What's harder to write- tragic scenes or comic ones?
This question always throws up lots of matter for debate. Isn't it true that in literature and in the movies it's tragic / dramatic pieces that usually win awards and receive approbation? Comedy is rarely given the same degree of importance, at least as far as the critics go. Yet, isn't good comedy incredibly difficult to write?
Watching The Return of the Pink Panther (for the nth time!) the other day, I was struck by the sheer brilliance of the actors' performances, comic timing and, of course, dialogue delivery. I know I've picked an easy one for movies of The Pink Panther series, particularly the original ones starring Peter Sellers, are recognized as cinematic masterpieces. The Return of the Pink Panther (released in 1975) is my favourite. It's the one starring Christopher Plummer as Sir Charles Litton, the Phantom, Herbert Lom as Clouseau's long-suffering boss Chief Inspector Dreyfus and Peter Sellers, of course, as the bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
Sample this:
Chief Inspector Dreyfus (to Clouseau): "You are suspended for six months, without pay..."
Clouseau: "Six months!"
Dreyfus: "Yes, without pay. Have you anything to say?"
Clouseau (after a moment's thought): "Could you lend me...fifty francs?"
This movie also has the famous 'follow that car scene' and the one in which Clouseau asks a passerby in Gstaad: "Do you know the way to Paris hotel?"
"Yes," says the man, and walks on!
The film is so good that scene after scene leaves you in splits. How I wish I could write like that!
In respect to the question I've asked, I think that it's hard to do both tragic and comic scenes well. But comedy poses a greater challenge because it relies on the all-important twist at the end, the punch that requires a reader's (or moviegoer's) expectation to be built up for something and then find exactly the opposite happen. It's the unexpected that keeps good comedy going, whereas in tragedies it's more Aristotelian, isn't it? We know the protagonist is doomed because of his own character flaws or because of circumstances beyond his control.
What do you think?
This question always throws up lots of matter for debate. Isn't it true that in literature and in the movies it's tragic / dramatic pieces that usually win awards and receive approbation? Comedy is rarely given the same degree of importance, at least as far as the critics go. Yet, isn't good comedy incredibly difficult to write?
Watching The Return of the Pink Panther (for the nth time!) the other day, I was struck by the sheer brilliance of the actors' performances, comic timing and, of course, dialogue delivery. I know I've picked an easy one for movies of The Pink Panther series, particularly the original ones starring Peter Sellers, are recognized as cinematic masterpieces. The Return of the Pink Panther (released in 1975) is my favourite. It's the one starring Christopher Plummer as Sir Charles Litton, the Phantom, Herbert Lom as Clouseau's long-suffering boss Chief Inspector Dreyfus and Peter Sellers, of course, as the bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau.
Sample this:
Chief Inspector Dreyfus (to Clouseau): "You are suspended for six months, without pay..."
Clouseau: "Six months!"
Dreyfus: "Yes, without pay. Have you anything to say?"
Clouseau (after a moment's thought): "Could you lend me...fifty francs?"
This movie also has the famous 'follow that car scene' and the one in which Clouseau asks a passerby in Gstaad: "Do you know the way to Paris hotel?"
"Yes," says the man, and walks on!
The film is so good that scene after scene leaves you in splits. How I wish I could write like that!
In respect to the question I've asked, I think that it's hard to do both tragic and comic scenes well. But comedy poses a greater challenge because it relies on the all-important twist at the end, the punch that requires a reader's (or moviegoer's) expectation to be built up for something and then find exactly the opposite happen. It's the unexpected that keeps good comedy going, whereas in tragedies it's more Aristotelian, isn't it? We know the protagonist is doomed because of his own character flaws or because of circumstances beyond his control.
What do you think?
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