Word: comics
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Confronted with the death camps, Pasqualino's thirst for life provokes him to invent a plan which represents the complete abandonment of dignity in the name of survival; he will seduce the commandant (Shirley Stoller) in order to eat. In a series of pathetic but comic scenes which show that Pasqualino's mad scheme derives as much from his vanity as from his desperation, he attempts to bring his Neapolitan charm to bear on the ogress, despite the ravages his misfortunes have wreaked on his appearance. Whistling, winking, and blowing kisses as if he were on an Italian street corner...
...device, Wertmuller shows that those actions of Pasqualino's which appear to represent the most radical surrender of self-hood are animated by his desperate desire to preserve that self. Because Wertmuller focuses so intensely on the subjective character of Pasqualino's choices and presents him through the extraordinary comic talents of Giannini, she demands that we understand him as a person, and ultimately that we identify with and accept his decisions...
...though it is a terrible place, then they must do what is necessary to survive, since there is no alternative other than death in the name of abstract principles. Given this tragic condition, the only attribute Wertmuller as an observer can take is that of ironic contemplation, exercising a comic acceptance of all the absurdities of human life. It is this fundamental pessimism in Wertmuller's world view which accounts for the coexistent strains of tragedy and comedy i her films...
...theatres. The focus of the movie is a state beauty pageant managed by Barbara Feldon (of Get Smart fame) and judged by Bruce Dern, but that's just a jumping off point for an examination of the so-called community of Santa Rosa. The comic sensibility of director Michael Ritchie, who did Downhill Racer and The Candidate, is not quite as cynical as I'd like it to be, but you can't have everything...
Fond, canny, breakaway funny, Paul Mazursky's Next Stop, Greenwich Village is a comic reminiscence about salad days around Washington Square, the tough lessons and small victories that mark the end of growing up. What is best about Mazursky's work (Alex in Wonderland, Blume in Love, Harry and Tonto) comes from his affectionate kind of satire, always clear-eyed and almost never derisive. Mazursky is a good spirit, and this is perhaps the most closely autobiographical of all his movies. Like Larry, he was a scuffling New York actor (he showed up as one of the leads...