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Buster Keaton |
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Director / Actor / Screenwriter /
Editor / Producer |
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1895 - 1966 |
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Born October 4,
Piqua, Kansas, USA |
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Key
Production Country: USA |
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Key Genres:
Comedy, Slapstick, Short Film, Romantic Comedy, Adventure Comedy |
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Key
Collaborators: Elgin Lessley
(Cinematographer), Joseph M. Schenck
(Producer),
Eddie
Cline
(Director/Screenwriter/Leading Player),
Clyde Bruckman (Screenwriter/Director), Jean C. Havez
(Screenwriter), Joseph A. Mitchell (Screenwriter), Joe Roberts (Leading
Player), Bert Haines (Cinematographer), Byron Houck
(Cinematographer), Fred Gabourie
(Production Designer) |
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Highly Recommended: Our Hospitality (1923)* [co-directed by John Blystone], Sherlock Jr. (1924)*, Seven Chances
(1925)*, The
General (1926)* [co-directed by Clyde Bruckman], The Cameraman (1928)*
[co-directed by Edward Sedgwick] |
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Recommended:
Neighbors (1920) [co-directed by
Eddie Cline],
One Week (1920) [co-directed by
Eddie Cline],
The
Boat (1921)** [co-directed by
Eddie Cline], Cops (1922) [co-directed by
Eddie Cline],
The Navigator (1924)* [co-directed by Donald Crisp],
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)* [directed by
Charles F. Reisner], Spite
Marriage (1929) [directed by Edward Sedgwick] |
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Worth a Look: The
High Sign (1921)
[co-directed by
Eddie Cline],
The Balloonatic (1923)
[co-directed by
Eddie Cline],
The Three Ages (1923)
[co-directed by
Eddie Cline],
Go West (1925), Battling Butler (1926) |
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* Listed in TSPDT's
1,000 Greatest Films
section; **
Listed in TSPDT's
Ain't Nobody's Blues But My Own
section. |
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Links: [
Amazon
] [
IMDB ] [
TCMDB ] [
All-Movie
Guide ] [
Senses
of Cinema: Great Directors ] [
Film Reference ] [
The
International Buster Keaton Society ] [
The
Beauty of Buster ] [
Juha's Buster Keaton Page ] [
Wikipedia ] [
PBS American Masters ] [
The
Buster Keaton Museum ] |
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Books: [
The Fall of Buster Keaton: His Films for MGM,
Educational Pictures, and Columbia ]
[
Keep Your Eye on the Kid: The Early Years of
Buster Keaton
]
[
Buster Keaton: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series)
] [
Buster
Keaton Remembered ] [
Buster
Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down ] [
My
Wonderful World of Slapstick ] [
Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat ] [
Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster
Keaton ] [
The Theater and Cinema of Buster Keaton ] [
The Look of Buster Keaton ] [
The Complete Films of Buster Keaton ] [
Buster Keaton ] [
Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase ] |
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"Buster
Keaton is the only creator-star of American silent comedies who
equals
Chaplin as one of the
artistic giants of the cinema. He is perhaps the only silent
clown whose reputation is far higher today than it was in the
1920s, when he made his greatest films. In comparison to
Chaplin,
Keaton's films were more blithely athletic and optimistic, more
committed to audacious physical stunts and cinema tricks, far
less interested in exploring moral paradoxes and emotional
resonances." -
Gerald
Mast (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998)
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"Joseph
Francis Keaton is arguably the greatest film comedian the world
has ever known. What is perhaps less commonly recognised is that
he was also one of cinema's greatest directors: unlike most
comics, he displayed a masterly, apparently intuitive grasp of
the possibilities of film, both before and behind the camera." -
Geoff
Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989) |
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"Keaton
strikes a chord with the world of post-1960 that was not heard
when his greatest films were made. It has been argued, with
justice, that his films are "beautiful," which means
that their comedy is expressed in photography that is creative,
witty, and excited by the appearance of things. That sounds
obvious, but most comedy films of the silent era did little more
than film the comedian's "act." -
David
Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)
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"Although his directorial career was cut short by sound and
Louis B. Mayer, Keaton helmed, wrote, and starred in some of the
most brilliant comedies in cinema history. He had a fine sense
of story values, the past, character development, and comic
logic. In addition to having talent for slapstick, Keaton, most
of all, was a master of humor which could only be done on the
movie screen." -
William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978) |
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"I don't
act, anyway. The stuff is all injected as we go along. My
pictures are made without script or written directions of any
kind." - Buster Keaton |
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Please
note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based
only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director
that we haven't seen include The Goat (1921), The Playhouse (1921), The
Blacksmith (1922), Daydreams (1922), The Electric House (1922), My
Wife's Relations (1922), and The Paleface (1922). |
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