[Sarai Newsletter]May 2002

[dak at sarai.net]

Table of Contents


I.New at Sarai website
II.Filmcomedy at Sarai: The Marx Brothers



I. New @ Sarai website

Digital artworks and essays on internet culture and cinema theory are 
new at www.sarai.net. 


i. 	Dilliwale kaun/ Baharwale kaun
	digital artwork by Syeda Farhana 
	A result of Syeda Farhana's residency at Sarai last winter, Dilliwale 
Kaun/ 	Baharwale Kaun consists of photographic & textual 	narratives 
on the theme of "The Outsider". Also available at the Sarai Interface 
Zone.
	www.sarai.net/compositions/image/farhana/Html/index.htm
	

ii. 	ARTificial ART: lines
	digital artwork by Kurt Baumann
	Baumann graphically interprets the word 'sarai'
	www.sarai.net/compositions/image/kurt_baumann/kurt0.htm


iii. 	SEXWORKS|NETWORKS []
	What do people get out of Internet porn?
	an essay by Rana Dasgupta
	http://www.sarai.net/compositions/texts/works/rana.htm


iv.	Another History Rises to the Surface: 
	Melodrama Theory and Digital Simulation in 'Hey Ram' (Kamalahasan, 
1999) 
	an essay by Ravi Vasudevan
	http://www.sarai.net/mediacity/filmcity/essays/heyram.htm




II. filmcomedy at sarai: The Marx Brothers

All screenings are on Fridays at 4:30pm, Seminar Room, Centre for the 
Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi - 110054. 
The films are listed in the order of screening.


During these hard summer months, and in an environment rife with the 
darkness of politics and the cruelty of our society, Sarai choses to 
showcase a cinema of irreverence, anarchy, or, as the Japanese would 
call it, nansensu. Perhaps the sheer exuberance of the Marx brothers 
debunking of authority, politics and a respectable society will 
provide some respite and a salutary release from the horrors of our 
contemporary situation. In any case, we don't need to justify this 
month's film series at Sarai, a tribute to the Marx brothers, Groucho, 
Harpo and Chico, the surreal triumvirate of bad taste, nonsensical 
repartee, and, in Harpo, the magician of silent performance and of the 
manic visual pun. Imagine Johnny Lever multiplied by three so that he 
overwhelms a Hindi film story, reducing romance, heroism and morality 
to sideshow items, and you'll know what's in store for you this month. 

`Like Chaplin and Keaton, the Marx Brothers came out of a background 
of poverty and a childhood on the vaudeville circuit, which may or may 
not say something about the origins necessary to become a great 
comedian. But while Chaplin and Keaton rose high above their 
vaudeville music-hall backgrounds, recasting themselves as great mime 
artists, the Marx Brothers, if anything, reduced vaudeville slapstick 
to its most debased level. In other words, they revelled in their 
vulgarity. Rather than try to rise above it and elevate themselves to 
artistry, they took lowbrowism and shamelessly pushed it to extremes. 
They were neither poised nor poetic, not sublime or mystical, not 
skilled acrobats or breakers of hearts, or deeply tragic beneath their 
comic masks. They were cheap, sophomoric, scatological, reckless, 
excessive, lunatic, and assinine, all to such extremes that they 
turned everything impossibly bad into something extremely good.' 
(William Bayer )



1.  	10th May, 2002
     	Duck Soup (1933), 75 mins, b/w, VHS
     	Director: Leo McCarey


	Released in 1933, this political satire is thought by many as the 
greatest Marx Brothers movie. `Duck Soup' is a short, but brilliant 
satire 	and lampooning of blundering dictatorial leaders, Fascism and 
authoritarian government. The film, made during the crisis period of 
the 	Depression, was their last film in a five-picture contract with 
Paramount Studios. 

	`Duck Soup' was both a critical and commercial failure at the time of 
its release - audiences were taken aback by such preposterous 	
political disrespect, buffoonery and cynicism at a time of political 
crisis. Fascist Italian dictator Mussolini banned the film in his 
country. 	The film was rediscovered by the generation of 1960s college 
students.

	The irrepressible comedians in this quintessential anarchic, 
satirical film simply but irreverently attack the pomposity of 
governmental 	leaders, the absurdity of government itself, 
governmental diplomacy, an arbitrary legal system, and war fought over 
petty matters. The 	non-stop, frenetic film is filled with a number of 
delightfully hilarious moments, gags, fast-moving acts, double 
entendres, comedy 	routines, puns, pure silliness, zany 
improvisations, quips and insult-spewed lines of dialogue - much of 
the comedy makes the obvious 	statement that war is indeed nonsensical 
and meaninglessly destructive. 



2.   	17th May, 2002
	Horse Feathers (1932), 70 min
	Director : Norman Z. McLeod


	'Horse Feathers' is an anarchic parody of higher education and a 
subversive attack on authority and society. All four Marx brothers, 	
including Zeppo, get mixed up with a hidebound university when 
Professor Wagstaff (Groucho) takes over distinguished Huxley College 	
and lets anarchy run riot whenever he's not singing his theme, 
"Whatever it is, I'm against it."

	The mad-cap film, a zany take-off on college education and football, 
is known for its fast-paced, non-sequitor, inconsistent nature as was 	
typical of all Marx Brothers films. The plot affords many 
opportunities for the comedic team to show off their anarchic style of 
humor, 	with many pun-filled, absurd, nonsensical bits of dialogue, 
insults, idiosyncracies, and one-liners. 
 


3.  	24th May, 2002
     	A Night at the Opera (1935),  96 min. b/w, VHS
     	Director: Sam Wood


	'A Night at the Opera' was the first Marx Brothers film produced at 
MGM. The move   resulted in a landmark film with a more developed 	and 
polished plot-line, and brought them their first commercial success. 
Their most recent movie, 'Duck Soup', made in 1933, was branded 	as 
high-gear Marxist anarchy. To some, this was what the Marx Brothers 
symbolized, and it delighted audiences. Unfortunately, 'Duck 	Soup' 
didn't do all that well at the box office. 

	There were others who did not appreciate the lunacy that the Marx 
Brothers portrayed. It was MGM's Thalberg who felt that the Marx 	
Brothers could produce a comedy that had a carefully-written plot 
where the boys could stay true to their zany antics, while at the same 
	time, come to the rescue of a couple in love. He felt this would 
generate sympathy for the boys as the storyline progressed - something 
that 	was not evident in their prior films.

	A road-show tour before live audiences allowed writer Al Boasberg to 
repeatedly test draft scripts. The result - well-refined, polished 	
scenes of classic romantic comedy and dialogue, flowing together 
smoothly with the story and the characters of the brothers, and timed 
to 	take into account reaction time for laughs. It was designed to 
appeal to female audiences, with less zany and unhibited behavior 
exhibited 	by the brothers.

	The gamble paid off.  On the basis of its initial release, 'A Night 
at the Opera' brought in US $3 million, which made it their most 	
successful initial film release.



4.  	31st May, 2002
     	A Night in Casablanca (1946), 85 min b/w, VHS
     	Director: Archie Mayo


	'A Night in Casablanca' marked the reunion of the brothers after the 
team disbanded in 1941. Several plot elements come together in this 	
film. Nazi war criminal Heinrich Stubel, alias Count Pfefferman (Sig 
Ruman), is offing hotel managers at an alarming rate in the hope that 	
he will be appointed manager himself. Unfortunately, when he is 
finally offered the job he is indisposed because Stubel's valet Rusty 	
(Harpo) has sucked his hairpiece into a vacuum cleaner, thus exposing 
an incriminating scar on Stubel's head.

	Instead, the position is offered to the unsuspecting Ronald Kornblow 
(Groucho), who takes to it with gusto and gleefully insults staff and 	
guests alike. Rusty overhears of a plot to assassinate Kornblow, and 
he enlists the aid of itinerant camel jockey Corbaccio (Chico) to help 
	protect Groucho from Stubel. Meanwhile, American flyboy Pierre Delmar 
(Charles Drake) is trying to get information on Stubel to clear 	his 
own name over an incident that happened during the war. Ever the 
altruists, Corbaccio and Rusty try to help Pierre as well, with 	
disastrous results.

	Time is telling on the Marxes in this film, but it is an enjoyable 
romp nonetheless. Groucho even manages to capture some of the zest of 	
his earlier times as a hotel manager in 'The Cocoanuts'. Harpo's 
employment of Frank Tashlin as a gag writer prompts some wonderful 	
sight gags.

	It was during the final days of filming that Groucho realized he'd 
finally had enough. While hanging upside-down outside of an aeroplane 	
during inumerable takes of one of the final scenes, Groucho decided 
once and for all that he was ready to retire. The others were ready as 
	well.

	The three brothers would appear once more together, three years 
later, but really only as an afterthought. 'A Night In Casablanca' was 
the 	last true Marx Brothers film.



Hope to see you at the screenings. And if you can't make it do write 
in with comments, queries and ideas. 

Until next month,


Ranita
The Sarai Programme
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi - 110054.
Tel: 3960040, 3951190
Fax: 3928391, 3943450
www.sarai.net


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