“It’s a huge mistake for institutions not to fund comedy because they think they won’t get a return or because they think people won’t want to see it”
– The actor and visual artist discusses how comedy can travel across borders and why projects in this genre continue to receive insufficient public funding
Cineuropa sat down with Alec von Bargen, head of studies for TorinoFilmLab‘s ComedyLab. The programme, the third edition of which is currently under way in Kraków, is dedicated to comedy projects with international potential. von Bargen, who is also an actor and visual artist, and is preparing to direct his debut feature next year, discusses how comedy can travel across borders and why projects in this genre continue to receive insufficient public funding.
Cineuropa: As the head of studies for ComedyLab, what makes you laugh?
Alec von Bargen: I can appreciate different types of comedy like slapstick; I’m a huge fan of mockumentary. But what makes me laugh is seeing myself reflected in the honesty of the situation, in what the character is living through or doing. They can be male or female, or the situation can be happening in a country I’ve never been to before, or it can be expressed in a language I don’t speak, but [I laugh if] I’ve been through a similar situation before. Maybe it comes from the shame of knowing that you’re just as awkward as the person on screen, or it might come from the realisation, “Oh shit, that happened to me.” I also love dark humour. Fargo is one of the most beautiful examples of comedy that shouldn’t be comedic; it emerges from the characters’ reactions, and the consequences of their stupidity or lack of knowledge.
Dark humour is often about breaking rules and taboos, but that type of comedy is often culture-specific and has trouble travelling abroad. While working on international comedy projects, how do you address this?
I understand that sentiment, and it does happen quite a bit that comedy doesn’t travel well. But there’s a principle for me that’s relevant to every genre: emotion over information. Emotion is something we all feel. I may not be a 12-year-old girl who’s in love with a 13-year-old boy who isn’t paying attention to me, and I may not wear a pink bow in the playground so he will notice me, but I know he’s in love with another girl. I can’t relate directly to that, but I can relate to the feeling of being rejected or liking somebody. Of course, you still need the information in order to put together the feature, and establish the characters, where they’re coming from and what they’re doing, but when we’re writing it out, I ask, “What can be swapped out for emotion?” Because that’s the emotion that will carry you internationally, and that’s what the international audience will grasp on to. That is, unless it’s a comedy that is deliberately local, such as a political satire of a specific place, which is being made only for that particular country.
Broadly speaking, comedies are popular with audiences but tend to be less well funded by public institutions across Europe. What do you think are the chances for comedy, as a genre, to be better funded and to enjoy wider circulation?
A well-made comedy that travels well earns much more than a drama can. We’ve seen so many examples of that worldwide, from Toni Erdmann to Pretty Woman in the USA. One of our mentors right now, Laura Piani, from France, wrote and directed the rom-com Jane Austen Wrecked My Life – it’s a beautiful little gem of a film. You kind of knew it would see success in France, but suddenly, it’s being screened worldwide, and everybody’s watching it because it’s unpretentious and has a lightness to it.
It’s a huge mistake for institutions not to fund comedy because they think they won’t get a return or because they think people won’t want to see it, especially now, with the way the world is playing out. Our lives are in desperate need of comedy. The more we can support comedies, the more we can support spaces where people can go and disappear for two hours. When I say lightness, I don’t mean irrelevance; I mean the audience having the sense that they can breathe because in the real world, we’re not breathing right now. So, now more than ever, it’s so important for the institutions to understand that that’s necessary.
Plus, comedies can be made on any budget. One of the projects from the first edition of ComedyLab, Honeyjoon by Lilian T Mehrel, won the $1 million AT&T Award at the Tribeca Film Festival. So, we do projects across the board. But it’s a shame that we don’t have the relevant education here, especially in Europe. In the USA, the UK and Australia, there’s more willingness to embrace comedy. This is part of the responsibility inherent in my job title – to educate the audience, to educate the institutions, and to educate the people behind the funds and show them that you can make a film that can travel across borders and can bring relief to people in a moment when it’s really needed.
