deadpan mask

Just before his death at the age of 70 in 1966, Canadian animation director Gerald Potterton suddenly and vividly showed Keaton's revival with the short film "Keaton's Railroader" (1965), which was a compilation of Keaton's gags, the short film "Film" (1965) directed by Alan Schneider, whose script was written for Keaton by Samuel Beckett, and "A Strange Thing Happened in Rome" (1966), directed by Richard Lester, which was a homage to Keaton. Keaton's comedies were at the peak of slapstick comedy, which had two major elements: "sight gags" and "chases," but they did not fall into so-called slapstick, and their great qualities were their beautiful and refined "deadpan face" (called "deadpan mask" or "stone face" in English) that showed no joy, anger, sadness, or happiness on their faces, and the simple action of just running, which created hilarious laughter. The pinnacle of this "gag sophistication" is the image of a truly physical struggle with unavoidable objects such as natural phenomena (rain, wind, snow, storms, rockslides, etc.), runaway means of transportation (trains, bicycles, ships, etc.), and sometimes even the film itself (camera, film, screen, etc.).

*Some of the terminology that mentions "deadpan mask" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…66年に70歳で死去する直前，カナダのアニメーション作家ジェラルド･ポタートンが，キートン･ギャグを集大成してみせた短編《キートンの線路工夫》(1965)，サミュエル･ベケットがキートンのために脚本を書いたアラン･シュナイダー監督の短編《フィルム》(1965)，およびリチャード･レスター監督がキートンへのオマージュとしてつくった《ローマで起った奇妙な出来事》(1966)で，突如，鮮やかな〈キートン復活〉を見せた。　キートン喜劇は，〈サイト(視覚的)ギャグ〉と〈追っかけ〉を二大要素とするスラプスティックスの頂点にありながら，いわゆるどたばたに堕さず，その喜怒哀楽をいっさい顔に出さない美しい端正な〈無表情〉(英語では〈デッドパン･マスクdeadpan mask〉とか〈ストーン･フェイスstone face〉などと呼ばれる)と，ただひたすら走るという単純なアクションによって抱腹絶倒の笑いを生み出すところに偉大な特質があった。その〈ギャグのソフィスティケーション〉の極致が，自然現象(雨，風，雪，嵐，岩くずれ等々)や暴走する交通機関(列車，自転車，船等々)やときには映画そのもの(カメラ，フィルム，スクリーン等々)といった不可抗力の対象との真に肉体的な格闘のイメージである。…

※「deadpan mask」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報