Making the Wit Seem Unwitting

[Dave Monroe]

>From Rick Lyman, "Making the Wit Seem Unwitting:
Watching Movies with Barry Sonnenfeld," NY Times,
Friday, March 29th, 2002 ...

AMAGANSETT, N.Y. — BEING a movie director," Barry
Sonnenfeld said, "is all about answering hundreds of
questions like `Do you want the green one or the red
one?'"
   He grabbed half of his sandwich, melted Brie oozing
from the sides, and took a huge bite, chewing
thoughtfully. "It's through the accumulation of
hundreds of these kinds of questions for your set
decorators and your cinematographer and everyone else
that a director eventually creates a style," he said.
"And what I really love about this movie, my favorite
movie of all time, is that it's all about a director
setting a specific tone and style and making sure that
every single aspect is completely consistent with that
tone."
   The first frames of Stanley Kubrick's nuclear
satire, "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop
Worrying and Love the Bomb," were coming up on the
screen of Mr. Sonnenfeld's basement screening room, a
high-tech playground of projectors and digital
equipment.
   "The other thing that I love about this movie," he
said, "and one of the reasons that it's meant so much
to me, is that it's a comedy in which no one in the
movie is allowed to acknowledge that they're in a
comedy. To me, that's the hallmark of the best
American comedies."
   Mr. Kubrick's straight-faced satire may include
bizarre characters with ridiculous names — Gen. Jack
D. Ripper, President Merkin Muffley and, of course,
Col. Bat Guano — but they always deliver their lines
with complete conviction, drawing comedy from the
contrast between the serious line readings and the
utter silliness of what's being said.
   "Mostly, for me, directing is all about tone," Mr.
Sonnenfeld said. "The single most important thing that
a director does is to decide on a tone, whether it's
sloppy or controlled or dark or absurd. And to me,
this is a perfect example of a director who has picked
a very specific tone and then every single thing, from
the script to the performances to the way it's shot,
serves that tone. And another thing: this is a movie
where everyone, from the actors to the
cinematographer, has been told that they are not
making a comedy. If any of these actors had tried to
play `Dr. Strangelove' as a comedy, it would have been
a disastrous movie. There is no winking at the
camera--except for one specific moment, but we'll talk
about that later."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/movies/29WATC.html?todaysheadlines

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