The objective is clear: it is a celebration of the humor of Flann O'Brien, with only one reserve brought up in the title by "the work" of Flann O'Brien, because his work is not all humor and all that humor is maybe not that humorous.
One thing is obvious when you watch the film. It is an all-male cast with about practically only men in the stories, and the only episode about women is the scene of the drunk woman who celebrated a Friday night for seventeen hours. They even regret in one sketch the good old time when in pubs there was only one toilet for men, and of course none for women.
The second thing that is obvious is that the only objective of the performers is to make the audience laugh, as one said lately and I overheard it, make them laugh at the right time. It becomes then what all one-man shows and that kind of comedy by comedians imply: a stereotyped and perfectly organized tale in order to mechanically cause laughter at the proper moments for the performer who can then enjoy his effect and rest a minute with a smile.
But that is a reduction of Flann O'Brien to not even the skeleton of the man but only to a couple of bones in the left foot of the man, no more. And this video, if you watch the bonuses is also representative of the essential bones and flesh of the man, though on a very small scale on the most unobtrusive side.
The best piece that represents this density and depth in Flann O'Brien is the small sketch called "John Duffy's Brother". One day a man becomes a train from breakfast time to lunch time and behaves as a train during that period of time, including of course at the office. This is the drama of an isolated man who lives alone and hence is obliged to live with himself. It is not rare such isolated people develop such a psychosis or neurosis. But that is not the meaning of the story. That makes the character pathetic and the story particularly cruel with a society that breeds such situations.
The real meaning of the story is in the fact the man believes he is a train and identifies with that train, the train that arrives in Dublin with office workers in the morning, the train he could take if he did not live close at hand and walked to his working place, he could take and somewhere he regrets not taking. His neurosis is then the result of our mechanized society in which human beings are supposed to adapt all by themselves without any help. It is easy to become the machine itself. For a bureaucrat who fills forms all day long the only machine they could be concerned with before the automobile is the train. It could have been a tram but a tram is less regular than a train, less isolated since it runs in the streets. That is the desire, and the obligation, to be regular, mechanical, stereotyped, in other words a pale superficial appearance, a reflection of what you may be in an evanescent mirror that has no density, no reality, no materiality.
That's the sad meaning of the story and it is not funny at all. It could be made funny like Charlie Chaplin did in "Modern Times", but here it is sad, tragic, dramatic, with no positive ending at all.
The chap comes back from his illusion when plunging his teeth in some piece of boiled potato for his solitary lunch at home, but the sketch here takes off the punch-line of the story which is the smile of John Duffy's brother on arriving late at the office this afternoon. He says: "I'm afraid the train is a bit late getting back." And he smiles. Flann O'Brien then comments upon that smile: "The smile seemed to mean a morning joke was not good enough for the same evening." But we know better than thinking it is what the man thinks about his being a train on that morning. The smile is a way to make others accept his prank as a joke, and it is a also a way for Flann O'Brien is evacuate any attempt at seeing a deeper meaning than just a joke.
In this sketch this final punch line is cut off and that gives to the story a full flavor of drama, pathetic drama. Are we all like that, in a way or another? And that is not funny at all, neither strange, nor ah-ah, nor so-so Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
One thing is obvious when you watch the film. It is an all-male cast with about practically only men in the stories, and the only episode about women is the scene of the drunk woman who celebrated a Friday night for seventeen hours. They even regret in one sketch the good old time when in pubs there was only one toilet for men, and of course none for women.
The second thing that is obvious is that the only objective of the performers is to make the audience laugh, as one said lately and I overheard it, make them laugh at the right time. It becomes then what all one-man shows and that kind of comedy by comedians imply: a stereotyped and perfectly organized tale in order to mechanically cause laughter at the proper moments for the performer who can then enjoy his effect and rest a minute with a smile.
But that is a reduction of Flann O'Brien to not even the skeleton of the man but only to a couple of bones in the left foot of the man, no more. And this video, if you watch the bonuses is also representative of the essential bones and flesh of the man, though on a very small scale on the most unobtrusive side.
The best piece that represents this density and depth in Flann O'Brien is the small sketch called "John Duffy's Brother". One day a man becomes a train from breakfast time to lunch time and behaves as a train during that period of time, including of course at the office. This is the drama of an isolated man who lives alone and hence is obliged to live with himself. It is not rare such isolated people develop such a psychosis or neurosis. But that is not the meaning of the story. That makes the character pathetic and the story particularly cruel with a society that breeds such situations.
The real meaning of the story is in the fact the man believes he is a train and identifies with that train, the train that arrives in Dublin with office workers in the morning, the train he could take if he did not live close at hand and walked to his working place, he could take and somewhere he regrets not taking. His neurosis is then the result of our mechanized society in which human beings are supposed to adapt all by themselves without any help. It is easy to become the machine itself. For a bureaucrat who fills forms all day long the only machine they could be concerned with before the automobile is the train. It could have been a tram but a tram is less regular than a train, less isolated since it runs in the streets. That is the desire, and the obligation, to be regular, mechanical, stereotyped, in other words a pale superficial appearance, a reflection of what you may be in an evanescent mirror that has no density, no reality, no materiality.
That's the sad meaning of the story and it is not funny at all. It could be made funny like Charlie Chaplin did in "Modern Times", but here it is sad, tragic, dramatic, with no positive ending at all.
The chap comes back from his illusion when plunging his teeth in some piece of boiled potato for his solitary lunch at home, but the sketch here takes off the punch-line of the story which is the smile of John Duffy's brother on arriving late at the office this afternoon. He says: "I'm afraid the train is a bit late getting back." And he smiles. Flann O'Brien then comments upon that smile: "The smile seemed to mean a morning joke was not good enough for the same evening." But we know better than thinking it is what the man thinks about his being a train on that morning. The smile is a way to make others accept his prank as a joke, and it is a also a way for Flann O'Brien is evacuate any attempt at seeing a deeper meaning than just a joke.
In this sketch this final punch line is cut off and that gives to the story a full flavor of drama, pathetic drama. Are we all like that, in a way or another? And that is not funny at all, neither strange, nor ah-ah, nor so-so Dr Jacques COULARDEAU