SILENT MOVIE

US, 1976, 87 minutes, Colour.
Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom Deluise, Bernadette Peters, Guests: Burt Reynolds, James Caan, Paul Newman, Liza Minnelli, Anne Bancroft, Marcel Marceau.
Directed by Mel Brooks.

Silent Movie is silent only as regards spoken words (with one notable exception), this film derives its humour from a string of visual gags, stock silent situations, updated (sometimes in parody; sometimes in homage to this class humour) and some hilarious written captions (which don't always correspond exactly with what we see the actors saying). The old plot about a down and out director trying to save the studio and signing major stars happily carries the film along with Mel Brooks and Marty Feldman effectively controlled. The guest stars add glamour, participate happily in some slapstick humour, especially eye-rolling, dancing Anne Bancroft (Mrs. Brooks) who is involved in funny, knockabout (literally) humour.

1. How enjoyable a comedy, the entertainment values, the nostalgia of the past presented in the present?

2. What was the basic appeal of silent film and silent film styles: styles of acting, the lack of words, the captions, sounds? The kinds of situations necessary for silent film, farce, sight gags, etc.? How was this film attributed to the silent films? How derivative was it? How original?

4. Comment on the standard plot: the emphasis on Hollywood, the making of films, the moguls and money, the sabotage industry, the stars and their stardom? Did the film get away with using a standard plot, even to showing explicitly what it was doing itself?

5. The opening and close with 'Hello' and 'Goodbye'? The quality of the caption cards? The various jokes? The irony of the cards contrasting with what was being really said? The verbal jokes and the repetitions? Audience response to this reading during the film? How enjoyable were the three central characters? As a group going around together recruiting the stars, as individuals? What were their particular characteristics? How human were they, how much parody? Satire? Driving around in their car, their mission to save the studio? How much sentiment about films and Hollywood was there in the film? How was it basically an old-fashioned kind of film?

8. The satirical presentation of Hollywood: the studio, the nervousness of the studio chief, his secretary, his being in hospital? The presentation of the stars?

9. Comment on each of the stars: how did the film use their personalities, poke fun at them, their houses, hobbies, ways of behaviour? Involving each of the stars in farcical silent comedy situations? Did the film get away with this? Audience response to seeing stars being themselves in such situations?

10. Comment on the value of the incidental comedy, the visual gags e.g. the pregnant woman at the beginning, driving the streets and looking at the shops, the lifts, the sequences in the restaurants, fights, etc.?

11. The satire on big business in the presentation of gulf and devour? Their engulfing the studio, the nature of their meetings, the head of the firm and his assistant? The satire on their villainy, their espionage? The final fight and their downfall?

12. Vilma and the satire on industrial espionage? The satire on sex? Her dance sequences and their humour? Her keeping the people entertained at the sneak preview? The satire on the love sequences with Funn and Vilma? The discovery of the truth and her helping them?

13. The build-up to the sneak preview after the making of the film? People sneaking into it? The loss of the film and Vilma's entertainment?

14. How necessary was it to have a happy ending? A sense of jubilation with the audience on the screen and the ordinary audience?

15. How is this film a valuable tribute to movies and their power?