MovieChat Forums > Whisky (2004) Discussion > Comedy? I think not.

Comedy? I think not.

posted 18 years ago by prognathous
15 replies | jump to latest

Main Entry: com·e·dy
Pronunciation: 'kä-m;-dE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -dies

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French comedie, from Latin comoedia, from Greek kOmOidia, from kOmos revel + aeidein to sing -- more at ODE
1 a : a medieval narrative that ends happily ;Dante's Divine Comedy; b : a literary work written in a comic style or treating a comic theme
2 a : a drama of light and amusing character and typically with a happy ending b : the genre of dramatic literature dealing with the comic or with the serious in a light or satirical manner -- compare TRAGEDY
3 : a ludicrous or farcical event or series of events
4 a : the comic element ;the comedy of many life situations; b : humorous entertainment ;nightclub comedy

http://webster.com/dictionary/comedy

Do tell, how does this film match the definition of "Comedy"?

Prog.

[–] gillb-2 16 years ago

I refer the honourable Prog to the definition 4a which he has faithfully reproduced in his original post above.

The most defining characteristic of Whisky was the comedy it unearthed in the banality of everyday life.

A great film, perhaps not ideally suited for the Michael Bay fans of this world, but wonderful in its own right.

[–] ppllkk 14 years ago

From the statement by Pablo Stoll on the DVD/ROM:

"For some time now I have been asking myself why we produced this film. Why, after 25 WATTS, a youthful and autobiographical film, we produced Whisky, a film about two 60-year-old Jewish brothers, a woman and a stocking factory. I am an only child, just like my partner. We are neither 60 nor Jewish nor do we have a stocking factory. When we wrote the script, we started to realize that perhaps these characters were not much different from ourselves. That we were not altogether so far from these three types of loneliness. That they could be a projection of ourselves, of what we might be in twenty, thirty years. Behind the mask played by Jacobo, Herman and Marta, we come face to face with our fears.

In some way, Whisky is different from, yet at the same time very similar to 25 WATTS. There is something in its atmosphere, its melancholy, its tone, that links the two. Something in the tension achieved by the scenes. Where in 25 WATTS there were words, here we have silence, but both work the same way, as if the Whisky characters were already tired of talking, as if they had nothing else to say. It is said that some directors always make the same film. Maybe this is happening to us a little too."

There is a definite streak of humor in "Whisky," but it is a very nervous humor, like whistling by the graveyard. It seems clear that the writers/directors did not think that they were making a comedy.