One of the many events happening throughout the summer months at New York’s Museum of Modern Art is a silent film festival. This is entitled “Cruel and Unusual Comedy” and it is and investigation in and an observation into the commentary illustrating social culture and how it was presented in the slapstick comedies and films in the United States during the first part of the 1900′s. Critics and spectators have warned that the films may be offensive to those with the politically correct ideologies of today. And if the case may be, it is still an historical look into the ideology and the history, illustrated and tracked by virtue of artistic expression, of that time in U.S. history. These comedies look back to the views of the mindsets of the 20′s and 30′s, in regards to ethnicity, violence, substance abuse, sexual orientation and race, and the way in which the film-makers dealt with these painful issues of society in a comedic way. Any student of comedy knows that what is funny, often comes out of what is painful. In a speech made for the commencement ceremony of those graduating from Tulane University in New Orleans, Lousiana, Ellen DeGeneres describes how many of life’s accomplishments are those made in the face of horrible situations, that comedy heals.
Many of the historians and and fans of the silent era are travelling and staying in the boutique hotels. New York has quite a list to choose from. Some of the films illustrate the growth of society as a whole with regards to this issue, while others enforce the aspects that sadly remain the same. One of the films featured is the dark comedy, “Their First Execution”. This film tells the story of a prison staff, excited at the chance of using a new and improved electric chair. Another stars the legends Mildred Davis and Harold Lloyd as a couple newly married that must stick out the night in a haunted mansion in order to receive their inheritance. All the films are introduced by historians in order of communicating the relevance that they had at the time, and their relevance for the society of today. The silent movie era produced many slapstick comedic films. And topics that ranged from industrialization to political to sexual to racial are issues that affect America to this day. This is one exhibit, especially for film buffs, that should not be missed.
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