Kermode Uncut: Seriously Unfunny

Ameena so he hopefully alcantara Samuel boy or something bad enough you release three active I mean these are monkey friendly or not suffer me in the Alex not only my mother maybe we'll have a little bit better don't be was it well then what do the gone fiance if it'll give you a moment let me do they fill that welcome to come out uncut I did a blog a couple of weeks ago when the Klan came out on DVD and I was talking about the fact that that's a really really sort of scary and unsettling filmed with this brilliant central performance quite EMF ranch Ella who is best known up until the Klan for being a comedian and I was asking if you could think of other examples of people that you basically know from making you laugh taking a different path on screen whether it's doing serious roles or roles that are creepy and scary there was loads and loads of responses to this here at just a few of them I should say at the beginning several people flagged up Peter Sellers in being there also never let go that turn up a few times lots lots of mentions for Jim Carrey in The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind and of course Billy Connelly for mrs. Brown however he refused at a little more off the beaten track so this from Anthony Quinn Chris Tucker with some memorable performances in Jackie Brown and dead presidents on including this because thank you for mentioning dead presidents a film which really does get overlooked and he's one of the most important films of that decade as far as I'm concerned that's the movie that got forgotten in the 1990s so thanks for flagging that up this from Donna Nolan Steve Martin in David Mamet's the Spanish prisoner are really untalked about film oh so much to the Hitchcock style of thriller but also with a fantastic century influenced by Steve Martin that suave sophisticated man where you learn of his layers of the film goes by also shopgirl is superb and there were in fact many mentions on the blog of shopgirl this particularly like from Simon be he flags up several performances but says most notably Michael Palin cast against type in Brazil I have the great honor of turning up very briefly in Michael Palin's diary it's like one entry in which I interviewed him about the fact that I thought some of his best roles or his darkest roles and he seemed sort of quite thrilled about this and in Brazil as the torturer he is absolutely chilling and it's a brilliant role thanks for flagging that one up this from list dodo my vote goes to Richard Pryor in pull Schrader's excellent blue collar this is a very good call a film revolving around a group of friends and co-workers in the Detroit auto industry his co-stars or Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto it's well worth seeking out and it's a shame Pryor didn't get to do more straight roles again in many ways blue collar is really the basis of the whole of the rest of Schrader's canon I shared a lift with Paul Schrader at cinema and Media Studies conference in Atlanta recently he didn't say hello but then he was kind of cross about my review of that film he made the canyons they might onto this from an email she says Eric banner in Munich and Hanna also deserves a mention as indeed does chopper I remember introducing chopper on the film for extreme channel and I'd never seen Eric van before I had no idea that he was a comedian and I was really startled because it's such a brutal and rural role and fantastic performance by Eric fan it but I was really surprised to find out that Eric banner was known as a jovial jolly chappie elsewhere this from some sort of literature student one that's often overlooked I have to say forgotten about by me is the strange and wonderful instance of John Cleese in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein you know you're completely right and I had completely forgotten that John Cleese was in that film few more suggestions has really caught my eye from Helen F Olivia Colman in Tyrannosaur I loved her comic roles but that performance just floored me and five years on so the credits that didn't get a nomination from BAFTA it is a brilliant films because Olivia Colman is one of those people who does both comedy and straight roles and seems born to play both I don't actually primarily think her as a comedian I would always think of her as an actor many people also pointed out that Takeshi Kitano is a bit of a strange case this from Kevin Takeshi Kitano it was part of a Japanese comedy duo before playing the sadistic can't guarded Merry Christmas mr. Lawrence you can see the use of his comic timing in his direction and acting in the gangster hiding out masterpiece sonnet een I have to confess I remember working at sight and sound when we were first reviewing Takeshi Kitano movies and this constantly came up the subject of you do understand that he's known as a comedian first and foremost again something which I didn't know about because I first knew him through his film work this from babyface Michael and this is a very good call Charlie Chaplin as the ice cold killer in Monsieur Verdoux how could you forget that people always forget that Charlie Chaplin did indeed play a serial killer in Monsieur Verdoux a film which was absolutely torn apart by the press but now is look back on not just as an oddity but as something which represents a direction that Chaplin's career could perhaps have gone in it's a very strange very uncomfortable work I mean comedic elements definitely but yep he's a killer and I'm going to end with this from Part II poison Sergey Lopez is the horrific captain in Pan's Labyrinth his scene with the stuttering man still sent shivers down my spine people seem to forget that he was a family-friendly comedic actor in Spain before Guillermo del Toro changed all that and party poison also points out Monique in precious and actually I think this is perhaps the best call just watched it recently the other day for the first time since it came out and forgot how tremendous that performance is Wow no laughing matter indeed

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 72,548

Rating: 4.9556174 out of 5

Keywords: Kermode Uncut, Blog, Mark Kermode, BBC Radio 5 Live, The Clan, Guillermo Francello, Billy Connolly, Jim Carrey, Peter Sellers, The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Chris Tucker, Jackie Brown, Dead Presidents, Steve Martin, Michael palin, Richard Prior, Blue Collar, Yaphet Kotto, Harvey Keitel, Paul Schrader, The Canyons, Eric Bana, Munich, Chopper, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, John Cleese, Olivia Colman, Takeshi Kitano, Monsieur Verdoux

Id: 5ez1vC6EAhE

Length: 6min 13sec (373 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 28 2016