FACES OF AMERICAN CINEMA

The meaning and function of humour in the film world of Woody Allen

The paper deals with the topic of humour in the films of the contemporary American director and screenwriter Woody Allen. The first part of the paper discusses the importance of humour in Allen’s film cosmos, its status of a survival tool so to say, while the second part is dedicated to the individual functions of humour. In this respect of particular interest is therapeutic and critic function. The basic thesis in this paper is that Allen’s humour is first and foremost anti-escapist, that is, it demands and endorses facing reality. The essays of Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud on humour serve as a basic theoretic framework.

Nada Kujundžić