FILMOGRAPHY

These days, we look down on physical comedy; critics like to say that movies “descend” into slapstick. Physical comedy has gained a reputation for being cheap, an easy way out for directors and performers when their ideas run dry…Early movies didn’t descend; they rose to the occasion of a speedy, febrile art that was itself founded on the spinning of a reel, whereas the physical gags of today (what you can find of them) come across as mean and tired.