All the six Star Wars opening crawls at once

"And if you can read that, you can throw your glasses…"

Spaceballs: My Favourite Parody

You know that I'm a huge fan of Star Wars, but also of any kind of parodies. Here, with Mel Brooks' Spaceballs, I couldn't be happier, because we get a really interesting mix of references and humour, which are the ingredients of a typical Mel Brooks movie, cf. Robin Wood or Dracula or Frankenstein…

As the first 6 minutes of the film are embedded below, I don't have to talk about the plot. If you like these extracts and would like to watch some more, the whole film is on YouTube, because a user, IWasSirChuckers, break the rules of copyright so that we can enjoy this remarkable movie ever and ever again. I'm going to quote him, because that's a sentence for which I would like to shake hands with him: "I have a theory as to why G.W. Bush became President: Shit Floats." Brillant. You couldn't say more.



If you can read this, you don't need glasses.!!! --> I'm always saying this sentence whenever I can, for instance as the tiny clauses appear at the end of advertissements.



"Everybody got that?" It's extremely rare to have a character adressing the audience. Of course, it's a parody…

The never-ending spaceship is a reference to the opening scene of Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope, when the Star Destroyer passes above the screen with tremendous sonor and special effects. Here, the spaceship is really, really longer than in the film. (And just imagine what kind of energy would be necessary to make it move, not to mention the ludicrous speed.)

"We brake for nobody" was translated in French as "Sans freins ni loi" in the non-DVD version.

I fond of Dark Helmet's outfit, with a nice tie (which looks like a man's privates…), a pair of shorts, the huge helmet and of course a little man (Rick Moranis) wearing it (and a pair of glasses…). Brillant, as I said.

You can also read this interesting article from Wikipedia, in which many things I didn't know about the film (e.g. Colonel Sandurz' name is a reference to Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken !).

And one last before you go:

"Portrait du Docteur Gachet" by Van Gogh

I also took this photograph during our visit in the Musée d'Orsay: this is a painting by Van Gogh, "Portrait du Docteur Gachet". I don't know who this man was, so click on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_Doctor_Gachet. They say there are two versions of it. Curious. Anyway, I like this picture because we see it (well in fact a copy of it) in Mel Brooks' film "Life Stinks" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Stinks), one of my personal favourites. In French, Goddard Bolt (Mel Brooks) was shouting "Mon Van Gogh !". Obviously, it doesn't appear to be funny when you read it, so just watch it.