Jean-Claude Carriere on slapstick comedy Slapstick comedy is the perfect use of film language. It is a form of comedy that is very specific to film. For me, Buster Keaton was a semi-god and his films, along with the other slapstick films of the Twenties, are unparalleled in the history of cinema. At the beginning, slapstick was just about people falling over, but soon the films became more elaborate. Keaton's films are real stories that are very well built. There was a huge amount of thought put into the hilarious scenarios. In Chaplin's Modern Times (1936), a machine they are using in a factory goes wrong. It was almost impossible to see how it all worked. I found out recently it was Chaplin himself who is activating the machine with his hands below the counter. The comedians, actors and filmmakers working at this time created an explosion of joy and invention like nothing else in the world. When I see Woody Allen's latest comedies, they seem very sad. The characters sit there and talk and talk as if they were in a café, not on the screen. There was a group living in California who were a community. They were rivals, of course, but they were friends. The best example of a slapstick film is The Navigator (1924) by Buster Keaton. It's a masterpiece. Keaton finds himself alone on a big boat - it's a film between man and machine. Whatever can happen between them happens. These were mainly silent movies and the lack of talking helped the comedy. It obliged them to really use the only language available to them. These films communicated to the whole world. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" is out in cinemas now and will be on DVD from July 16