The Show of Shows

The Show of Shows: 100 Years of Vaudeville, Circuses and Carnivals is a 2015 documentary directed by Benedikt Erlingsson. This unique movie paints a rich canvas of human endeavours, joys, fears, and dreams through the venue of performance, from a bygone era to a more recent past.

This mostly silent cinematic piece rescues archival footage from bygone eras to present a narrative that lets history recount itself, driven by a stirring musical score from Sigur Rós collaborators Georg Holm and Orri Páll Dýrason. Instead of the traditional narrative driven by dialogue and characters, The Show of Shows uniquely relies on the sheer power of moving images and emotive music. There's no single protagonist, no climax or manufactured drama, what you get is an unedited look into the world of vaudeville, circus and carnivals.

At the heart of the movie are the performers—acrobats, clowns, strongmen, knife throwers—and the audience, equally as important as the performers, wholeheartedly partaking in the spectacle. Erlingsson manages to capture the essence of a communal experience so vibrantly alive in those times. You will see clowns pulling off risky jokes, trapeze artists performing dangerous feats, and animal trainers pushing the limits of what was considered then as entertainment.

Raw emotions pervade The Show of Shows as it fluently captures the thrill, mirth, astonishment, occasional fear, and perennial human fascination associated with the showbiz arena. From a fire-breathing man to an elephant standing on its hind legs, the film presents a fascinating world that was once a prevalent medium of entertainment.

Moreover, the world of circuses and carnivals is not limited to amusement. As the film delves deeper, it exposes the underbelly of this world, depicting the exploitative aspects of human and animal rights for the sake of amusement that was commonplace and accepted during those times. Even though not explicitly commenting on the performances' ethical dimensions, the film in its unique methodology, allows viewers to interpret and examine the events themselves.

The evocative ambiance crafted by the combination of mysterious, thrilling, inspiring, or eerie sounds and nearly century-old footage results in a hauntingly beautiful cinematic experience that's not easily forgotten. The movie uniquely oscillates between bizarre and beautiful, revealing the broad—sometimes unsettling—definition of what constitutes entertainment.

What's fantastic about The Show of Shows is the way it captures both the wonderment and sinister aspects of these performances, avoiding any blatant moral judgement. Whether it's laughter at slapstick comedy, applause for death-defying stunts, or shock at performances that teeter on the edge of morbid curiosity, the audience reactions function as an essential commentary on our collective taste for entertainment.

On a technical level, Erlingsson's diligent work to unravel this footage from obscurity serves as a testament to preserving human history, especially of the performing arts. The grainy black and white imagery helps to reincarnate a long-lost past and the people who lived, performed, and entertained in it. It's a kind of storytelling that explores the fine line between history and entertainment, reality and spectacle, amusement and horror.

Despite a lack of dialogue or specific plot, The Show of Shows is thematically rich, exploring the human fascination with spectacle and entertainment, harking back to a pre-digital world where the likes of cinema and television hadn’t become the prime modes of entertainment. Showmen and performers risked their lives for an audience's gasp, shock, laughter, and applause, and this sense of raw, communal experience is what the film manages to bring back to life.

Overall, The Show of Shows is an extraordinary accomplishment that stands testament to the fact that film language is inherently capable of transcending the traditional narrative structures and can profoundly communicate with the audience if maneuvered innovatively. It’s an immersive film that expertly captures a critical piece of our collective cultural history, causing us to reflect on our definition of and appetite for entertainment.