Buster Keaton, Anarchitect

April 10, 2019 2:07 PM

Keaton’s comedy derives largely from the positioning — and constant, unexpected repositioning — of his body in space, and in architectural space particularly. An exploration of how Buster Keaton used and created physical environments to maximum comic effect .
posted by Mchelly (13 comments total)

Buster Keaton was an absolute GENIUS about this. One of the best examples of "the use of space" came in Sherlock Jr., during a dream sequence; he's a projectionist who fancies himself a detective, and during one screening he dozes off and dreams that he steps into the action of the detective film he's screening at the local theater. But early on in his dream, he dreams that he walks out of the projectionist's booth and literally steps into the action on the screen - it's a couple minutes of him reacting to the environment as the movie changes around him. Keaton's attention to detail is meticulous - he hired a surveyer to help him line up the shots just right.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:23 PM on April 10, 2019 [22 favorites]

I recently heard a comment from Mark Kermode, I think, suggesting that all 'action' movies are greatly informed by silent movies: Keaton sprang to mind (he does quite a bit of springing)...
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 2:31 PM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was watching a current comedy with a famous improvisatory slapstick star, and it was so terrible. Imagine if instead of improvising he had rehearsed tirelessly the way Keaton did. The article won't load for me, so I can't tell if it mentions "The Scarecrow", where Keaton balances on the walls of a roofless building while being chased by a dog. It's amazing and also funny.
posted by acrasis at 3:09 PM on April 10, 2019

When people ask me what my favorite movie is I usually say Sherlock Jr. Sometimes it makes them a little annoyed, like I picked a silent film to put on airs or something. I insist that it really is marvelous but I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten through to them.
posted by Mothlight at 4:32 PM on April 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

Wow, that clip form Sherlock Jr. is just unbelievable.
posted by a certain Sysoi Pafnut'evich at 8:28 PM on April 10, 2019 [4 favorites]

I recently heard a comment from Mark Kermode, I think, suggesting that all 'action' movies are greatly informed by silent movies: Keaton sprang to mind (he does quite a bit of springing)...

Jackie Chan has cited Keaton and other silent film icons as major influences on his work.
posted by acidnova at 9:03 PM on April 10, 2019 [4 favorites]

Keaton was also super-super committed to work.

There's another stunt he did in Sherlock Jr. involving a water tower at a railyard; he was on a train, and was supposed to grab the spout on the water tower and hang on as it swiveled down to the ground, where he would let go and run away. During one take, something went wrong and he was slammed down hard on the ground, his head striking one of the tracks. He had a hell of a headache, but was otherwise up and walking around and conscious and lucid, so they broke shooting for the day and were taking a wait-and-see attitude towards shooting the next day. Keaton was in about the same shape the next day - a really bad headache, but otherwise okay - and insisted they keep working. They finished the film over the next couple weeks, and Keaton had blinding headaches each day but stuck with it. The headaches started fading as shooting wrapped and faded altogether a couple weeks later, and he thought nothing further.

Nine years later, during a routine physical, the doctor noticed some weird bone growth at the spot and asked him about it. Keaton told him about the accident. The doctor said that "okay, because this is the kind of bone growth that we usually see when there's been a fracture."

So Keaton had broken his neck during that stunt and never knew it, and kept working.

A similar tale about his very last role - he was in the film version of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum. At about the time that he was going into filming, his doctors discovered that he had lung cancer; but for whatever reason, either because of his doctors or because of his family, they hid that fact from him and told him he just had a nasty case of bronchitis instead. He spent his entire last months thinking he just had a stubborn case of bronchitis. And nevertheless did all his own stunts in Forum.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:17 AM on April 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

I recently heard a comment from Mark Kermode, I think, suggesting that all 'action' movies are greatly informed by silent movies: Keaton sprang to mind (he does quite a bit of springing)...

It's not just movies; I'm convinced that Keaton's athleticism and stuntwork are an unsung influence on the development of video games, particularly side-scrolling "platformer" games like Super Mario Bros. Just look at this and tell me you don't see it.
posted by Strange Interlude at 5:53 AM on April 11, 2019 [8 favorites]

This is a terrific article. Thanks for posting!

I thought immediately of Into the Spider Verse which charmed me with it's explorations of urban space. Film Spiderman seems to borrow extensively from images like this.

And this quote: "His evasions may be “last-minute” rescues, but they could also be understood as his being completely at one with his built environment, which he reads like a chessboard, intricately planning how to game it across time and space" sums up the pleasure of watching these characters use architecture and urban space in unintended and delightful ways.

I was also reminded of this old BLDG BLOG post about how space is used in Die Hard.

This kind of exploration of the physical environment is something maybe unique to film (vs literature or plays or whatnot).

Great piece!
posted by latkes at 6:55 AM on April 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

(Oh and yeah, video games I guess are the best at exploring space in unexpected ways!)
posted by latkes at 6:57 AM on April 11, 2019

The GIFs in that article are glorious. One Week is well represented, as it should be (it is perfection), though he could have mined Cops further for the urban space. 18 minutes of cops chasing Keaton all over the city. Just delirious joy.

The writer makes a great point about the difference between filming in 1920s Los Angeles and being sent to New York for The Cameraman. Struggles with MGM and Keaton's lost independence are usually the focus when thinking about his decline (or family problems and alcoholism), but the (in)ability to play with space affected the films too.
posted by chimpsonfilm at 7:31 AM on April 11, 2019 [2 favorites]

The prof in my second year film history course showed us The General and specified that part of the reason he screened it for students every year was because the stunts were timeless, especially in light of action and sci-fi cinema being more and more dominated by CGI all the time (this was back in the early '90s, but the process was already well under way). I remember people in the class gasping at parts and afterwards the chatter was along the lines of "OMG he really did all that?"
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:25 PM on April 11, 2019

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION


"Bustin" x "Best of Buster Keaton's Stunts"
posted by rebent at 2:16 PM on April 17, 2019