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From: mengm@homxa.UUCP (P.MENG)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: what rules?
Message-ID: <864@homxa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 2-Apr-85 14:03:22 EST
Article-I.D.: homxa.864
Posted: Tue Apr  2 14:03:22 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 3-Apr-85 02:33:37 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 39


>  If you take a look at traditional American film you will find that
>  almost all of it has one thing in common; it pretends it's not there
>
>  When Woody Allen steps out of the narrative of one of his films to
>  address the audience we are immediately ripped out of the action
>  and reminded that we are indeed watching a film.

	This seems to warrant further discussion, this business
of breaking traditional rules of the cinema.
	Monty Python are famous for this kind of thing. I can picture
them in their early days, figuring out what these "rules" are, and then
methodically finding creative ways to break them. Sort of anti-
establishment in a way. Some examples follow;
	The "cheese shop" scene when the background music is getting
noticably louder and all of a sudden John Cleese turns to the
Greek Musicians and tells them to shut up. Kind of a surprise since
you've been cinema-brainwashed to think that the music was coming from
nowhere.
	"Holy Grail" scene where the young maiden (a Python in drag)
in the castle is about to break into song as you can hear the music
building in the background. All of a sudden King Arthur yells out
to stop the music (and it does) as he will not put up with any of this
foolishness.
	"Forest scene" where a group of the Pythons are in an African
jungle and they seem to be hopelessly lost when all of a sudden they
realize that there is a cameraman there and maybe he knows the way out.
They repeat this scene about three times, forcing you to realize that
no matter where they go there is someone taking their picture.
	"Wrong sketch" scenes where one of the python members goes
into a room only to find out he is in the wrong sketch. There is a
variation on this when one of the members leaves the room and actually
gets involved in both sketches as he walks in and out of the door.
The odd part is that when he goes out the door he winds up on a boat
in the middle of the ocean.

	I guess I'm starting to ramble but I think you get the idea.

				Peter Meng