Duck So Up Analysis

For the scenes re-enactment project, my group and I did the research and re-enactment on a Marx Brothers film in 1933, called Duck Soup. The story revolves around the country of Freedonia, which is on the verge of bankruptcy when its benefactor Mrs. Teasdale finally insists that Rufus T. Firefly become the president. Seeing such event as an opportunity to seek control, Trentino, the ambassador of the bordering country of Sylvania, sends in spies, Pinky and Chicolini, in hope of a revolution. During the course of the story, Firefly and Trentino clashes in a lot of ways, which finally leads to an all-out war between Freedonia and Sylvania. Despite, the film involves the topics of wars and politics, it still remains the nature of Marx Brothers’ …show more content…
We did not get a chance to practice the whole presentation together, but since everyone knew what was going on and what to expect, the presentation on information went well. After presenting about the Marx Brothers and Duck Soup, we moved on to re-enact the scenes – the order of the scenes, as presented above, was not in chronological order (the order actually follows “These Are My Spies” scene, the Lemonade Vendor scene, and the Mirror Scene), but it was done so in such arrangement so that each member did not have to be in the scenes consecutively, and therefore, provided time for each separate group to prepare for their own scenes. On the topic of how the scenes were directed, there were no disagreeing points that I could think of, as we mostly worked together on each scene, thus, all ideas were considered and applied as effectively as possible. To focus on each scene, in “These Are My Spies” which was quite dialogue-heavy, we focused on dialogues for Trentino and Chicolini, as well as trying to get the right keywords for Tina to carry out certain actions at the right timing. We also focused on necessary and creative props (thank you, Tina!), as the character of Pinky used various items to create comedies and chaos. On to the Mirror Scene, Honoka and Ryan focused on the same actions as the ones in the film, and tried to re-enact them as best as possible – and I think they had done it amazingly and smoothly (from what I saw from the practice and performance videos). In order to create the walls where the mirror was broken, it was also a huge thanks to Tina. Last but not least, the Lemonade Vendor scene was also dialogue-heavy, and so we focused on dialogues for Chicolini and the Lemonade Vendor, as well as getting the right keywords for Tina to carry out Pinky’s actions at certain times. Besides from the necessary and creative props