“the torch” #31 - Death or Humour?

All the world is a stage – and death no joker! (But in film, a good joke can be a killer.) To keep us entertained with their movies, a filmmaker has to bear in mind the first principle whereby excess is not advisable, but moderation is: healthy and safe. While the latter is arguably true, the conviction that a taste for health is what gets us into those seats sounds considerably less convincing; how much appeal insanity has in store is the very formula each thriller of whatever genre tries to calculate anew – and results should differ. An extension of this line of thinking would have to ask where exactly the aimed for emotive value can be found in balancing the distribution of film’s strongest assets (narrative devices both): death and humour. Whether to factor out, or in, and to what degree, this is the calibrating task between fun and credibility you absolutely have to get right with your audience if you want your film to do well and connect.
Interested in finding out more about what we want from our movies? Get “The Torch”: here.

(pic©mo)