Kalo Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 brownie wrote: "Since Buster Keaton's name popped up here, anyone seen 'The Cameraman? Not sure it's on release now. I love the other Keaton classics, but 'The Cameraman' is so perfectly constructed and beautifully photographed. It is my Keaton favorite." I saw this on the big screen years ago. It's an excellent film and the last great Keaton. It's currently available on DVD as part of a Keaton at MGM 2-disc set. As for The Cameraman's perfect construction, it was used for years as a training film for MGM comedy production teams, explicitly as a model of perfect comic construction. Apparently it held this place at MGM well into the 1950s. Meanwhile, substantive author of this perfection, Keaton himself, was employed by MGM as not a director or comedy scenaist, but as a "consultant" and gag man for lame Red Skelton re-makes of his silent classics. Ah, Hollywood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gslade Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Marx Bros Try watching Keaton while listening to Jazz I did this the other day with an AEC disc It was great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalo Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 All films should be experience for the first time in a theatre, I think. I wish there were more revival houses all across America, and not just in the big cities & college towns. A similar experience was when LACMA screened the Preston Sturges films a few years ago. In a full house, with everyone laughing - truly amazing. That wasn't the first Sturges series in LA in my life - I remember an earlier one at the Nuart, and the New Beverly often shows pairings. I agree with Adam's first assertion. Once you've seen a film on the big screen then a DVD or video can be a fine reminder. But if you've only seen something at home, then you can't truly evaluate it. Of course with the newer home theater set-ups, the image is more of a scale with the moviegoing past. Still, there's no substitute for a living, breathing audience (especially for comedy). I've been lucky enough to live in the Boston area for many years, within walking distance of Brookline's Coolidge Corner Theater, and Cambridge's Brattle Theater and Harvard Film Archive. Movie history Heaven. Sturges keeps growing over the years, despite his flaws (primarily an affection for but lack of ability with physical slapstick). He's perhaps the primary example of film as a verbal medium as well as a visual one. See him in a theater with an audience if you ever get the chance. Otherwise, just SEE him any way you can. My favorites are The Lady Eve and The Palm Beach Story, but almost everything he did was good-to-great, including stuff he just wrote but didn't direct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 I like the general, but the sound is always a problem - can't hear the dialog - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalo Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Funny, I can hear the dialogue. IN MY MIND. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzmoose Posted May 6, 2005 Report Share Posted May 6, 2005 Funny, I can hear the dialogue. IN MY MIND. I know what you mean. The voices talk to me at times as well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Berger Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 (edited) Has anyone ever made better period films than Keaton? The General, set in the Civil War era, looks like Matthew Brady photos in motion. And Our Hospitality, set even earlier, boasts glimpses of a rural Manhattan and an amazing early train journey. I just saw Our Hospitality and Sherlock Jr. on DVD, and was wondering -- how realistic are the period sets? Were 1830s train rides really like those depicted in the film? Second the Marx Bros recommendation... I recently rented Duck Soup, it's awesome. Though I'll be a bit of a philistine and admit that at least in that movie, Harpo is the funniest one. Guy Edited June 7, 2005 by Guy Berger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BERIGAN Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 (edited) Has anyone ever made better period films than Keaton? The General, set in the Civil War era, looks like Matthew Brady photos in motion. And Our Hospitality, set even earlier, boasts glimpses of a rural Manhattan and an amazing early train journey. I just saw Our Hospitality and Sherlock Jr. on DVD, and was wondering -- how realistic are the period sets? Were 1830s train rides really like those depicted in the film? Guy ← Strangely enough, filmmakers in the first half of the 20th Century were stickler's to detail, wardrobe, they hated to be off, proven to have a 1840's chair in a film in the 1820's...but could care less about making shit up about real people! I wondered about the train myself when they ran Out Hospitality on TCM in April, and they mentioned the name of it in the Allmovie review, it is a Stephenson's Rocket. Very interesting how very long ago the world had locomotives!(Click on link below photo for the story) http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jsessi...wp=8&sbid=lc01a Edited June 7, 2005 by BERIGAN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
medjuck Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Marx Bros Try watching Keaton while listening to Jazz I did this the other day with an AEC disc It was great! ← Bill Frissell recorded a soundtrack for Go West. I played it along with the film and only had to pause a couple of times to keep it in sync. Fun to do. when in iwas in college I used to create soundtracks for silent film screenings. I still rmember using Charlie Mingus to accompany a chase scene Chaplin's The Kid. Everybodys seemed to like it but I caught Hell for using Delarue's music from Jules and Jim for the sentimental parts of the film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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