Tag: Douglas Fairbanks
Max Linder produced, wrote, and directed three feature films for his own company: Seven Years Bad Luck (released Feb. 1921), Be My Wife (Dec. 1921), and The Three Must-Get-Theres (Aug. 1922). I’ve already written about Seven Years Bad Luck, and I guess I really do have some readers because I learned shortly thereafter that there was a short wait to rent it on Netflix. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword.
We live in an age of heat-seeking missiles and biometric surveillance, so when Thai rebel leader Arisman Pongruangrong pulled a Douglas Fairbanks and escaped from a hotel surrounded by Bangkok police by climbing a rope down the side of the building, we had one of our more retro physical comedy moments in recent years. Better yet, the deputy prime minister had just gone on national television to announce that they had their man! Pongruangrong, who’s also a pop singer, was hugged by his adoring supporters before being spirited out of there in a get-away car. Zorro, anyone?
I guess it’s a generational thing, but when I mention parkour to anyone over 40, I usually get a blank stare, which if nothing else makes me feel young and in the know. If you too are going “huh?” just think of those videos you’ve probably seen of ridiculously agile teenage daredevils — Spidermen without the web — jumping on, over and off walls, railings and other structures that get in their way. They are called traceurs presumably because they trace a path through space while leaving only a faint imprint.
TRANSLATE THIS PAGE
Workshops & Other Events
My first book (1976)
My book Clowns has long been out of print, but you can borrow it for two weeks at a time from the Internet Archive. More information is available here.
My second book (2015)
Visual and verbal humor for the cognitively and artistically curious! Available here.
“A book to treasure!”
—Bill Irwin