Director Emma Seligman cites the John Hughes classic comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off as an inspiration for her own films Shiva Baby and Bottoms. Seligman says Hughes took his teenage characters seriously, and was able to shine a light on teen angst and depression… while still managing to make a seriously funny film.
The 1986 coming of age teen comedy follows Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), a high school student who skips school with his best friend, Cameron Frye (Alan Ruck), and his girlfriend, Sloane Peterson (Mia Sara). The trio spends a day in Chicago where they get into some trouble, but not too much. Seligman has watched the comedy many times, and notes the “effortless and seamless” nature of the film’s structured plot, buoyed by its strong performances.
The late Hughes — who helped create some of the most iconic teen movies of the 1980s like Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink — wrote the screenplay for Ferris Bueller in less than a week, just before the 1985 Writers’ Strike. It was his fourth film as director, and it became the tenth-highest-grossing movie of that year. Hughes, a Michigan native, called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off his love letter to Chicago.
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This segment has been edited for length and clarity.
[Ferris Bueller's Day Off] is a movie that takes young people seriously while still being a comedy. I think that especially as a kid, I hadn't seen a teen movie that had kind of an existentialism. [It portrayed] teenage angst and depression so accurately and authentically, especially in the performances.
There’s also just such a wonderful coming of age story in a day. It feels whimsical, and kind of experimental in the fact that you don't necessarily know where the plot is going. And yet, it's also very tight as a narrative. It has these beautiful set pieces like “Twist and Shout,” and these other diversions of plot. They're not required in order to tell this story, but it's quite a character-driven movie.
The costumes and the production design in Ferris Bueller's Day Off are so specific and character driven, and yet allows each of the performances and the characters to stand out in their scenes. It's so clear [that] John Hughes has such creatively wonderful, [and] active collaborations with his people behind the scenes. [It] makes the teen movie look so beautiful, and takes it seriously as a genre. Just because it's a teen comedy doesn't mean that the costumes need to be basic or that it needs to be lit super lazily, if that's the right word. I try to take inspiration from that kind of visual detail.
It never gets old. Somehow the last line of the movie still makes me cry, like every time I watch it. I think it’s relatable for any audience member who watches it [at any age].