British Comedy Guide

Reading Kafka improves learning Page 4

That's what the 'No hay banda' stuff is for. When betty's dreaming, there are constant attempts by things to break into the dream and wake her up. Even the dogshit that coco finds outside Betty's villa, and the old woman who turns up at the door. It's only the key that brings her back to reality - appropriately.

Hamlet's last words are 'The rest is silence'. That's what I meant about a classical ending and that's the kind of stuff that you would have expected John Carey to have remarked upon on Newsnight Review. It really doesn't reflect well on him that he wasn't able to see any quality or sense in the film. Can't be much of a f**king English professor.

Back in the fifties some Oxford Don bet a pound that no-one could make any sense of Dylan Thomas's poem 'If my head hurt a hair's foot'. Someone - think it might have been Cyril connoly stood up and explained how it was a discourse between a baby being born and the mother.

Quote: Tim Walker @ September 17 2009, 10:07 PM BST

Ridiculously over-rated film The Blues Brothers. About 3 laughs in it max.

When I first saw The Blues Brothers I was hugely disappointed - so much cult status and so few laughs. But I liked the music, so listened to the soundtrack a lot, which prompted me to watch the film again and I began to like it. When I got to university, among the more popular films for stupid students to congregate around for heavy drinking sessions were Life of Brian, The Princess Bride and The Blues Brothers. When the Blues Brothers Band played in Sydney, they rocked. Top show. Around that time I saw Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Wild At Heart and The Elephant Man in a David Lynch special session over two nights at an arty cinema. Despite doing some intense reggae-walking before and between screenings, I wasn't greatly mesmerized. But I'll pick up Mulholland Drive today - if available.

Quote: Curt @ September 17 2009, 7:11 PM BST

But I think that proves something right there. Even the kings of anarchy style comedy knew in the end that their film was funny but still incomplete.

I don't think that ending really served to complete it, in that it didn't resolve any of the Arthurian themes, of which the film was all about.

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