Archive for the ‘1920s’ category
Project Keaton: The Artist and Buster Keaton
Submitted to Project Keaton by NYC-based writer Will McKinley ,The Artist at the New York Film Festival: Evoking Memories of Buster Keaton is a terrific look at the upcoming silent French film THE ARTIST and its surprising connection to the life and art of Buster Keaton. ”Sunday afternoon, on the final day of the New York Film Festival, I saw Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist. Sunday night on Turner Classic Movies, I watched Buster Keaton in Free and Easy. Although these two very different films were made more than 80 years apart, they actually have a lot in common…” Read Will’s full post here.
Project Keaton: Buskerfly Productions Tip Their Hat to Buster
Buskerfly Productions is truly delightful. This Boulder-based production company embraces the elements of classic film-making while utilizing the latest in modern technology, producing work that is of pristine, high-def quality while maintaining its integrity to the original medium that is their inspiration: silent comedy.
Buskerfly reached out to Project Keaton and was so kind as to edit a special clip from their silent feature, BUSKERS BOUNTY. Watch as they so effectively channel Keaton’s timelessly hilarious “hat scene” from his 1928 masterpiece STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. Many thanks to producers Philip Van Scotter and Abbey Pleviak for reaching out— and for their fabulous work!
Visit Buskerfly Productions to see more of BUSKERS BOUNTY, and to learn about their exciting upcoming projects!
and the original source of inspiration:
Project Keaton Guest Post: Silent Volume
Silent film blogger Chris Edwards runs Silent Volume, a site dedicated to the art of silent filmmaking. Its tagline, “this medium is not dead,” is backed by a wealth of reviews, editorials and general musings on silent films great and small. In conjunction with Project Keaton, Edwards has written a fabulous piece exploring the deeply human everyman appeal of Keaton’s work and its particular relevance in the 21st century. Follow him @SilentVolume
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Framed: Keaton in THE GOAT (1921)
My Twitter avatar is Buster Keaton. It’s a screenshot of him, behind bars, from THE GOAT, one of his short films.
People love it. They’ve called it ‘perfect.’ It’s cool to them the way Buster’s bars exactly touch the edges of the frame, as though he’s imprisoned in Twitter’s own digital superstructure. One small, innocent man, peeking out of one window, in a building that has millions of them. Read more ►
Win a copy of Buster Keaton Short Films Collection 1920 – 1923?
Want the the Kino new release, Buster Keaton Short Films Collection 1920 – 1923? We thought so! This week, Project Keaton is giving away a copy of this fantastic new DVD collection from Kino Video.
“Authorized by the Buster Keaton estate and mastered in HD from 35mm archival film elements, The Short Films Collection gathers all of Keaton’s solo silent comedies in one monumental three-disc set. Widely considered to be among Keaton’s finest work, the nineteen two-reel shorts are loaded with laughs, punctuated by breath-taking stunts, and bursting with raw creativity.”
To enter, simply send an email to us at thekeatonproject@gmail.com with “KEATON KINO” in the subject line. Lucky winner will be picked at random notified this Friday, October 14!
Good luck!
My Somewhat Neurotic Relationship with Buster Keaton Movies and Why They Make Me OK with Being Me.
Image ©2011 ~TheBalloonMan
So here we are, day one of Project Keaton. Submissions are pouring in and The Pictorial is buzzing with excitement. The Project’s Tumblr and Facebook pages are up and running and … this is gonna be awesome, guys.
So for the first official Project Keaton post, I’m going to be a total prima-donna and grab the mic for a minute and reflect back on why the heck Keaton matters very much to me in the first place.
But I’m gonna leave the sociological and academic analysis of his films and their seismic influence on the framework of modern cinema to the Leonard Maltins and the David Thomsons out there, and instead, simply confess that the reason I love Keaton is because of something he excelled so very much in:
Timing.
Now, as you all know, I am a massive Charlie Chaplin fan. MASSIVE. In many ways, Charlie is the love of my life. I was 10 years old when I fell in love with Charlie. A wondrous, marvelous, romantic age to discover anything.
I was 14 when I saw my first Buster Keaton film.
Being 14 sucks. In fact… few things suck more than being 14. (Except, maybe, 15.)
Which is why Sherlock Jr. absolutely rocked my world when I first saw it flicker on the old movie channel one random weekend. If anyone’s life sucked more than mine, it was Buster’s. That sweetly honest stone face that just couldn’t catch a break. The woman in his life was weak, his boss was a jerk, his future prospects were dim, he’s painfully awkward and the only ray of sunshine in his life involved celluloid fantasies.
Yeah. I knew that guy.
Here I am at the cusp of 30 and I realize that I will always know this guy. And when chaos consumes, and all I have to keep my sanity is my sense of humor, there is nothing more therapeutic than a Keaton film. That’s when I switch on Steamboat Bill Jr to watch Buster battle hurricanes, or Seven Chances to watch him dodge a gang of pissed off jilted brides, or The Cameraman to watch him fight urban turf wars.
It’s absurd.
But so is life.
Buster knows it. His films get it. And, in so many ways, he is all of us. Buster doesn‘t always get the girl, beat the bad guy or ride off into the sunset… and somehow, it’s still OK. Which is why 116 years after he was born, we’re still so deeply affected by his work. And only one of the countless reasons the Pictorial is championing that deeply human comedy of his in our month-long celebration of all things Keaton.
Thanks, Buster, for always keepin’ it real.
The 21st Century REALLY needs you.
And so do 14 year olds.
*puts down mic, disembarks soapbox, and lets the festivities begin*