘real’. For instance, a train moving towards the
audience.
Intro to Mr. Bean
 British TV series broadcasted in 1990
 Lead role Rowan Atkinson
 Based on a character developed by Atkinson in Oxford
university in 1980s ‘Child in a grown man’s body’
(Atkinson)
 He performed in front of French audience to see what
would be the respond to the silent character
Intro to Mr. Bean
 Mr. Bean lives in North London
 He is employed in a national art gallery in London as a
guard
 Comedy is created through his efforts of problem solving
and finding solutions to these problems as he performs
everyday activities
Characters:
 Mr. Bean
 Car
 Teddy
 Irma Gob
 Scrapper the one eyed cat
Mid term
 Compare and contrast the ‘artistic effect’ created
through silent and sound comedy films. Refer to
Arnhiem’s chapter discussed this week and challenge or
support his theory of film and reality through your
analysis.
Sources
 Rudolf Arnheim, From ‘Film as Art’ Film and Reality,
pages 322-331
 Walter Benjamin, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Production’ pages. 791-811
 http://www.mrbean.co.uk/uk/
 http://www.silentcomedians.com/
 http://www.silentclown.com/about-donimo.htm
 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066070/plotsummary