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Why Buster Keaton’s visual comedy is still the best in a century-plus of cinema
From the meticulous geometric framing of Wes Anderson to the droll deadpan of Bill Murray, the influence of Buster Keaton’s comedy still ripples throughout popular culture. This video essay is part of the US filmmaker Tony Zhou’s Every Frame a Painting series, and it details how Keaton’s work helped to shape the visual language of film and on-screen comedy, dissecting just why his gags still amaze and amuse nearly a century after he first transformed motion pictures.
Director: Tony Zhou
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Stories and literature
Two variants of a Hindu myth come alive in an animated ode to Indian storytelling
14 minutes
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Food and drink
The passage of time is a peculiar thing in a 24-hour diner
14 minutes
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Art
Background music was the radical invention of a trailblazing composer
17 minutes
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Anthropology
For an Amazonian female shaman, ayahuasca ceremonies are a rite and a business
30 minutes
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Gender
A filmmaker responds to Lars von Trier’s call for a new muse with a unique application
16 minutes
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Sports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes
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Design and fashion
A ceramicist puts her own bawdy spin on the folk language of pottery
14 minutes
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Art
Radical doodles – how ‘exquisite corpse’ games embodied the Surrealist movement
15 minutes
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Language and linguistics
Why Susan listens to recordings of herself speaking a language she no longer remembers
5 minutes