This morning I was not feeling very well and I decided to take a sick day to regain my strength.
So I spent most of the day reading Jose Saramago's "Blindness" (if you haven't read it, please do), which has also been made into a movie, starring the excellent Mark Raffalo and the wonderful Julian Moore.
It's one of the few times I've seen the movie before reading the book, but even though I'm familiar with the plot and its development, I can say that the book has me hooked.
However, we're mostly talking about movies here and I'll get right back to that.
After reading enough, I decided until my partner is done from work, I'm going to watch a movie. I wanted something lighthearted to laugh at, so out of all my choices I ended up watching The Return of Pink Panther. And I can admit it put me in a good mood. I watched the movie and then followed You Tube videos of Inspector Clouseau upsetting everything in his path.
What a creative genius thought up and created this character. It is said to have been a confluence of Edwards' script but mostly Sellers' genius.
This post is in honor of the beloved anti-hero character, Inspector Clouseau.
Inspector Clouseau is a clumsy Parisian detective who is prone to accidents, which affect little himself and more others around him. He gets himself into situations that the average person would avoid (and it is this exaggeration in his character that causes the laughter). Who will forget the interrogation scene in The Pink Panther Strikes Again where in one minute he has managed to fall down the stairs doing a one-trick ponytail, falling into a suit of armor, getting his hand stuck in the armor's metal glove that has a huge flail on the end of it, destroying everything in his path. A scene straight out of comedy school that elicits hysterical laughter.
He can throw those around them off their game. It is something that excludes from the first film in the series that Clouseau has a magical talent for infuriating others, but most notably his supervisor, Chief Inspector Dreyfus, who is gradually driven to madness as his perfectly rational mind cannot wrap its head around how this Clouseau not only manages to survive but also solve the cases assigned to him.
Clouseau's english is impecable. "Do you have a reum?" "on tje pheone"
He wants everytime to be alert, so he has ordered his house servant, Cato, to attack him at any time, so that he can shapren his senses and exercise his martial arts skills. Cato is consisent to his boss' orders, causing mayhem during these attacks. Usually, Cato suffer in the end...
He is a master at disguises...
But most importantly, he solves the mysteries that cover their cases even if he fails to arrest the suspects, who often act under his nose. He has a great cop instinct, however sometimes he manages to bring the guilty to jail by accident, that means by his clumsy ways.
Inspector Clouseau, as some people claim, is a parody of Hercules Poirot. If against the brilliant, skilled Belgian detective, he presents a fool - almost an idiot, as Dreyfous calls him, who, although he has the instincts of a policeman, is so naive that he is fooled and so clumsy that he brings destruction behind him and around him.
Clouseau, if you overlook the exaggeration and elements of farce that weave his films, is an average man.
A typical megalomaniac who thinks he is better than others, that he can do it perfectly even if he doesn't have the tools and who blames any misfortunes on the other person "stupid bird..." "Swine moat" or one who won't admit his own stupidity by saying "I knew that".
He is not our common hero, but most certain with all these exaggeration and farcian acts an anti-hero and a big reason for us to laugh till tears.
Thank you for reading!