How to improvise a boat out of a train.
November 24, 2023 9:28 AM Subscribe
100 years ago this month Buster Keaton released his groundbreaking silent film "Our Hospitality", described as his "...first feature as auteur and his first masterpiece."
The late Roger Ebert wrote that "...no silent star did more dangerous stunts than Buster Keaton. Instead of using doubles, he himself doubled for some of his actors, doing their stunts as well as his own". That's on full display in Hospitality, particularly in the famous waterfall stunt. The alarm on the usually-stone-faced actor's expression is real; his safety wires broke while filming, and he nearly drowned.
You can watch the whole thing Youtube or Archive.org.
The late Roger Ebert wrote that "...no silent star did more dangerous stunts than Buster Keaton. Instead of using doubles, he himself doubled for some of his actors, doing their stunts as well as his own". That's on full display in Hospitality, particularly in the famous waterfall stunt. The alarm on the usually-stone-faced actor's expression is real; his safety wires broke while filming, and he nearly drowned.
You can watch the whole thing Youtube or Archive.org.
Werner Herzog was interviewed recently on BBC's This Cultural Life - 44m minutes, excellent, recommend!. People criticized him for putting his crew in danger but he asserted that he always did the dangerous shots - like going down the rapids on a raft in Aguirre Wrath of God - himself before expecting the actors and film crew to go out.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:42 AM on November 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:42 AM on November 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
Yes! My first Keaton. I'd agree it's his first masterpiece, if you're only counting features.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 11:12 AM on November 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by chimpsonfilm at 11:12 AM on November 24, 2023 [1 favorite]
yes!! been on a casual film history kick the last few years and when I started I never thought silent films would be really truly entertaining to me, I thought I’d only be watching them academically. but oh man the silent comedies, especially Keaton ones, have been super easy to watch and lose myself in. They were my gateway into developing a massive appreciation and respect for early film in all genres. That stuff holds UP!
It’s really neat to see film as a purely visual art form - like considering what it takes to create something that’s emotionally moving without synchronized audio. and maybe I’m just an immature dork and possibly spoiled by the quality of the early extremely dangerous real life stunts Keaton did but I am now a pretty solid believer that visual/physical gags are peak top form timeless comedy.
My partner and I have had a running in joke of “is that the first instance of [now-overused trope] in film”? Like a bad guy twirling his mustache or like thinking a gun isn’t loaded or whatever. Just thinking about the idea that someone was first to get a particular thing on film and everyone after was just imitating (however inconsequential the thing, and whether or not that’s actually the case, haha). I remember having a lot of those moments when watching Our Hospitality. Time to watch it again!
Thanks for posting!
posted by crime online at 11:36 AM on November 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
It’s really neat to see film as a purely visual art form - like considering what it takes to create something that’s emotionally moving without synchronized audio. and maybe I’m just an immature dork and possibly spoiled by the quality of the early extremely dangerous real life stunts Keaton did but I am now a pretty solid believer that visual/physical gags are peak top form timeless comedy.
My partner and I have had a running in joke of “is that the first instance of [now-overused trope] in film”? Like a bad guy twirling his mustache or like thinking a gun isn’t loaded or whatever. Just thinking about the idea that someone was first to get a particular thing on film and everyone after was just imitating (however inconsequential the thing, and whether or not that’s actually the case, haha). I remember having a lot of those moments when watching Our Hospitality. Time to watch it again!
Thanks for posting!
posted by crime online at 11:36 AM on November 24, 2023 [5 favorites]
Puzzled at the title of the YouTube video: "Buster Keaton - Our Hospitality (Laurel & Hardy)".
posted by neuron at 12:14 PM on November 24, 2023
posted by neuron at 12:14 PM on November 24, 2023
There's a Keaton-themed restaurant called Buster's in Cottage Grove, Oregon, where The General was filmed. I've eaten there several times and recommend it.
posted by neuron at 12:19 PM on November 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by neuron at 12:19 PM on November 24, 2023 [2 favorites]
AMONG THE THINGS you will learn from watching Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality:
...
* The Newtownian physics of waterfalls.
Indeed. What a scene!
posted by doctornemo at 12:49 PM on November 24, 2023
...
* The Newtownian physics of waterfalls.
Indeed. What a scene!
posted by doctornemo at 12:49 PM on November 24, 2023
crime online, that’s a feeling I get when watching Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin”. You are literally watching things being done for the first time as he invents the language of film.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 7:51 AM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by McCoy Pauley at 7:51 AM on November 25, 2023 [1 favorite]
Found some behind the scenes photos of the waterfall stunt. Can confirm Buster was nuts. https://silentlocations.com/2019/03/21/busters-paramount-backlot-plunge/
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 1:26 PM on November 25, 2023
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 1:26 PM on November 25, 2023
neuron, the story of the filming of the General is one I always thought would make a great movie in itself.
posted by gottabefunky at 8:29 PM on November 25, 2023
posted by gottabefunky at 8:29 PM on November 25, 2023
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posted by gottabefunky at 10:23 AM on November 24, 2023