It’s hard to think of two movies conveying American joie de vivre and weltschmerz as well as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Requiem for a Dream (respectively). So why not superimpose the music from one on images from the other (in Requiem for a Day Off)?

Like Reese’s Pieces, two great movies that taste great together. Shakes McFadden’s work here reminds me of the growing genre of minimally transformative mashups. Two years ago I mentioned here the Nietzsche Family Circus; now there’s Garfield Minus Garfield, a cartoon “Hamlet Without the Prince” which simply excises Garfield from every frame of Jim Davis’s cartoon strips. Davis himself loves the concept:

“I think it’s the body of work that makes me laugh — the more you read of these strips, the funnier it gets,” Mr. Davis said. As for Garfield himself, “this makes a compelling argument that maybe he doesn’t need to be there. Less is more.”

McFadden masterfully re-cuts Ferris, but doesn’t appear to add much to Clint Mansell’s music (which may well be inspired by Phillip Glass). I suppose Mansell would have a better chance at a copyright infringement suit than the moviemakers. But I still find it bizarre that courts might ask, in the fair use inquiry, whether the video comments on the music (parody), or merely uses it as a convenient platform to make a humorous point (satire). Then again, I always thought the guy in the Numa Numa video was parodying Romanian dance music.

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