buster keaton
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The General, By Sidney Lumet and Postcards From the Edge: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations
This week sees the Blu-ray release of one of the greatest of all silent comedies via Kino’s exceptional high-def transfer of Buster Keaton’s The General (1926) – though to categorize it as a mere comedy is a bit limiting. The film contains wall-to-wall laughs to be sure, but it’s also the most enduring action film of its era, a chase movie that still, over ninety years later, has the ability to awe the viewer with its flawless intersection of conceptual ambition, meticulously executed stunts, and visual elegance. Following essentially the same structure as Mad Max: Fury Road, the movie consists […]
by Jim Hemphill on Feb 10, 2017 -
Buster Keaton’s The General Turns 90 with Tour and Live Score
To celebrate the 90th Anniversary of Buster Keaton’s classic film The General, throughout August Portland’s historic Hollywood Theatre and Oregon Film will present a state-wide tour of the film with a new live score composed by film composer Mark Orton. Above you can check out a trailer for the film presentation. Considered one of the best comedies of the silent era, The General finds hapless Southern railroad engineer Johnny Gray (Buster Keaton) facing off against Union soldiers during the American Civil War. When Johnny’s fiancée, Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack), is accidentally taken away while on a train stolen by Northern forces, Gray pursues the soldiers, using various modes of transportation in […]
by Paula Bernstein on Jul 29, 2016 -
Watch: Buster Keaton’s Symmetrical Sense of Humor
kogonada first caught our eye two years back with his exploration of symmetry in the works of Stanley Kubrick, followed by Wes Anderson a year later. But before both auteurs were associated with a centered, exacting aesthetic, Buster Keaton applied a looser construct of symmetry to his brand of physical comedy. The above video from Vince di Meglio looks at how the central framing of nearly 30 of Keaton’s films allows for head-to-toe humor in relation to both objects and space.
by Sarah Salovaara on Feb 19, 2015
