1/28, On July and Bergson, a joke

The manipulated angles and lighting of most narrative film leads the audience to specific emotions they might otherwise have never felt toward a particular character or situation. Miranda July avoids such conventions in "The Amateurist," opting instead for static camera shots and functional lighting. Much of the film is seen through a medium eye-level portrait shot containing a monitor with surveillance footage. Both of these shot choices suggest documentary or truthful styling. The audience is forced to consider the content with out suggestive production techniques. The initial reaction to the piece is one of discomfort: Without knowing how to feel about the characters, viewers must watch helplessly the entirety of the film, listening and viewing the accounts of unreliable characters. However, as the video unfolds the viewer must, for his or her self, process the information being presented. This process leads the viewer to a single point of understanding with the movie, laughter.

Henri Bergson argues in "Laughter" that humor appeals to the intellectual rather than the emotional. By staying coolly disconnected from the characters and situations of the film, July allows the base absurdity that drives all human endeavors to become apparent. Bergson illustrates this point by stating that "It is enough for us to stop our ears to the sound of music, in a room where dancing is going on, for the dancers at once to appear ridiculous." A woman rambling on about her professionalism inspires pity through absurdity. The only reaction that deals with the discomfort inspired by the truthy nature of the presentation is laughter.