Breaking Character
The first rule of acting in a comedy is that you don’t laugh at what anyone else says or does. Ever. Straight and sober from start to finish. But look closely at the face of Peter Bull (the “Russian Ambassador” in the black hat, standing to Peter Sellers‘ rear right) at the 17-second mark, and you’ll see him lose it and start chuckling…and then he sobers up again. This is almost the kind of thing that you see in closing-credit gag reels.
What Boulle was thinking:
“I cannot WAIT to have this pie fight. Audiences are going to LOVE IT!”
[Thanks -- fixed.]
I guess it doesn’t work as well in a movie, but, to me, one of my favorite parts of TV comedy is watching all of the actors to see who is struggling not to lose it during a scene. To me, it makes it even funnier to see that they’re not immune to the ongoing humor and silliness. The best example of this, of course, was The Carol Burnett Show. I truly think their own goal was to make each other laugh in each skit. It’s also surprisingly evident in some of the Monty Python sketches. Chapman and Palin, in particular, seems to have the toughest times keeping it straight-faced. And the show is better for those subtle, fleeting seconds, in my opinion. They’re like easter eggs on multiple viewings. As far as some of the best movie comedies, I guess we can only marvel at how many takes it must have taken them on some scenes, to keep all the various people in the frame from cracking up. It’s not something they specifically teach in acting school, I reckon. Thanks for sharing this, Jeffrey.
I don’t know Jeff, it seems possible to me that Kubrick told him to begin cracking a smile and then catch it and contain himself. After all, something funny was happening right in front of him. If not, Kubrick could have used a different take.
There’s all kinds of paradoxes to Kubrick, and one is his perfectionism against his frequent use of technically flawed takes, presumably because he liked something about a performance.
I wish there would be more study into whether or not he was an Aspie. I’ve always suspected that his image as a cerebral taskmaster was misleading.
the laughter is so subtle, i never noticed it until now. sellers’ performance shines so brightly that everything else melts into the background.
that being said… kubrick being the perfectionist that he was, i can’t imagine him not overlooking this. i bet this was the best take, kubrick had to use it, and he cut the pie scene just to punish p.bull for f’ing up.
“Chapman and Palin, in particular, seems to have the toughest times keeping it straight-faced.”
It’s funny — I missed your MP reference in the previous sentence, so I just found myself asking aloud, “Sarah…?”.
As for this particular scene, have we all forgotten that infamous Kube mantra (“Real is good. Interesting is better.”)?
At any rate, Sellers has to be pretty high up on the all-time list of dudes who could challenge the most stoned-face thesps to keep it together when rolling?
I mean — most of us film buffs here have scene this scene countless times (and on a screen). Can you honestly imagine bearing first-hand witness to this madness, fresh as it was developing?