DrPhibes1964

One Saturday afternoon was flipping through the channels and just happened to stumble upon this. Immediately I recognized it as Fellini, but it was one had never seen before. I had missed a little of the beginning and didn't realize that it was part of an anthology of Poe stories down by three different directors. It'd be years before I got to see it in its entirety and the Fellini segment was by far the best. I was very happy when it was included in the Essential Fellini box set released by the Criterion Collection, using the version I had seen which has Terrance Stamp's actual voice rather being dubbed by an anonymous Italian actor. (This, in my opinion, is the best version to watch.) Even for Fellini this is bizarre. Terrance Stamp plays a burned out English actor arriving in Italy to make a "Catholic Western" and he's being pursued by a mysterious girl with long white hair and holding a large white ball. We learn that this is the devil from.an interview he gives on Italian television. The story is based very loosely based on the Poe story Never Bet the Devil Your Head, but there is little of the story in the film. It gets progressively stranger as it goes and ends with him racing his new car along narrow roads, hopelessly lost, trying to get back to Rome. It all feels like a nightmare you might have.

I've only seen a handful of Absolutely Fabulous episodes and either find them very funny or very annoying. This is another case where I like the supporting characters and intensely dislike the two main ones, Eddy and Patsy. So this episode has a very special cathartic quality to it as Saffy gets to air out her grievances about life with her mother and companion. I wanted to see more of the play. It reminds of The Night Man Cometh from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I don't know how anyone could keep.a straight face whenever Bubbles (Jane Horrocks) was in the scene. She is hilarious and is among my favourite characters in the series. My personal favourite scene is when Eddy and Patsy take a young Saffy to the park. She watches as these clearly intoxicated "adults" play. The funniest moment is when Patsy pushes an empty swing and Saffy has to remind her that "It comes back" and clocks her. I've watched this episode many times and it always makes me laugh.

Before I move forward with a review of this episode I'd like to preface these remarks with a few words. I love British comedy, especially the dry and deadpan style, and I like Rowan Atkinson in other things I have seen him, but as Mr. Bean goes I just understand why this series and the character has been so highly regarded. I imagine it's a sort of tribute to silent era comics and the various predicaments they get into. This is the only episode I've watched in its entirety and it didn't even provoke a chuckle. The only mildly "amusing" segment was at the theatre where Bean and his female companion (Matilda Ziegler) are watching a horror movie. Like the other segments it goes on far too long and the thin premise is stretched beyond its limits. This is symptomatic of the other segments and the grow less and less amusing as the minutes tick by. Meanwhile the audience laughs uproariously at every single gag, getting to the point where I've shouted out: WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT!!! This is just bad slapstick. Then there's Rowan Atkinson 's mugging which gets gets very tiresome. As I said, I have seen him in other things and find him very funny. His interview with Elton John is one that leaps foremost to mind. The lack of dialogue doesn't really bother me and I'm a fan of certain silent movie comics and humor can be purely visual if executed correctly. Obviously I will be in a minority on this opinion. I've tried watching some more of the series but my reaction is the same: It's not funny.