I used the phrase ‘Grand Guignol’ last night while talking about the film ‘Hot Fuzz’ and then afterwards wondered whether I’d used it in the right context. I looked it up, and I think, on the whole, I did use it in the right way, but I was interested in what I found out.
I had a general idea that it was a bloody and realistic style of theatrical performance, but I didn’t realise that it was an actual theatre in Paris rather than a style of theatrical production. I also thought it dated back to the eighteenth century, whereas it was started at the very end of the nineteenth century and it didn’t close to the sixties. As you might imagine, it specialized in realistic and gory dramas, brutal and bloody, and as it was a theatre inside an old church with boxed pews, people could faint, vomit, hide when it got to realistic, and apparently there was always a doctor on stand-by, but maybe that was just a publicity claim! The old church was very atmospheric and gloomy, and added to the atmosphere of the whole set-up. The plays were short one-act works, and I think the audience would see two or three in an evening. The name Guignol comes from another tradition, that of puppet theatre where he was a character who often made satirical comments on political or social issues of the time – I suppose a bit like the old Punch and Judy shows; the name then began to apply to all puppet characters, so le grand Guignol just meant big puppets, ie actors. It sounds as if it was a forerunner to the horror movies of today, but seeing something on film is different from seeing real people – even if they are actors doing ghoulish and gruesome things before your very eyes.
I’m not sure if ‘Hot Fuzz’ is grand Guignol, although it certainly has bloodthirsty and gory scenes, but I am not sure what political or social comment could be attributed to it; it is above all a comedy and if here is one message in it then it must be… don’t upset the village ‘Best Village’ committee!
Lois Elsden 