Party
Related: dance - pleasure - social - music
"Nero gave the best parties, ever," archaeologist Wallace-Hadrill told an interviewer when the Golden House was reopened to visitors in 1999 after being closed for years for restorations. "Three hundred years after his death, tokens bearing his head were still being given out at public spectacles - a memento of the greatest showman of them all." Nero, who was obsessed with his status as an artist, certainly regarded parties as works of art. [Apr 2006]
Definition
A party is a social gathering intended primarily for celebration and recreation. While having some things in common with religious and seasonal festivals, the term "party" usually denotes a smaller gathering for a personal, rather than cultural, occasion even when the occasion is simply that of enjoyment. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party [Mar 2006]
The Party (1968) - Blake Edwards
Though this film is a relatively minor one in the massive canon of Peter Sellers, it has moments of absolute hilarity. Written and directed by Blake Edwards, one of Sellers's most fertile collaborators, the film stars Sellers as a would-be actor from India (let them try to get away with that today) who is a walking disaster area. After ruining a day's shooting as an extra on a film, he finds himself unintentionally invited to a big Hollywood party. That's pretty much it as far as plot goes, but Edwards and Sellers know how to milk a simple idea for an unending string of slapstick gags. The result is a film that is episodic and sketchy, but also frequently loony in an inspired way. --Marshall Fine for amazon.com
The Party is a 1968 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet. The film has a very loose structure, and basically serves as a series of set pieces for the comic talents of Sellers. The minimal plot has Sellers playing a well-meaning but hapless Indian man (with some similarity to Inspector Clouseau) being accidentally invited to a showbiz party where he causes havoc. In the film, Sellers' character drives a Morgan threewheeler car as a symbol of his absurdity. Sellers would play another Indian man in his hit film The Millionairess.
The film remains popular among fans of Peter Sellers as one of his most inventive comic roles, much of which was improvised at the time of filming.
The score of The Party was by Henry Mancini, including the song "Nothing to Lose." --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Party [Dec 2005]
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