Richard Lester's film A Hard Day's Night (1964)

Richard Lester's film A Hard Day's Night (1964) is a narrative film and not a documentary, though it makes use of the methods of cinema vTritT and other documentary techniques to add a level of realism that becomes itself a subject of humor in the film. Ostensibly, the film follows the Beatles in the course of a day. The four play themselves and are seen preparing for an appearance, interacting with managers and others, and being pursued by screaming fans. Yet, this is not a documentary at all. It is a scripted film with a narrative structure and with created scenes rather than scenes observed by an indifferent camera. The documentary look of the film is used to enhance the effect of the comedy, to provide a sense of realism against which the action is played, and to bring the viewer that much closer to the characters of the Beatles as they are portrayed in this film.

The cinema vTritT approach was not new with A Hard Day's Night, though it was not commonly employed in comedy. In this film, though, director Richard Lester was dealing with a cultural phenomenon, a real group of four young men who had achieved enormous success, popularity, and recognition for their music and who were now capitalizing on that success in the cinema. Lester's use of documentary techniques takes the viewer directly into the world of the Beatles and creates the impression that the film being watched is a real account of their lives. At the same time, Lester undercuts this and brings out a

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r comic effect. The way the man and the train lurches is enhanced by the handheld camera following closely behind him in the corridor, and the camera follows him into the compartment. The scene inside the compartment veers between a documentary-like handheld camera and cross-cutting as the man argues that he rides the train twice a week and has certain privileges. The style of the scene at that point is more like a structured narrative and does not have the necessary "overheard" dialogue of other scenes. As noted, the documentary overlay on the film makes everything seem more real than real. This is one of the effects of gritty black-and-white photography--even though it is less real than the real world, which is after all in color, it seems more realistic to the viewer. Up to this point, the film has structured a realistic sequence of events and done so in a realistic manner, though clearly with a humorous zest to the way each scene is approached. At this point, though, a different note is introduced, one that jars precisely because it works against the realism already created. The realism of the scene is undercut when the four boys leave the compartment and then begin shouting from outside the compartment at the busine

Category: Film - R