“High Anxiety” by Mel Brooks

Zeszyty PRASOZNAWCZE Kraków 2017, T. 60, nr 4 (232), s. 866–879 10.4467/22996362PZ.17.049.8191 www.ejournals.eu/Zeszyty-Prasoznawcze/ ENTERTAINMENT IN THE MEDIA. PARODY IN “HIGH ANXIETY” BY MEL BROOKS MARIA PIWIŃSKA Instytut Dziennikarstwa i Komunikacji Społecznej Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II WIECIE ABSTRACT Ś Entertainment in the media: parody in “High Anxiety” by Mel Brooks The study shows parody as a way of fulfi lling entertainment function in mass media. The way the parody operates in fi lm is presented on the basis of “High Anxiety” by Mel Brooks. By MEDIA NA NA MEDIA means of fi lm analysis the author indicates many levels on which parody can operate, such as: the choice of actors, creation of characters, special effects and other elements of fi lm language. Keywords: parody, comedy, entertainment, use of mass communication, Mel Brooks, “High Anxiety”, Alfred Hitchcock Entertainment is one of the most favoured functions of the media nowadays. Mass media, and fi lm in particular, were quick to exploit its potential to fulfi l the function. The Lumières themselves seemed to discover the comic potential of the medium as early as in “L’arroseur arrosé”. Comedy fi lms as an example of pure entertainment were present from the very beginning of the development of the cinema. Further development from silent fi lms to talkies gave directors more devices to convey the comic meaning. One of the ways to entertain through Adres do korespondencji: Instytut Dziennikarstwa i Komunikacji Społecznej Katolickiego Uni- wersytetu Lubelskiego Jana Pawła II, Aleje Racławickie 14, 20-950 Lublin; [email protected] ENTERTAINMENT IN THE MEDIA. PARODY IN “HIGH ANXIETY”... 867 the medium of fi lm is to employ parody. Furthermore, parody appears to be pure entertainment as it does not require an original storyline. It can use pastiche of other fi lms as a point of departure. In this paper the devices to introduce parody in fi lm will be examined. In order to achieve this goal we will carry out an analysis of “High Anxiety” by Mel Brooks. The fi lm was released in 1977, just before the eighties, when the parody played a dominant role in the comedy cinema (Mc- Cabe 2005, p. 45). Thus, it can serve as an illustrative example of preliminaries of thinking of parody as entertainment in comedy movies. In order to show how parody operates in the medium of fi lm a few terms need to be clarifi ed fi rst. Parody in this paper is understood as a kind of pastiche which has a comic dimension (Drabble, Stringer 2003, p. 564). Thus, the term “parody” will be more specifi c when compared with pastiche. Nevertheless, its defi nition will be based on the defi nition of pastiche, which dates back to the second half of 18th century and is found in “Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire rai- sonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers”, a general encyclopaedia edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert. According to Louis de Jaucourt, the author of the entry, pastiche is a painting created “dans la manière” or “dans le gôut”, which means “in the manner” or “in the taste” of another artist. The gist of the defi nition is that pastiche imitates the style, “the hand” of the artist but cannot imitate his imagination and spirit. Thus, what is essential is the WIECIE imitation of the form i.e. the style and the technique of a particular artist. While Ś pastiche imitates the style for various reasons (e.g. to perfect one’s style or to play with someone else’s style), parody is considered to have comic dimension. Film’s specifi city allows for parody to operate on diversity of levels. MEDIA NA NA MEDIA The choice of actors and their characterization The concept of the character in fi lm is quite different from the one we fi nd in li- terature. Due to medium specifi city this is not only a factitious construct that the viewer deals with but also a real person who acts the role of a particular character. Understandably, the director’s choice of an actor can depend (for now neglecting the acting skills) on his or her appearance and physique, facial movements, and many others. The US fi lm industry, in which the “stars” are the most desired actors for fi lms, seems to prefer actors whose looks match the role very well (Abrams et al. 2010, p. 343). This kind of performance, called personifi cation, is set beside impersonation, more often attributed to the theatre. The latter is charac- terized by the actor’s attempt to play his or her role in the most psychologically realistic manner using his or her imagination. To be more specifi c, while impersonation is about acting the role, personifi cation is about identity which matches the role played by the actor. In Richard Dyer’s terms, in personifi cation the actor is a “perfect fi t” for his or her role (qtd in: Abrams et al. 2010, p. 343). Since in Hitchcock’s fi lms many a time the cast consist of stars, it is essential to take notice 868 MARIA PIWIŃSKA of constructing the characters in terms of the choice of the actors and their characterization while analysing Mel Brook’s “High Anxiety”. Hitchcock claimed that the actors’ performance is a part of the whole design of the fi lm and that they should conform to the director’s vision of a character. When accused of having said that the actors are like cattle, he replied “What I probably said was that actors should be treated like cattle” (Adair 2002, p. 121) meaning that it is the director and the camera which determine the fi nal outcome of the shooting. Although Hitchcock did not leave much space for actors to interpret their roles, he was very particular in choosing a “perfect fi t” for his characters. He cooperated with several stars in more than one of his fi lms. Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, or Cary Grant are the actors who continually reappeared in his movies, reinforcing their “star” status. Moreover, Hitchcock’s characters, played by handsome well-clad men and sophisticated blondes contribute to a distinguished aesthetics of his fi lms. The close attention that the director has always paid to the actors’ characterization affords an opportunity to refer to for many directors, among whom is Mel Brooks. To begin with, not unlike Hitchcock, Mel Brooks chooses quite famous actors, at least in terms of comedy fi lms. He rather chooses the accomplished comedians, such as Madeline Kahn, Harvey Herschel Korman, Howard Morris who are “perfect fi ts” for their comic roles. Many a time he cooperates with his actors more WIECIE Ś than once, making them the stars of his own series of movies, among others: “The Blazing Saddles” (1974) with Kahn and Korman, “Young Frankenstein” (1974) with Cloris Leachman, “History of the World: Part 1” (1981) with Leachman, Ron Carey and Howard Morris. Brooks himself takes also part in all of those fi lms as an actor, and plays the main protagonist’s role in “High Anxiety”. MEDIA NA NA MEDIA The physical appearance of the chosen actors, together with their performance and characterization make up the characters reminiscent of these that the viewer comes across in variety of Hitchcock’s fi lms. Beginning with the protagonist played by Mel Brooks, Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke is a character which is composed from at least three Hitchcock’s fi lms. In the opening scene in which a plane is about to touch down, the viewer is shown the faces of the people inside the plane. The dramatic facial expression of the protagonist is already saying that the protagonist suffers from acrophobia, and his facial movements are an exaggerated version of James Stewart playing John “Scottie” Ferguson in “Vertigo” (1958). Furthermore, Brooks is wearing a suit and a hat, the latter very similar to the one worn by Stewart in “Vertigo”. However, there is a series of events that Richard encounters which begins with him coincidentally being stopped by a “police of- fi cer”, who turns out to be an exhibitionist. This event together with some other “adventures”, such as getting unintentionally involved in a murder, are the proof that another character that is imitated by Brooks is the protagonist of “North by Northwest” (1959). Another proof of this is the name of the protagonist Richard H. Thorndyke, which is a parody of Roger O. Thornhill. Moreover, H. in Richard’s name is, as he mentions in the conversation with Victoria Brisbane, for “Harpo”. ENTERTAINMENT IN THE MEDIA. PARODY IN “HIGH ANXIETY”... 869 This name, as we discover later on in the dialogue, refers to Adolph “Harpo” Marx, a clown style infl uenced American comedian, which can also emphasise the comical character of the protagonist. The name gives the viewer the “textual” signal that the reference is being made to a particular fi lm. Another hint of this kind is “North by Northwest corner”, which is the spot where the protagonist sets a meeting. Finally, the fi lm’s setting in a psychiatric institute and the theory of psychoanalysis which is applied to the protagonist, are the obvious allusions to the psychological mystery thriller “Spellbound” (1945). Another character which brings to mind “Spellbound” is professor Lilloman, whose name is comically mispronounced as “Little Old Man” in accordance with his appearance. Played by comic Howard Morris he shares characteristic features with Dr. Alexander “Alex” Brulov played by Michael Chekhov in “Spell bound”.

Load more