A solitary old woman senses that invisible presences surround her in this modern silent film with a strong, original piano score.
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Buster Keaton‘s Seven Chances (1925) features the greatest chase scene in silent cinema. It is a typically no-holds barred, Keatonesque climax. The film also highlights Keaton’s major flaw: his inability to rise above the racism of his society. This is a flaw that cannot be ignored; it factors into our moral and aesthetic assessment of the . . . → Read More: SEVEN CHANCES (1925) Arthur Lipsett’s assemblage of bizarre discarded footage from the National Film Board of Canada has been credited as a major influence on George Lucas’ work. Lucas even made Princess Leia’s prison cell on the Death Star in Star Wars Episode IV number 2187, after this short. ..
Buster Keaton further explored his fascination with the west in his feature Go West (1925). Keaton had previously parodied the westerns of William S. Hart in Frozen North (1922) and Go West is a further development of that exploration. Go West, however, is more influenced by Charlie Chaplin than by Hart; it has qualities which have to come to . . . → Read More: GO WEST (1925) AND ONE WEEK (1920) The Navigator (1924) was Buster Keaton‘s biggest commercial success and remains one of his most popular features. Co-directed by Donald Crisp, it is a bona fide classic. Affluent society heir Rollo (Keaton) wakes up one morning, sees a newlywed couple outside of his window, and, bored to tears, decides he wants to get married. Love, of . . . → Read More: THE NAVIGATOR (1924) AND FROZEN NORTH (1922) These two Buster Keaton films, separated by seven years, represent the artist at his most hyperkinetic. Playhouse (1921), co-directed by Keaton and Eddie Cline, is a twenty-two minute short and one of Keaton’s most surreal efforts. The movie iris-ins on Keaton’s Opera House. It’s actually a vaudeville show, in which Keaton is the conductor, every . . . → Read More: PLAYHOUSE (1921) AND STEAMBOAT BILL JR. (1928) Buster Keaton never aligned himself with the Surrealists or the avant-garde. His late in life experience acting in Samuel Becket’s Film (1965) proved a negative experience for the actor. Yet, Keaton possessed aesthetic qualities akin to Surrealist tenets, which made him a revered figure in that movement. Together with Playhouse (1921) and Frozen North (1922), Sherlock Jr. . . . → Read More: SHERLOCK JR. (1924) “There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore;– Turn wheresoe’er I may, By night or day, The things which I have seen . . . → Read More: 141. ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1966) Our Hospitality (1923) was Buster Keaton‘s first true feature film. Keaton’s previous “feature,” Three Ages (1923) was actually three short films assembled together. There was both an artistic and a commercial reason for this: Three Ages was a parody of the similarly structured D.W. Griffith feature Intolerance (1916). Additionally, Keaton had proved his audience appeal in shorts. Metro Pictures . . . → Read More: OUR HOSPITALITY (1923) AKA “Things I Like, Things I Don’t Like”; “Things I Like, Things I Hate” DIRECTED BY: Jean-Pierre Jeunet FEATURING: Dominique Pinon PLOT: A man lists things he likes, and things he doesn’t like, for about seven minutes. WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: It’s neither weird nor substantial enough, though its an eminently . . . → Read More: CAPSULE: FOUTAISES (1989) |
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