By
Ian Caruth
Arizona Daily Wildcat
"Best in Show" writer/director Christopher Guest
Christopher Guest is Lord.
No, really. The creative force behind the films "This is Spinal Tap," "Waiting for Guffman" and the new "Best in Show" is a cult-comic god, to be sure, but in 1997 he was pronounced by the British Parliament of Lords as Lord Haden-Guest - a rank inherited from his father, former U.N. official Peter Haden-Guest.
"It hasn't done anything. It's just a thing. It's not something that - in this country, it doesn't really play much of a role in daily life," Guest said of his title.
Though the peerage is merely inherited, legions of comedy fans would be willing to knight Guest for his best-known roles, including dimwitted guitarist Nigel Tufnel from "Spinal Tap." That film set the standard for mockumentaries, melding the shaky intimacy of a documentary with droll, parodic performances and spawning two albums, multiple world tours and dozens of imitators.
Guest's biggest films since have used the same structure.
"We had a good experience on that movie, and I enjoyed it. I decided to keep working in that format - I think it's a way to see a kind of comedy that you don't get to see," Guest said.
Though the characters in his films sometimes seem comically overblown, Guest insisted that "Best in Show" is rooted in realism.
"I don't think that it's exaggerating anything," Guest said of the humor in his films. "I think it does come from the fact that people can recognize real people and because it's improvised and spontaneous, it seems even that much more real."
Guest - who spent a year attending dog shows to prepare for the canine-centered "Best in Show" - insisted that his film is still a human comedy.
"I think it's a people comedy and... the backdrop of the movie is the dog world," he said. "(The idea came from) going to a dog park, listening to dog people talk about their dogs, watching how they interacted with each other - that kind of evolved into going to some shows and being interested in this as an idea."
Though the improvised format provides many challenges, Guest said that the greatest challenges lay in the editing.
"(After shooting for 25 days,) we edited this for close to 9 months - we had 60 hours of film, and that's a tremendous amount of work and it takes a lot of focus and concentration to put the film together."
In recent years, Guest has worked behind the camera more than in front of it, including work directing television commercials.
"I've done ESPN, and a lot of dot-coms, and Frosted Flakes, and some other weird things," he said. "(I like commercials because) they let me do the way I make my movies - they let me make them up on the spot. They let me have a lot of freedom, and it's fun."
With many diverse interests, Guest confessed to no more immediate film plans, but added that he does not feel pressured.
"I'd like to pursue what I'm doing," Guest said. "Just keep working, hopefully still doing things that I enjoy."
