Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 129
British Film Comedy
125
they pushed past the boundaries of what was then considered “good taste.” With
its new level of sledgehammer comedy, brutal cartoon violence, and most of all, its
accurate lampooning of the last frayed remnants of the British social fabric. G uest
H ouse P ara dise gestures toward a new and more direct form of comedic address,
which audiences on the continent fervently embrace. Guest House Paradise suggests
that whatever artificial barriers might have remained in filmic comedy have been
effectively shattered, and that a new breed of “hyperreal” (Edmondson’s own term,
surprisingly) slapstick can be effectively melded with a narrative line that both
develops the characters and their world, and also sustains audience interest. Now
that the barricades have fallen, what will happen next? Further assaults by Richie,
Eddie and their compatriots on the “public decency” are certainly to be expected,
and as G u e st H ouse P a ra d ise persuasively demonstrates, such escapades are
essential to the vibrancy and vitality of film comedy, as well as the fabric of any
open society, and are therefore eminently desirable.
University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Works Cited
Wheeler Winston Dixon
Barr, Charles. Ealing Studios. London and Devon: Cameron and Tayleur, David and Charles,
1977.
Bye, Ed and Simon Burchell, dirs. The Making o f Guest House Paradiso. Prod. Helen
Parker. VVL Productions in Association with House Films Ltd., 1999.
Ciment, Michel. Conversations with Losey. London: Methuen, 1985.
Dixon, Wheeler Winston. Re-Viewing British Cinema 1900-1992. Albany: State U of New
York P, 1992.
Edmondson, Adrian, dir. Guest House Paradiso. Scr. Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson.
Prod. Phil McIntyre. Universal, 1999.
The Adrian Edmondson Web Site, at:
,
and
.
Hutchings, Peter. Hammer and Beyond: The British Horror Film. Manchester: Manchester
UP, 1993.
Landy, Marcia. British Genres: Cinema and Society, 1930-1960. Princeton: Princeton UP,
1991.
Mathews, Tom D. Censored. London: Chatto and Windus, 1994.
The Rik Mayall Web Site, at:
,
,
,
, and