Pre-Production | Armando Iannucci: The Thick of It, The Death of Stalin, and Alan Partridge

Armando Iannucci is a Scottish/Italian satirist, writer, director and radio producer, known for co-creating the 'Alan Partridge' character (played by Steve Coogan), and for creating the political sitcom 'The Thick Of It'.  He has also created a US-based political sitcom, 'Veep' and more recently released the political satire comedy film 'The Death of Stalin', which follows the power struggle that followed the death of the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, in 1953.  I will be focusing on his work as both a writer and a director since I am taking on both of these roles for our major project.  Whilst Iannucci is usually lead writer, he also typically takes some producing roles and works on a writing team rather than writing on his own, so I will be able to look into how he writes as a team and as a solo writer.

In an interview with Prolifiko, Chris Smith discusses the methods in which Iannucci writes for comedy, with particular reference to The Thick Of It and Veep.  He explores team writing, and whilst I am the sole writer for our major project, I will still be bouncing ideas back and forth with Mel and Katie, and Simon will be giving feedback on my scripts, so some of the same principles will apply.  Iannucci says "to be a good team writer, you have to be a team player.  So no ego.  You have to be non-proprietorial about your writing" which applies to my own writing - I must be prepared for some ideas in the script to be criticised and changed.

In a lot of the comedy I watch, I have noticed a trend of the cast members providing improvised lines when shooting, which is something I was keen to delve more into.  Iannucci argues that "The right time to improvise is when the actors say ‘Why should we improvise: the script is good’?’ Improvising isn’t there to improve the script: it’s there to bring it out. It’s really a form of dirtying up the dialogue, making it feel more natural and real."  Between casting and rehearsals I feel it would be beneficial to keep in contact with the cast for their feedback on the developing script.  Therefore when it comes to reading through the script, the cast will have the chance to add their own spin on the dialogue and action that is already there.  As Iannucci points out, this will bring forth the natural element that we would like to achieve, contrasting with the absurdity of what happens to the character, which would really boost the humour within the film.

Iannucci's 'The Death of Stalin', takes a very similar tone and style to The Thick of It, instead focusing on true historical events (though Iannucci has described the film, not as a documentary, but as a "fiction inspired by the truth of what it must have felt like at the time").

The filming style is very similar, although the lighting and mis en scene is more stylised that The Thick of It with use of dolly shots and more reliance on cutting, likely to fit in with a more cinematic aesthetic.  The colour palette is also slightly cool with muted colours to reflect the sombre mood of the historical events it explores.  However there is still use of handheld movements to accentuate the humour of each scene.  The film takes a very macabre approach to its comedy, which is something I wished to take inspiration from for VET-MAN.  In the scene below, we see the Zachistka (clean-up operation) of Stalin's home.  The scene is very chaotic and somewhat distressing, and Iannucci uses comedic timing to emphasise the chaos and absurdity of the situation.  We do not know who to follow, who is a target, or who is killing the other people in the scene.  By juxtaposing the systematic killing with this uncertainty, Iannucci uses a very blunt and dark form of comedic timing to highlight the absurdity of the situation.



Iannucci is also largely responsible for creating the 'Alan Partridge' character, who is partly my inspiration for Tim.  One of the key facets that I would like to pursue with Tim's character is his arrogance and delusion that he is right to an almost sociopathic extent.  Alan Partridge is a similar style of character: he is selfish and arrogant of his chances of rebooting his TV series, and other people tend to see straight through him.  Alan would stop at nothing to get his show back on the air, in the same way that Tim will stop at nothing to get started as a vet.