Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Two-minute Intros: Comedy Genre

The Life of Brian  (1979)





The film starts with stars individually lighting up in the night sky, accompanied by the sound of a choir singing. The camera pans down to reveal three silhouetted figures riding camels’ in a desert scene. The figures appear to be men dressed in Arab robes.
The camera then cuts to a scene with the same three men, still on camels, making their way down the narrow passageways of a town. The three men enter a hut and greet a mother and baby. The men startle the mother but then introduce themselves as three wise men. Mother questions how wise they are, “waking me up at 2am in the morning”. She thinks they might be “on the bottle”.
The wise men explain that they are here to pay homage to the baby. Mother is not interested and ushers them out of the house. She changes her mind and invites them back in when they offer her very valuable gifts. She is not so sure on the myrrh however.
This whole sequence takes place before the titles have appeared. We have discovered that the film is a comedy (men in drag, funny voices, etc.) and that it has a religious theme (three wise men).

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