"banana"
In 1971, Woody Allen was invited by United American Corporation to sign a cooperation agreement: to shoot 3 movies with a budget of 2 million US dollars. Allen is responsible for writing the script, directing, acting and editing, and he can get a salary of 350,000 US dollars. At the same time, Lianmei does not have the right to decide on all matters such as movie scripts and cast. This is unprecedented. Starting from Woody Allen's first directorial work "Fools in Prison", Woody Allen has not made a movie that is not completely under his control. This kind of fortune is jaw-dropping, and maybe every film investment company can't bear to cruel Woody's own comedic talent.
"Banana" is an absurd comedy about the American employee Fielding uprising for love, participating in the South American Communist War of Independence and Liberation, and eventually becoming the president. The film satirizes communism crazily through the various stages of Woody joining the army. The reporter interviewed Woody Allen. "Why is the movie called "Banana"?" Woody Allen replied: "Because there are no bananas in it." Just like Fielding's communist war of independence and liberation for the realization of equality for all in the movie. The victory of the War of Liberation did not achieve equality for all, and the leader immediately became the slave of power—the great dictator. There is no banana in the movie "Banana"; and there is no communism in the war of liberation to realize communism, only authoritarianism and entitlement.
The narrative format of "Banana" is similar to a comic film, with one joke followed by another joke. The story in the middle of the joke can be omitted, and Woody Allen cleverly skipped it. Strictly speaking, "Banana" has not become a classic comedy movie. Woody Allen just stuffed the whole movie with one joke after another, as he did in the last movie-"Fools in Prison". He prepared 200 jokes, and then selected 100 into this movie. It's a pity that in my opinion, only 50 of these 100 jokes are funny. Woody still needs to continue to have rich experience in the skills of removing the complex and simplistic and removing the dross. Let's listen to the filming process of this movie in Woody Allen's memories. "I don't want to make the same mistake again after "Fools in Prison". I want to make sure that all the content is funny and fast-paced. That's where I work hard, so I shot some scenes that are almost comics. I started to realize that the movie I made could not be described as a comic film, because no one really bleeds, and no one really died. They are just a fast-paced joke followed by a joke."
Judging from the comedy effects presented by "Banana", Woody Allen is still quite immature at this time, but we must not ignore some of the comedy expressions he used in early comedy films. First of all, Woody Allen likes to pay tribute to senior masters in his movies. In his first director film "A Fool In Prison", Woody quoted "Cool Hand Luke", "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", "This Life and This World" ( Elvira Madigan) and other movies. In his second directorial film "Banana", Woody Allen lying on the cross in his sleep and being carried onto the road is a tribute to Bergman; during the palace coup, the stroller was pushed down the stairs This paragraph is a tribute to Eisenstein. Secondly, Woody Allen inserted a non-existent "New Testament" cigarette advertisement in the movie, and the priest promoted this new cigarette to the audience. Twenty-two years later, in the comedy film "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance" directed by Li Lichi, Mrs. Hua began to sell the magic drug "Smiling Half-Step Epilepsy" to the audience. After another 10 years, Director Zhou Xingchi paid tribute to the "Blood Channel" section of Kubrick's "The Shining" in the comedy film "Kung Fu". The remakes and remakes of old-time comedy movies are always disappointing, but the performance techniques of comedy movies are totally worth learning from. It is not difficult to see that the comedy expression techniques that Woody Allen was destined to explore in his early comedy films will continue to inspire future generations.
This is why the later "Tang Bohu Spots Autumn Fragrance" broke the fourth wall in the movie and sold "smiling half-steps" to the audience.
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