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For this Sunday Kino Night, first up is He Who Gets Slapped (1924). After losing his career and wife to an evil baron, a scientist (Lon Chaney) is forced to join a circus as a clown, where his only role is to be slapped repeatedly. He falls in love with a showgirl in the troupe, but uh-oh, she’s about to married off to, of all people, the baron. Aaahhhhh! Jokerification ensues. Many reviews compare this to Joker (2019) and The King of Comedy (1982) is depicting a comedian who snaps. Director Victor Sjostrom also helmed The Phantom Carriage (1921), which we previously watched. This is considered one of the best silent films, so let’s give it a whirl.

BONUS: Between the features, we will watch Buster Keaton 23-minute comic short The Goat (1921), in which he is mistaken for a criminal and imprisoned. A whole bunch of slapstick antics befalls the incompetent police as he endeavors to get out of this sticky situation. ACAB.

After that is Seven Beauties (1975), an Italian black comedy set during WW2, following a thief and all-around scoundrel who mooches off his seven sisters. After being arrested for murder, he finds himself in an army penal battalion, where he is, in turn, captured by the Germans and thrown into a concentration camp. He decides his best chance for survival is to seduce the female camp commandant. Darkly-comic antics ensue from there. Director-writer Lina Wertmuller also did the Mussolini assassination-plot thriller Love and Anarchy (1973); as with that film, this one is often interpreted as a feminist commentary on toxic masculinity.

We’ll start at 8PM EST on Blorptube, right here:

https://blorp.bot.nu/o/visual_cuisine

Be there, comrades!

Letterboxd:

• He Who Gets Slapped: https://letterboxd.com/film/he-who-gets-slapped/
• The Goat: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-goat/
• Seven Beauties: https://letterboxd.com/film/seven-beauties/

Doesthedogdie.com links:

• He Who Gets Slapped: Sorry, nothing on DTDD or IMDB.
• Seven Beauties: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/894393

CWs for He Who Gets Slapped:

• Alcohol.
• Smoking.
• Depression.
• Nervous breakdown.
• Mental illness.
• Violent mentally-ill person.
• Slapstick violence.
• Unstable reality.
• Hallucinations.
• Objectification of female characters.
• Sad ending.

CWs for Seven Beauties:

• Sexual assault: an inmate in a mental hospital is implied to have r*ped another inmate.
• Torture.
• Discussion of sexual assault.
• Prostitution.
• Misogyny.
• Domestic violence.
• Blood and gore.
• Sex.
• Hanging.
• Nudity.
• Pooping.
• Objectification of female characters.
• Misophonia.
• Someone struggles to breathe.
• Gaslighting.
• Mental hospital scene.
• Hate speech.
• Gun violence.
• Someone is physically restrained.
• PTSD.
• Slapping of woman.
• Electrotherapy.
• Abused becomes the abuser.
• Antisemitism.
• Choking.
• Bullying.
• Hospital scene.
• Plane crash.
• Screaming.
• Someone’s mouth is covered.
• Spitting.
• Nuclear explosion.
• Profanity.
• Shower scene.
• Unconsciousness.
• Incarceration.
• Homelessness.
• Natural bodies of water.

Links to movies:

• He Who Gets Slapped: https://tankie.tube/w/soFxyvY5SmaWxSNea2R7ZC
• The Goat: https://tankie.tube/w/qZGJNfZoDPJzBU7ob6p6SN
• Seven Beauties: https://tankie.tube/w/tQYchVch9Kjk69fRZezBWs