Culturethèque
Two for tea, tea for two
On the one hand, we have a surrealist lady-goth who wears silver cowboy boots. On the other hand, we have a jazz pianist who plays forty faces per minute. On the other other hand, we enter the world of the weird and wonderful where a third hand is essential…
Noel Fielding and Louis de Funès use anything but salt and pepper to season the comedy world. As we explore the mechanics of their minds, we find a plethora of unexpected juxtapositions which confuse reality with dreams. Come with me now on a journey through time and space…to the planet of hibernatus
Louis Germain David de Funès de Galarza (1914-1983)
Hatched out of an orange in Seville, Louis de Funès combines Spanish expressivity with French grandesque (despite standing at 5ft 4in). De Funès’ first step on the fame ladder was at the Lycée Condorcet, which also churned out the likes of Gainsbourg, Lévi-Strauss and Proust. After being thrown out of several jobs we come to the next step: the Pigalle. Keep those “tuts” at bay as he was not as a curious tourist but rather a successful jazz pianist. Climbing up still to the first film debut…for a total of forty seconds as a porter in ‘La Tentation de Barbizon’. Now, talent was in sight de Funès sprinted up that ladder by making an appearance in over 130 films in 20 years. His characteristically short tempered character pushes any glimpse of Michael McIntyre out of site. De Funès reached the top quite literally when he received the knight of France’s Legion d’honneur in 1973 and is still classed as France’s best comedian.
So, a man of many expression yet still retained that French “va va voom”. De Funès provides originality with wit as I quote in an interview “I am only interested in films that have audiences of 5,000,000”. Well this film certainly did. De Funès used all the stereotypes and managed to get away with it, take for instance la mariée est noire or in the la grande vadrouille where he bullies his colleague Bourville (we all remember the
bigger shoes just for comfort!) and to tell an Spanish girl to go to bed as she has asked a conclusive answer...I could go on…
Noel Fielding (1973-present)
From a man of many middle names to a man with none. Brace yourselves as we plonge into the neo-Dali sea... If he is an unfamiliar face to you lovely people, Noel Fielding uses brain and brawn to produce the bizarre. Fielding started out as a fine art student and was gradually tolero-ed into comedy in the most unlikely of ways. I must quote a friend who I met a couple of years ago who said he saw Fielding “dressed as a crow prancing around a pub in Camden”…that basically sums him up in a nutshell. However, there is philosophy behind the folly. Fielding digs for the English highlights of Salvador Dali, Henri Rousseau and René Magritte and mixes this with a hint of cockney London. Take for instance the green Hitcher who has a mint polo for his eye; madness at first but part of normality when you are humming the song in the shower.
Now for Fielding’s influences we must take a seat in a lesson of art. Our first lecturer is Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) a French man, no less. A post-impressionist who lives in the jungle, but not a tangible one (naturally, as he is an artist). Rousseau, like many of us I am sure, never stepped foot in a jungle, yet his paintings depict the corners which even the tigers of Rudyard Kipling’s stories have not yet ventured into. Next enters René Magritte (1898-1967). This is where Fielding gets the philosophy pieces for his comedy jigsaw. Magritte’s main aim is to have no hidden meanings behind his oeuvres (just don’t tell the arty farty of la Sorbonne). Then we have Salvador Dali (1904-1989), you only really need to watch Fielding’s favourite clip and still be baffled. So, an assortment of surrealism brings forth the method behind the madness, why, you only need to ask the moon…
To wrap this up, we can see how the profession of a comedian is not to be laughed at. De Funès was well grounded in Molière articulateness whilst Fielding made a shrine to surrealism. Traditionally, I leave you with a tribute…here’s to cleverness which is slightly out of touch with the norm…
Next week, it's brains over beauty: Elizabeth I vs Françoise Sagan.
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