Blog Post 2

The still frame I chose to analyze is this here, taking place in the first scene of the film. I think the scene and this particular shot are crucial in establishing the black humor of the film and the concept of performance. Before this shot there is a narration about something crazy everyone is running to see, it shows the faces of multiple citizens with looks of astonishment, surprise, and fear. After a great build up the camera pans right to this, Adolf Hitler in full uniform standing in the middle of public. People run up behind him but stop just feet away, and stare at the man as if he’s an alien. The narrator then goes from building viewer’s suspense and anticipation to jokingly calling him, “The man with the little mustache, Adolf Hitler.” Up to this point the narrator and the visuals are all quite serious, then this Hitler based black comedy joke comes up, and the entire rest of the sequence talks about Hitler in a light, joking manor. The rest of the film also has this sort of black humor, and I think this is a perfect way to introduce audiences to a sort of comedy they might not be comfortable with/accustomed to, but will be quite present in the film. The shot also starts off a major aspect of the film, performance. Not only are their actors and characters of varying nationalities in this film, but there are multiple instances of one character pretending to be another. This is our first taste of it, the character Bronski pretending to be Hitler (fun fact the actor who played Bronski was Irish-American so that’s interesting). On top of that the narrator and the film itself play more jokes with the audience, letting you believe it’s actually Hitler for about another two minutes. Personally, I think this was a great “kill two birds with one stone” situation where the director could perfectly introduce us to to major themes of the film within a minute.