I try to avoid posts about widely-linked YouTube videos, but “Requiem for a Day Off” is just too brilliant for me to resist. It’s the music from “Requiem for a Dream” over cleverly-edited footage of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” making the movie appear to be an epic tragedy. (An editing style that, when employed by the studios, leads to the unpleasant experience of seeing a trailer for a comedy, liking it, going to the movie, and finding that it’s a drama. That’s studios’ solution to post-filming market testing showing that people don’t want to cry, they want to laugh.) Speaking of Ferris Bueller, a movie that I truly adore, I really enjoyed Steve Almond’s “The Unexpected Heaviosity of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” in the Summer 2006 VQR. Almond’s thesis is that the movie is carried by the character of Cameron Frye, Ferris’ best friend, played by Alan Ruck. I think he’s right.
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Absolutely brilliant!
Now I need to go watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off again to re-recontextualize those scenes. :-)
I’ve replaced the annoying “Exit Windows” sound on my computer with the clip, “You’re still here? It’s over. Go home — Go!”
That’s awesome! And I quite agree, the story is really about Cameron; Ferris is just an entertaining sidelight (despite the fact that he’s in the foreground, Rosenkrantz-and-Guildenstern-eque.) Cameron is what makes the film more than just a silly romp.