''The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film'' is a 1959 British
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
directed by
Richard Lester
Richard Lester Liebman (born January 19, 1932) is an American retired film director based in the United Kingdom.
He is best known for directing the Beatles' films '' A Hard Day's Night'' (1964) and ''Help!'' (1965), and the superhero films ''S ...
and
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
, in collaboration with
Bruce Lacey
Bruce Lacey (31 March 1927 – 18 February 2016) was a British artist, performer and eccentric. After completing his national service in the Navy he became established on the avantgarde scene with his performance art and mechanical constructs. He ...
. The film was released in 1959.
It was filmed over two Sundays in 1959, at a cost of around £70 () (including £5 for the rental of a field).
It was nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
, but did not win. It was a favourite of
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, which led to Lester's being hired to direct ''
A Hard Day's Night'' and then ''
Help!
''Help!'' is the fifth studio album by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to their Help! (film), film of the same name. It was released on 6 August 1965. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the singles "Help! ( ...
'', in which Lacey makes a guest appearance as
George Harrison
George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...
's gardener in the sequence where the group arrive at their 'home'.
The short film has been made available as a special feature on several home video releases of ''A Hard Day's Night''. It is also featured in ''The Unknown Peter Sellers'' and a
BFI
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
released collection of rarely seen films from Bruce Lacey's career entitled ''The Lacey Rituals''. It is also included as a special feature of the
StudioCanal
StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns ...
issue of ''
I'm All Right Jack
''I'm All Right Jack'' is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney based on the 1958 novel ''Private Life'' by Alan Hackney.
The film is a sequel t ...
''.
Synopsis
The short consists of a series of surreal vignettes which transpire in the English countryside and involve a rotating array of protagonists. It begins with a man watching through a telescope how an old woman cleans a meadow with a rag and bucket. Other examples are a photographer who
tries to develop a film in the water of a lake after wrapping a black piece of cloth around his head, or an athlete who is performing push-ups and is then used as the seat for the model of a portrait painter. The model has numbers on her face which the painter uses to choose the correct colors from his
palette. The same athlete later
throws a hammer, which is then shot down like a
skeet shooting
Skeet shooting is a recreational and competitive activity where participants use shotguns to attempt to break clay targets which two fixed stations mechanically fling into the air at high speed and at a variety of angles.
Skeet is one of the t ...
target by a hunter. The film ends with a man wearing a
top hat
A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditionally m ...
and one
boxing glove
Boxing gloves are cushioned gloves that fighters wear on their hands during boxing matches and practices. Unlike "fist-load weapons" (such as the ancient cestus) which were designed as a lethal weapon, modern boxing gloves are non-lethal, desig ...
knocking out another man he had been luring for a long time. The man then enters a hut, undresses, puts the boxing glove back on and goes to sleep, turning off the light.
Cast
*
Richard Lester
Richard Lester Liebman (born January 19, 1932) is an American retired film director based in the United Kingdom.
He is best known for directing the Beatles' films '' A Hard Day's Night'' (1964) and ''Help!'' (1965), and the superhero films ''S ...
*
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
*
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Irish actor, comedian, writer, musician, poet, and playwright. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born in British Raj, British Colonial India, where h ...
*
Mario Fabrizi
Mario Edgio Pantaleone Fabrizi (1924 – 5 April 1963) was an English comedian and actor of Italian descent, noted for his luxuriant moustache. He was active in Britain in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Life
Fabrizi was born to Italian parents in ...
*
Bruce Lacey
Bruce Lacey (31 March 1927 – 18 February 2016) was a British artist, performer and eccentric. After completing his national service in the Navy he became established on the avantgarde scene with his performance art and mechanical constructs. He ...
*
David Lodge
*
Leo McKern
Reginald "Leo" McKern, Order of Australia, AO (16 March 1920 – 23 July 2002) was an Australian actor who appeared in numerous British, Australian and American television programmes and films, and in more than 200 stage roles. His notabl ...
*
Norman Rossington
Norman Rossington (24 December 1928 – 21 May 1999) was an English actor best remembered for his roles in ''The Army Game'', the ''Carry On'' films and the Beatles' film '' A Hard Day's Night''.
Early life
Born in Liverpool, Lancashire, ...
*
Graham Stark
Graham William Stark (20 January 1922 – 29 October 2013) was an English comedian, actor, writer and director.
Early life
The son of a purser on transatlantic liners,
Critical reception
''
BFI Screenonline
Screenonline is a website about the history of British film, television and social history as documented by film and television. The project has been developed by the British Film Institute and funded by a £1.2 million grant from the National Lot ...
'' concluded that the film's lasting legacy "was its influence (as part of Milligan's overall body of work) on British comedy in general, and on
Monty Python's Flying Circus
''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...
(BBC, 1969-74) in particular. This is evident not only in its surreal humour, but in the way that elements of one routine are threaded through subsequent scenes, transcending the stand-alone
sketch form - a tactic subsequently favoured by the Python team." ''
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
'' magazine called it "Sublime slapstick surrealism."
See also
*
List of avant-garde films of the 1950s
This is a list of avant-garde and experimental films released in the 1950s. Unless noted, all films had sound and were in black and white.
References
{{Filmsbygenre
Avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', l ...
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Running Jumping and Standing Still Film, The
1959 films
1959 comedy films
Films directed by Peter Sellers
Films directed by Richard Lester
1959 short films
Surreal comedy films
Surrealist films
British comedy short films
1960s English-language films
1950s English-language films
1950s British films