Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a look at the awesome and hilarious documentary THE ARISTOCRATS, featuring a who's who of comedians from today, yesterday and tomorrow (including, but not limited to Sarah "yum-yum" Silverman, George Carlin, Bob "Filthy Fucker" Saget and even a special appearance by a few kids from SOUTH PARK). This is perhaps the filthiest string of words captured into a 2 hour-ish movie ever in the history cinema and it'll make you laugh non-stop until the end... I was lucky enough to catch it at SXSW and I hear it has a New York/LA limited release on the 29th of July, with a wider release mid-August. If you see it playing at a film festival or something in the mean time, do not miss it. Anyway, here's Thalberg with his take on it!
Hey Harry.
Thalberg here from Toronto, where I just came from a preview screening of "The Aristocrats", a new and very daring comedy documentary, which knocked them dead at Sundance. It was held at The Paramount, a primo downtown theatre and it was packed to the rafters. The director, Paul Provenza was there, and he seemed to be very comfortable in front of the audience. He co-directed with Penn Gilette from Penn and Teller fame, who was not in attendance but is featured quite prominently in the film.
To those who haven't heard about it, "The Aristocrats" is a joke told by comedians to other comedians (going back to Vaudeville days) which starts off with a standard opening line and ends with the punchline,The Aristocrats. It's up to the comic telling the joke to fill in the middle. And this is where the heart of the film is. The middle of this joke is the most filthy, vile wording and imagery you can possibly think of. Without going into too much detail, it involves incest, beastiality, vomit, cum...well you get the picture, or not. That this film transcends the boundaries of good taste is an understatement. But that's the point. The Aristicrats deals with changing tastes and moralities and the way the way comedians deal with each other as a peer group. I felt like I was invited to the Friars (the film has a hysterical scene shot there starring Gilbert Goddfried in it) and made privy to the secret world of comedians. There are many famous faces in it, like Robin Williams, Jason Alexander, Phyllis Diller, David Brenner, George Carlin, etc. And each has their own take on the joke and what they think of it, how it works, and why they tell it. The Aristocrats is definitely what an independent film is all about. This film would never be released by a major studio (but if it makes a lot of money, who knows). It's being distributed by Thinkfilm, a small Canadian firm of whom director Provenza says, "have balls of steel".
So if you're easily offended, The Aristocrats is not for you. But if you want to laugh your guts out, then go and see it. You won't be disappointed. Oh, watch for the scene with the mime, it's priceless.
Thalberg out.
