Fourth Annual Film Festival presented by Film Classics, the Fine Arts Series with the cooperation of Sunday Cinema . JANUARY 6 TO JANUARY 20, 1967 There is probably no single defining charactenstic or set of characteristics which all in the silent days, and did not achieve real fame in this country until they succeeded in those films we call com ic have in common. We are amused by many things; by zany, making the difficult transition to talking pictures. Nevertheless, some of their early happy-go-lucky clowns, by pathetic tramps who cannot cope with their world, by riddles, silent shorts stand as masterpieces of subtle timing and hilarious slapstick artistry. puns, and thrown pies. And, to complicate the situation further, it may well be that we Arthur Knight refers to REN E CLAIR as one of the most imaginative directors of arc amused by different kinds of comedy in different periods. comedy the medium has yet produced. The Italian Straw Hat is a landmark in the history But if comedy cannot be succinctly defined, it can be illustrated. The 1967 Film of silent comic films. It proves that there can be great film ar t without sound. Festival spans fifty years of cinema history beginning with one of the earliest silent W. C. FIELDS was one of the first and one of the greatest comic stars of the sound comedies, a short chase film made in 1907 by Zecca, and concluding with Bergman's recent film. The two Fields comedies shown in the Festival were produced by Mack Sennett. color comedy All These Women. ROBERT BENCHLEY, another sophisticated comedian of the 30's was best known Two major trends in film comedy may be roughly distinguished. There are :hose to theater audiences for his "lecture" films such as The Sex Life of the Polyp. comic effects which depend primarily on sight-speeded-up chase sequences, film run The 30's and 40's saw the production of many fine American comedies including the backwards, funny facial expressions, and so on. In contrast, there are comic effects which Hope-Crosby Road Shows and The Marx Brothers films. THRE E MEN ON A HORSE depend largely on sound-puns, verbal jokes, strange sound effects, etc. Silent films, is an extremely funny situation comedy of this period describing the adventures of an of course, depended mainly on sight gags. With the advent of movie sound in 1929, unassuming man who has the ability to predict the winners of horse races. however, there was an immediate move away from such techniques with emphasis placed The sophisticated British comedies of ALEC GUINESS together with those of Peter rather on witty repartee and sophisticated jokes. It was not u(Jtil comparatively recently Sellars form a genre all their own. The Captain's Paradise is one of Alec Guiness' earlier that these two approaches to comedy have been combined. Such films as All These Women, comedies. Hard Day's Night, Mon On.cle, The Knack , and Morgan are notable for their brilliant com­ LA BELLE AMERICAINE is representative of a style of French comedy exemplified binations of sight gags, witty dialogue, and comic situations. With these films, film also by the work of Jacques Tati (Mr. Hulot's Holiday and Mon Oncle) and by the Godard comedy has come of age in the sense that the full resources of cinema-movement, film A Woman Is A Woman. The film, written, directed, and starred in by Robert Dhery, editing, scud, and, in some cases, color-are being more fully utilized. depends more heavily on fast pace, pantomime and sight gags than on plot. It is pa ired with the pantomime artistry of France's MARCEL MARCEAU. FERDINAND ZECCA was one of the early French film makers. His short "chase" ADOLFAS MEKAS is in many ways the high priest of the experimental film movement films began a vogue which reached its height in the American films of the teens and in the United States, usually referred to as The New American Cinema. Hallelujah the Hills, twenties, particularly in Sennett's Keystone Kops movies. "a slapstick poem," has its roots in the early silent films of D. W. Griffith. MACK SENNETT, "king of the slapstick clowns," began his own studio in 19 12 and THE BEATLES, of course, need no introduction, but it is worth noting that their first turned out hundreds of short, zany comedies by the early twenties. · He not only invented film, A Hard Day's Night, is a very fine example of film comedy. Part of its aesthetic many bold new filming techniques, he developed several top comedy stars as well, includ­ merit derives from the Beatles' ambiguous position as film actors playing themselves. ing Charlie Chaplin. INGMAR BERGMAN is best known for his dramatic films although one of his earlier The early short silent films of CHARLIE CHAPLIN show why he is the most famous comedies, Smiles of a Summer Night, has received several awards and is thought by at and most highly-praised actor in film history. He moved with the precision and timing least one critic to be his best film. His latest production, All These Women, serves as a of an athlete to create, in depth, comic personalities who were at once foolish and lovable. fitting climax to this festival because in it Bergman combines such silent film techniques Most comedies of the early days were rather hastily put together. In contrast, Chaplin as sight gags and written titles with the sophisticated situation comedy which marks his insisted that every gesture and every prop were to be carefully used-and used not earlier comic films. In addition to these many and different techn iques, he ma kes his merely to get laughs, but to consistently project character. No actor of his time and first use of cinemascope and color. It is an example of Bergman's genius that he is able few since so capably defined a character on the screen. to weld all of these elements into a complex, subtle, and hilarious attack upon cri tics, the LAUREL and HARDY were appreciated more by European than by American critics enterprise of art criticism, and artists themselves. FILM CLASSICS DIRECTOR Bill Howell FACULTY ADVISOR Ron Williams RESEARCH Rich Beardsley PROGRAM & POSTERS John Sorbie FILM CLASSICS COMMITTEE Bob Bloedon Dave Cornell John Goodman Charlotte Harms Carol Riley Pat McKee PUBLIC EVENTS MANAGER James Campbell

We wish to thank Sunday Cinema lor their cooperation.