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''The Party'' is a 1968 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, starring Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet. The film has a very loose structure, and essentially serves as a series of set pieces for Sellers's improvisational comedy talents.〔Champlin, Charles (March 15, 1968). An open invitation to play it off the cuff. ''Time''〕 The comedy is based on a fish-out-of-water premise, in which a bungling Indian actor accidentally gets invited to a lavish Hollywood dinner party and "makes terrible mistakes based upon ignorance of Western ways."〔Lehman, Peter, Luhr, William (1981). ''Blake Edwards'', p. 140. Ohio University Press, ISBN 978-0-8214-0605-2〕 ''The Party'' is considered a classic comedic cult film.〔Stafford, Jeff. (Cult Movies: The Party ) via Turner Classic Movies〕 Edwards biographers Peter Lehman and William Luhr said, "''The Party'' may very well be one of the most radically experimental films in Hollywood history; in fact it may be the single most radical film since D.W. Griffith's style came to dominate the American cinema."〔Wasson, Sam (2009). ''A splurch in the kisser: the movies of Blake Edwards.'' Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 978-0-8195-6915-8 , p. 130〕〔Lehman, Peter; Luhr, William (1989). ''Returning to the Scene: Blake Edwards, Volume 2.'' Ohio University Press, ISBN 978-0-8214-0917-6〕 Film historian Saul Austerlitz wrote, "Despite the offensiveness of Sellers's brownface routine, ''The Party'' is one of his very best films... Taking a page from Tati, this is neorealist comedy, purposefully lacking a director's guiding eye: look here, look there. The screen is crammed full of activity, and the audience's eyes are left to wander where they may."〔Austerlitz, Saul (2010). ''Another Fine Mess: A History of American Film Comedy'', p. 198. Chicago Review Press, ISBN 978-1-55652-951-1〕 ==Plot== A film crew is making a ''Gunga Din''-style costume epic. Unknown Indian actor Hrundi V. Bakshi (Sellers) plays a bugler, but continues to play even after being shot and after the director (Herbert Ellis) yells "cut." Bakshi later accidentally blows up an enormous fort set rigged with explosives. The director fires Bakshi immediately and calls the studio head, General Fred R. Clutterbuck (J. Edward McKinley), about the mishap. Clutterbuck writes down Bakshi's name to blacklist him, but he inadvertently writes Bakshi's name on the guest list of his wife's upcoming dinner party. Bakshi then receives his invitation and drives to the party. Upon arrival at Clutterbuck's home, Bakshi tries to rinse mud off his shoe in a large pool that flows through the house, but he loses his shoe. After many failures, he is reunited with his shoe. Bakshi has awkward interactions with everyone at the party, including Clutterbuck's dog Cookie. He meets famous Western movie actor "Wyoming Bill" Kelso (Denny Miller), who gives Bakshi an autograph. Bakshi later accidentally shoots Kelso with a toy gun, but Kelso does not see who did it. Bakshi feeds a caged macaw bird food from a container marked "Birdie Num Num" and accidentally drops the food on the floor. Bakshi at various times during the film activates a panel of electronics that control the intercom, a fountain replica of the Manneken Pis (soaking a guest), and a retractable bar (while Clutterbuck is sitting at it). After Kelso hurts Bakshi's hand while shaking it, Bakshi sticks his hand into a bowl of crushed ice containing caviar. While waiting to wash his hand in the bathroom, he meets aspiring actress Michèle Monet (Longet), who came with producer C.S. Divot (Gavin MacLeod). Bakshi shakes Divot's hand, and Divot then shakes hands with other guests, passing around the fishy odor, even back to Bakshi after he has washed his hand. At dinner, Bakshi's place setting right by the kitchen door has a very low chair that puts his chin near the table. An increasingly drunk waiter named Levinson (Steven Franken) tries to serve dinner and fights with the other staff. During the main course, Bakshi's roast Cornish game hen accidentally catapults off his fork and becomes impaled on a guest's tiara. Bakshi asks Levinson to retrieve his meal, but the woman's wig comes off along with her tiara, as she obliviously engages in conversation. Levinson ends up brawling with other waiting staff, and dinner is disrupted. Bakshi apologizes to his hosts, then needs to go to the bathroom. He wanders through the house, opening doors and barging in on various servants and guests in embarrassing situations. He ends up in the back yard, where he accidentally sets off the sprinklers. At Divot's insistence, Monet gives an impromptu guitar performance of "Nothing to Lose," to impress the guests. Bakshi goes upstairs, where he saves Monet from Divot's unwanted sexual advances by dislodging Divot's toupee with the toy gun. Bakshi finally finds a bathroom, but he breaks the toilet, drops a painting in it, gets toilet paper everywhere, and floods the bathroom. To avoid being discovered Bakshi sneaks out on the roof and falls into the pool. Monet leaps in to save him, and he's coerced to drink alcohol to warm up. Bakshi is unaccustomed to alcohol, and he struggles to put on a dry red terry toweling jumpsuit. He finds Monet crying in the next room and consoles her. Divot bursts in and demands Monet leave with him. Monet says no, and Divot cancels her screen test for him the next day. Bakshi convinces her to stay and have a good time with him. They return to the party in borrowed clothes as a Russian dance troupe arrives. The party gets wilder, and Bakshi offers to retract the bar to make room for dancing. He accidentally opens a retractable floor with a pool underneath, causing guests to fall in the pool. Levinson makes more floors retract, and more guests fall in. Clutterbuck's daughter arrives with friends and a baby elephant painted with hippie slogans. Bakshi takes offense and asks them to wash the elephant. The entire house is soon filled with soap bubbles from the cleaning. Back at his home, Divot suddenly realizes that Bakshi is the fired actor who blew up the set, and he races back to the party. As the band plays on, Clutterbuck tries to save his suds-covered fine art paintings. The air conditioning blows suds everywhere as the guests dance to psychedelic music, and Clutterbuck's distraught wife falls into the pool twice. Divot pulls up as police and fire department personnel work to resolve everything. Bakshi apologizes one last time to Clutterbuck as Divot reveals who Bakshi is, but Clutterbuck accidentally chokes a waiter instead of Bakshi. Kelso gives Bakshi an autographed photo and Stetson hat as Bakshi and Monet leave in Bakshi's Morgan three-wheeler car. Outside her apartment, Bakshi and Monet appear on the verge of admitting that they have fallen for each other. Bakshi gives Monet the hat as a keepsake, and she says he can come get it any time. Bakshi suggests he could come by next week, and she readily agrees. Bakshi smiles and drives off as his car backfires. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Party (film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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