The gossip of the members of his community about his demotion, rather than the demotion itself, is the direct cause of the doorman's downfall in The Last Laugh. Some of the most expressive images in the film demonstrate the spread of gossip and the resultant mockery of the neighbors: the camera moves to an outstretched ear, the camera follows the doorman along a walk of shame, grotesque and blurry heads superimposed on the neighborhood mock him with unabashed laughter. What is the movie saying about gossip as a form of communication? What is it saying about the community that listens to it? How does what other people think of us influence how we think of ourselves?
The Last Laugh has a lot of expressiveness in the film and it includes gossip to relay information to the viewer. For example, when the man gets fired from his job, a neighbor overhears and spreads the message to everyone, including the viewer which offers a different perspective than the main character's. This implies that gossip is a form of communication and a way to inform others of a particular situation. However, just because it is a form of communication, doesn't mean it is a reliable source. Due to the nature of gossip, the intent can get twisted and the words may completely turn into a different message. This is also an implication that the people gossiping are "fake" people. In the beginning of the movie, when the doorman exited his apartment, he was greeted and addressed respectfully as he had a high ranking job, but the second the neighbors heard about his demotion, they instantly started to turn heads and laugh and joke at him, as the movie showed when he was leaving for his job one morning. This does not go unnoticed by the man as he tries to fake his job as the doorman even though he was stripped of the uniform. He stole it back in order to try to convince people that he was, indeed, still the doorman. Furthermore, he mopes around in his new job zone as the hotel washman and clearly looks as if he was about to die while he was sitting on top of a stool. His demotion and the gossip took a toll on his mental and it changed him for the worse. He is in deep depression now as a result of others' thoughts and actions towards him.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the film “The Last Laugh” public appeal seemed very important to the general as he would constantly wish to be seen as the perfect doorman who everyone relied on. Gossip in the community was very important and heavily affected the doorman when he lost his job as it crushed him to see the entire town laughing at him when all he had ever tried to do was help them. This scene was emphasized in the film to help the audience understand what the general was experiencing by displaying the citizens laughing faces while increasing the sound of the laughter to show how deeply he was affected by their laughter. This was a very important scene in the film as it foreshadowed how the general would spiral downward leading to him getting drunk to hide his pain and sadness from losing his job and being the laughing stock of the town. The general’s reaction to the town looking down on him represents how public ideas and gossip can affect one’s mental health and well-being, causing them to change how they see themselves or portray themselves in public. This was represented later in the film when the general started to pretend to be a doorman so people would continue to respect him as the doorman of the town and stop looking down on him as if he was a mad insane old man. Overall this sequence of events in the film was very powerful as it showed how one's mental health could be affected by the words and ideas of others.
ReplyDeleteAlthough The Last Laugh was a movie from 1924, the narrative of the power of gossip is something that continues to ring true in 2021. It was clear that the most important thing to the doorman was not necessarily being useful, but rather seeming useful to the public eye and his community. When he steps out into town in his uniform, he is saluted and respected. It is evident that his position is what townspeople first think of when they think of him. Not only was it difficult for him to come to terms with his demotion and increasing age, but he also had to deal with the new way people may view him. The townspeople no longer stand up straight when he walks by, instead he is mocked and looked down upon. The scene of the all the distorted faces of the women in the town superimposed on top of each other is the most powerful image in the whole movie I would argue. This scene shows the power of gossip. One bad thing someone says can feel encompassing and overwhelming. From, this moment on, the doorman falls into a stint of depression and drinking. He does everything he can to avoid confronting his position and coming to terms with it. He instead sulks in the pain, shame, and sadness. He allowed his job and how other people viewed him to define his self worth. I think this concept that one’s self-worth comes from how other people view you is very evident in today society. What happened to the doorman is something that happens to anyone with time, age. He was at no fault. The effects of gossip can have detrimental effects on a person considering words can be twisted and altered without looking at the full picture.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh was released in 1924, but despite that fact the story of the power of gossip is still relevant in 2021. Firstly, we can see just how much power he holds with that doorman outfit, as when he wears it and he walks into town, he is honored and revered. It is clear that his position is the first thing that people think of when they think of him. Even through his demotion, he still wore the outfit when walking back into the apartments, yet he was still honored. But with the turning point of this movie, when it is found out by the general public that he was demoted, not only did he have to deal with his demotion and rising age, but he also had to deal with the new way people would perceive him. Walking into town, firstly cowering behind the corner, then being drowned in laughter of everyone around you, not pleasant. We can see this affect the main character greatly, as he continues to stumble toward his room, with images stacked upon each other of people laughing at him in his head. Although this is a specific example it shows how powerful the public opinion can be, and how greatly it can alter any individual’s process of living. We see this with the first ending as he gives the uniform back to the guard and pitifully lies down in the bathroom at the end. Gossip in this movie is portrayed as a powerful force, as seen with this sequence of events, it alters what someone does, how someone thinks, even maybe alters someone’s morals, like keeping the outfit even though you were demoted.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the community has a very significant impact on everyone. As one looks and digs deeper to understand the true meaning of the gossip in The Last Laugh, or in any given community, they can eventually recognize how a community shapes and affects a person. The door attendant’s downfall was interconnected to the way in which society treated him. When those in society start gossiping and acting with disrespect towards the doorman, he changes the way in which he acts. As one can imagine, if people start laughing at someone, they tend to lose confidence. It is clearly shown in the movie that the doorman lacks confidence after he loses his job because he pretends that he still has it for the sake of pleasing the community. The communities’ gossip and disrespect towards the doorman after he loses his jobs leads to a struggle to find his self-worth. Since people are constantly shaming him for not having a job, it shows that gossip has a negative impact on those talked about. It also recognizes that gossip is a powerful form of communication that directly impacts others. The movie also depicts that when gossip is spread around a community, it keeps spreading. The more and more the movie goes on, the more people that find out about the doorman and talk and laugh about him, and the more the doorman is impacted. The way that other people think about us greatly impacts ourselves and our self-confidence. Once negative ideas about ourselves are implanted and created by others, we often tend to believe them, change our actions, and lose self-worth, just as the doorman did in the movie.
ReplyDeleteGossip through out this film reminds me of the game telephone. The man’s neighbors seemed to enjoy gossiping and treated his situation as if it were a game. Like the game of telephone, what someone says at first can be very different when passed from person to person. Despite the fact that this is a silent film and we don’t know for sure if the original gossip was twisted, this might be the case. If so, it would have caused the man more worries and problems than he would have to go through with only the original piece of gossip. People seem to treat this gossip as a sort of game, which could have impacted him greatly. Gossip influences how people treat the person they are talking about and they can use this information to make fun of or use against them. For example, in the film it seemed like the community and the people around him were mocking or laughing at the fact he no longer had that job. This did not help the man’s already negative feelings about his situation and added to his stress.The man was both influenced by his own ideas of what he should be doing but also the people around him. The man most likely had this job for a long time and when he discovered he couldn’t do that job anymore, he was very concerned about what people may think of him. People’s perspectives and how they treated him may have been a significant role in the man’s life as he lived so close to them and appeared to be around them every day. This gossip from the neighbors caused the man plenty of problems and shame, which was one of the things he appeared to be aiming to avoid throughout this film.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie, the last laugh, its commentary on gossip is a narrative that still holds true even today. Gossip is an extremely toxic form of communication in which spreads false information. This is very apparent in the movie and how he perceives the people in his life. The film superimposes his neighbors faces floating around his mind, completely taking over. This shows how the man felt and how the only thing on his mind was his neighbors laughing and making fun of this failure. Even though his neighbors were not in fact swirling around mocking and making fun of him, in that high emotion moment, the act of his neighbors laughing completely clouded his view of reality. Gossip as a form of communication, as the movie presents, is a very murky way to spread information. Not only does it allow for false information, but it is also uncontrolled. It can spread quickly in passing which doesn’t allow for the whole story to be told. Only parts of the original story is ever told which creates false narratives. This plays a key factor in the film because all throughout the film, no one ever knows the trie story and only acts based off assumptions. This unfortunately leads to a lady coming up and laughing at the sight of him, when he is trying to continue working his new job. This leads to even more of a degradation of his mental health and wellbeing. He turns to alcohol, interfering even more with his perception of reality which leads to a downward spiral of his life. Nothing good ever comes out of gossip. It doesn’t allow for a fair judgment to be made on a person’s llife or choices, leaving the listener without necessary details which is vital to make a decision. the doorman’s mental health and ability to function as a contributing member of society was affected all because his neighbor spread a rumor which ultimately lead to the situation getting out of control.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh tells us that gossip is a powerful form of communication through which the doorman loses confidence and becomes embarrassed and depressed. When one of the doorman’s friends or family members finds out he has been demoted to bathroom duty, she hurries home and tells her (maybe) daughter. While inside the apartment, some other women are eavesdropping, listening from outside the apartment in the hallway. Once they hear the news, they rush to tell their friends and family the news until the whole neighborhood knows about the doorman’s demotion. This part of the film shows how quickly gossip can be spread around and how many people listen to gossip. Communities that listen to gossip, an unreliable source, and believe it tells us that it doesn’t take much effort to convince that community into believing something false. In this case, it was true that the doorman got demoted, which leads to people disrespecting him. Everyone used to respect and praise him when he was the doorman, but once he gets demoted, they make fun of him and laugh at him. He sees the blurry heads superimposed on the neighborhood while he is going back to his apartment room, showing that the mockery is a major reason why the doorman has a downfall. This is because what people think of us can have a big influence on how we think of ourselves. The mockery from his neighbors breaks him down; it breaks his confidence making him believe he isn’t worthy. The gossip is so powerful, it causes him to become depressed and to believe that he isn’t good enough.
ReplyDeleteThe movie uses extreme expressionism to portray a strong message about gossip -- that at its core, it is only detrimental and only brings down others. Throughout the entire movie, we see scenes of women laughing at the doorman, and while he is not always aware of it, he must deal with the consequences in the end of being the laughingstock of the whole entire neighborhood which contributes to his very saddened state near the end of the movie. The movie also uses all of the women who participate in gossip to show how easy it is for people to talk about others in a negative way if they are not there. For example, when one woman eavesdrops and hears that the doorman lost his job, she shouts to a balcony, and another woman listens and shouts to another balcony. This process is repeated, but differs greatly from when the doorman is actually in the presence of the women -- they keep their mouths shut and try to contain their laughter. With these two opposites, the movie shows an interesting perspective into what the doorman might be thinking, as it is not until he loses his job that he really understands how those around him truly view him. Overall the movie uses gossip to show how much of a bad thing it can be when those gossiping know nothing of what the doorman is really going through and can only laugh at him. The community of women, through techniques like superimposition, is shown as a something that would heavily affect the doorman and would most likely make him scared or sad about what happened to him.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Laugh, a 1924 film directed by F.W. Murnau, follows a hotel door man (unnamed) who had just been let go of his duties. This is extremely hard for him because of how much he loved his job. The situation was made even worse because once he was fired, many members in his community heard of the news. This resulted in mockery and gossip. Murnau, the director, wanted the audience to feel the impact of their bullying, not only through the acting of the door man, but through visual effects as well. The gossip starts from one person in the community to another. The first person to share the news leans outside of their widow to share the gossip. The camera zooms in on the deliverer's mouth and the receiver's ear. This begins a trail of gossip, eventually leading to everyone knowing. When the doorman walks through the entrance, many of his neighbors are waiting outside of their windows. They begin to laugh and mock him. This creates a truly humiliating 'walk of shame'. The impact of their painful laughter is shown by having their heads surround and cluster the screen. That gives the visual representation that their words are heavy and cramming. This gives a negative notation to gossip as a means to communication. Once gossip spread amongst the community, they became toxic and bullies. Their words not only affected their behaviours, but it also effected the door man. This gossip weighed heavily on him as he digested their remarks.
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