Hammer & Tickle (Ben Lewis - BBC, 2006) ?rip VO, i guess

[Takeshi_Shimura]

Llevo mucho tiempo (desde su emisión original) detrás de este documental, que se ocupa del humor, más en concreto de los chistes que fueron una de las pocas válvulas de escape a través de las que se trataba de ejercer la libertad de expresión bajo el comunismo en los países de Europa del Este, de esta forma fugaz, privada y que se autodestruía tras la punchline como el mensaje de un agente secreto (los de Mortadelo al menos). Como ejemplo véase el chiste que cuentan en La Vida de los Otros sobre Erich Honecker y el Sol. Ha aparecido un ripeo con una solitaria fuente, a ver si hay suerte y lo podemos pillar:



IMDb | BBC | Entrevista al director

UK - 2006 - 89'

Director:
Ben Lewis
Guión:
Christine Camdessus
Ben Lewis

<table width="400"><tr><td align="justify">
BBC STORYVILLE
HAMMER AND TICKLE
Ben Lewis, 2006
Tuesday 10 October 2006 10pm-11.30pm

"Why, despite all the shortages, was the toilet paper in East Germany always two-ply? Because they had to send a copy of everything they did to Moscow." Ben Lewis' funny and insightful feature-length documentary tells the real history of communism through the jokes of the time.

So what's funny about communism? Concepts like the dictatorship of the proletariat didn't sound especially humorous to the practitioners of Marxism and one might conclude from the group shots of commie honchos that ruling was a serious business. But Ben Lewis' captivating film graphically describes a counter culture of mirth that was present from the early days of communism. Indeed, the response of many subjects of the Soviet empire to the prospect of open-ended communist rule was the telling of jokes.

There are enough good jokes to construct an entire history of the 20th century's utopia through humour. I won't spoil them for you - but it's enough to know that Ronald Reagan had a personal Commie joke finder at the State Department. And, yes, even Stalin enjoyed a giggle.</td></tr></table>

ed2k: Hammer and Tickle Storyville 10-Oct-2006.avi