The Body in Hollywood Slapstick by Alex Clayton - Article Example

“The body is a natural subject for the film because of the photographic basis of its visual field. For the medium of film, as distinct from other narrative arts such as literature or animation, the body is not described or drawn but photographed and projected. The directness of this process might lead us to say that in movies the human figure is not so much represented as presented.” (Clayton, 11) Therefore, the author offers a convincing discussion of the body in Hollywood Slapstick which helps the readers to realize the physicality of physical comedy, in particular.

As the author maintains, the exploration of how the body is presented and deployed in the genre of Hollywood slapstick, and by evoking the detail of performance, one can understand how the condition embodiment constitutes one of the genre’s major subjects. In short, the article “Introduction: The Body in Hollywood Slapstick” can be best realized as an apt introduction to the book The Body of Hollywood Slapstick.