Global Cinema: Early Comedy Mise-en-scène

Now that I have officially started my Performing and Media Arts minor at Cornell University, I want to start integrating posts about films now. My website may no longer have a narrow fashion focus, but at the end of the day, it’s a conglomeration of my thoughts and I’d say that’s enough of a theme.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on two very important early comedy films:

Both Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924) and The Floorwalker (Charlie Chaplin, 1916) are impressively comedic silent films that can elicit laughs from seemingly any audience through strategic mise-en-scène. Since both films were silent, I found the comedic techniques including both subtle things and slapstick humor to be fascinating. The reliance on mise-en-scene was especially important during a time where cinematic jokes could not be spoken aloud, a stark difference from what we now imagine upon thinking of comedy (i.e. stand-up comedy, talkies).  

I particularly enjoyed the narrative of Sherlock Jr. more, as it reminded me of an earlier version of a romantic comedy—one of my favorite genres to watch. I also enjoyed the film-within-a-film concept and the contrast between the dreamt version of Keaton and his real character.  Figure behavior played an important role in the comedy of Keaton’s character as he maintained a stone face throughout the film, establishing an awkward yet persistent persona that made the absurd sequence of events and stunts even funnier. Props seemed very intentionally used, including the stolen pearls of Keaton’s love interest, explosive billiards Keaton repeatedly missed during the house investigation scene, and transportation. In contrast to Keaton’s real character wearing normal attire, his dreamt role as the upper-class film character involved a more glamorous and tailored costume. Settings also changed frequently throughout the film, including his love interest’s home, a pawn shop, the movie operator room, a mansion, and a long road. Each setting allows for a unique “near-miss” situation, each one hilarious due to the unexpectedness. For example, when Keaton’s detective character is playing billiards, he consistently avoids hitting the explosive 13-ball. This is also seen when he is riding through the road, he continues to avoid crashing into each increasingly strange moving object in his way.

In The Floorwalker, one main setting allowed for spatial continuity throughout the film. Different areas of the same store are repeated throughout the film, allowing the audience to create a mental map of the store’s layout. This allows the audience to clearly notice that Chaplin’s character gets easily confused by an escalator that only goes up to the boss’s office, while there is an elevator he relies on to go back down to the main floor as we know more information and can see more than the character within the film. Slapstick humor seems to be the primary form of comedy in the film, with a less unexpected approach than Sherlock Jr. The predictability of Chaplin’s character to do silly things that get him into further trouble, along with repetition and his dance-like movements, contribute to this. Props and costumes once again play important roles in the comedy film as the storyline revolves around a large bag filled with stolen cash, and exchanged outfits between Chaplin and an identical character of the film with whom he trades places. 

Overall, mise-en-scène stuck out to me in both films as evoking laughs from an audience seems much more difficult without spoken words. While intertitles helped with this obstacle, I believe the beauty of each film involves the carefully planned aspects, slapstick humor, and the seemingly inherent talents of both Chaplin and Keaton.