It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded anything here, and while there have been plenty of films I thought I would review; I have simply been too busy to commit anything to paper. However, Blake Edwards passed away last evening due to complications from pneumonia, and I’d like to take a moment to discuss one of my favorite film makers.
A good friend of the family introduced me to Edward’s work through the Pink Panther films when I was very young, and I will always be indebted to him for that service. They are, without a doubt, some of the funniest movies ever made, and they launched my admiration for the sixties comedy. Peter sellers created a character that while often imitated, has never been surpassed. My parents are fond of recalling how hard I laughed (and still do) at Cloussou’s antics, rolling on the floor as a pre-teen. Later viewings opened my eyes to the subtle sexual innuendo at play in the jokes, and added an entirely new depth to them. They still rank among my favorites. To paraphrase some of what others have said, Blake Edwards defined sixties cool. Part French new wave, part screwball comedy, part farce and all genius; Edwards had a way of making movies that I feel is woefully absent today. He understood, as all good comedy directors do, that a comedy should and must be a good film first, and then funny. He was the master at this. The Pink Panther would still be perfectively serviceable as a drama, as would A Shot in The Dark, without the jokes, and that is what makes them brilliant. They are fine films that are also funny, not revers engineered from a few punch lines, but fully rounded pieces of genuinely brilliant film making. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the standard to which all romantic comedies are held to, and one of the most defining films of the sixties. And while Capote and Hepburn were vital to that, it is Edward’s direction that raises it above most of its genre.
If I appear to gush, I apologize. But these films had an enormous impact on my taste. I invariably compare any comedy to his work, and whenever something occurs in a film that reminds me of him, I will always think better of the flick.
When he received an Honorary Oscar in 2004, and entered the stage in a wheel chair which careened of course and into the set. It was such a perfect gag that thinking back on it now I realize that no one could possibly pull it off the with mixture of slapstick and class that he did. His films are bright and vibrant, and every character is rounded and important, and they are all absurd. Even Julie Andrews, who some would say (and I probably agree) is the epitome of grace, showed us how absurd she could be in 10, Victor/Victoria, and (cough cough) S.O.B. On a side note, Andrews and Edwards married in 1969, and she was by his bedside last evening when he died. If the recent truck load of Hollywood divorces is discouraging for those thespians out there, I say look to Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, that’s how it is done.
His acceptance speech was humble and thankful to all of the people in his life; his quote regarding his Wife was particularly telling of the mix of class and humor he appeared to have referring to her as his “beautiful English broad with the incomparable soprano and the promiscuous language.”
I hope that comedy will once again reach the kind of slickness and style it had when Edwards was at his peak. He was and will always be one of the all-time greatest director’s in the world. Comedy is a difficult thing, but he made it look easy.
I have to go now; I’m catching the next plane to Lugash with Sir Charles Phantom, the notorious Litton.
Blake Edwards was 88 years old.
