After watching this film as well as doing our class activities, my perspective and understanding of comedy was broadened and at least slightly shifted. At base level, comedy is commonly thought of as a means to make people laugh, lighthearted, and unserious. However, through this film and our own activity encompassing conflict and disagreement in opinion, the concept of comedy being able to serve as much more was brought to attention -- in a sense, as a buffer to difficult conversations.
Regarding the film specifically, while it was portrayed in a lighthearted, comical manner encompassing scenes eliciting laughter, deeper concepts were being raised to attention that are not comical stripped down to the bare problem and as themselves; the main one being the education system in Italy. Simply put, the film drew the picture and understanding of the education system encompassing many problems. Very intelligent people came to have no job, or career path in what they were studying due to the inflexibility, and strictness of the system. As a result, the highly intelligent individuals resorted to drug dealing feeling failed by the system. None of them outwardly wanted to provoke any harm to anyone, but to only get by and do what they felt was necessary to obtain money and to work around the almost suffocating system. Because they could not use their intelligence for their wanted careers, they used the intelligence with their strengths for something that could be controversial, but still beneficial to them. With this, the comedy aspect in the movie opens the door to not only talk about very real problems and issues that may elicit controversy, but also places attention on existing problems.
Similarly, our group exercise showed the same pattern. Initially, the conversations and conflicts were very light and funny to almost everyone in class. However, as we progressed, more in depth conversations took place as well as shared opinions and perspectives. So, firsthand we were able to see comedy open the door for more serious conversation, and most likely extending from the fact that the initial comedy provided comfort as well as a comfortable environment to talk more openly, which is a parallel between this film and our exercise.
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