Word: slapstick
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...slapping him on the behind. O'Hara seizes a golf club and chases the suit around the room. Tumbling over the furniture while Zoot does summersaults, O'Hara finally ends up cracking himself with the club only to wake up attached to the ceiling. The scene, although pure, unoriginal slapstick, provides a good laugh...
...matching his energy and spirit as they kick and push him towards one of the black poles, set up as a gallows. Not only is the song about his contraction of the disease hysterically funny, but all of Nuccio's hand gestures, facial and physical expressions take Candide beyond slapstick. In every scene in which he performs, Nuccio is unquestionably the star, the embodiment itself of the actor who throws every part of himself, body and soul, into the performance...
While an entire review filled with glorious praise could be written about each person who struts upon the stage of Guys and Dolls, I will have to try to summarize and make my raves more concise: The near-slapstick duo of Nicely-Nicely Johnson (Abraham Mills) and Benny South street (John Keefe) become the most clumsily charming racketeers the world has ever seen. Harry the Horse (Julio V. Gambuto), Big Jule (Clay Petre), and the other crap enthusiasts stumble over each other and gawk in bad New York accents with such silliness that many people (myself included) laughed...
...Cannes film festival, where Life is Beautiful won the Grand Jury Prize, Benigni kissed Martin Scorcese's shoes when he came to the podium to accept his award and hugged members of the jury. Benigni is a major national celebrity in Italy; here, his previous films (mostly high-concept slapstick comedies like Johnny Stecchino) have never found much of an audience, and his attempts to break into the American film market (Son of the Pink Panther) have fallen flat. He's been dubbed by some as Italy's Robin Williams, though this comparison hardly seems adequate. The best...
...first hour of the film passes like a dream. There's a good deal of slapstick humor (flower pots and eggs falling on the heads of government officials, Benigni paying so much attention to Dora in his restaurant that he ends up carrying a live poodle on his serving tray), complemented by a lyrical and occasionally surreal style. Benigni's talent as a wordsmith is also evident: no knowledge of Italian is necessary to understand that he has a way with the language that is highly amusing in itself. There are also, however, hints of what is to come...