The Fall and a Birthday Wish

To steal Craig Ferguson's line, it's a great day for America. Why? Because Buster Keaton was born on this day in Piqua, Kansas in 1895.

I, for one, intend to celebrate with a marathon of Buster's movies, a couple games of cards, and possibly a Buster-related purchase on eBay (what better day to treat myself to a birthday wish, since I can't treat Buster to one?).

For anyone interested in watching a new or different sort of a movie in celebration and commemoration of Buster Keaton, I recommend viewing Tarsem's The Fall, starring Lee Pace and newcomer Catinca Untaru.

The Fall is a beautifully filmed and acted story about Roy (Pace), a stuntman from the silent era who has become paralyzed from the waist down due to a stunt gone wrong. His heartbreak over the loss of his love compounded with his new handicap has led him into a spiral of suicidal depression. Enter Alexandria (Untaru), a young girl wandering the hospital with a broken arm. Roy captures her attention with a fantastical story that is an allegory for his own life. As Alexandria urges the story forward, however, it becomes uniquely theirs. In her innocence, however, Alexandria doesn't realize that Roy is using her interest in him and their story for ulterior motives.

It is a well-acted, charming little movie with stunning visuals. The film is a nice tribute to the silent era of film making, and I would recommend viewing it on that alone. I recommend it here, in particular, because Buster Keaton also makes a cameo of sorts.

I've got to get to celebrating, so that's all for today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUSTER KEATON!

Wall-E (the character)

Some notes on Wall-E the character and his relation to Buster Keaton:

Curiosity
Wall-E's fascination with the objects surrounding him is reminiscent of Buster Keaton's fascination with the motion picture camera. It also brings to mind all of the little contraptions Keaton made, his constant curiosity and desire to see what he can make.

Tenacity
Both Wall-E and the Keaton character have incredible tenacity when courting the affection of the one they fancy, as well as overcoming unexpected obstacles. Wall-E's devotion and goal-oriented behavior regarding Eve parallels Keaton's determination to win over almost every one of his love interests, particularly in the Keaton films The General and The Cameraman.

Romantic Innocence
As with Wall-E, the Keaton character tends to be experiencing first love. With such situations, the smallest things are celebrated on a grand scale, such as holding hands or a chaste first kiss. Consider Wall-E's thrilling as Eve kisses him in space, literally floating away in a spiral of wonder. The Cameraman has a scene where the love interest gives Keaton's character a peck on the cheek after their date, and Keaton reacts much the same way, floating away in wonder.

Wall-E (the movie)

Quick follow-up:

I've seen Wall-E twice now. It didn't disappoint. While there are no obvious Keaton references, the movie still manages to connect to Buster Keaton in fascinating ways.

One thing Wall-E accomplishes is being a movie infused with the kind of treatment and spirit Buster Keaton hoped for with movies when sound was first introduced. Going back to a Keaton statement I've quoted before, "Don't give me puns. Don't give me jokes. No wisecracks....There can be two or three people in a room working at jobs--well, they work at them without talking. That's the way I want it. So you get those stretches in your picture of six, seven, eight, nine minutes where there isn't a word of dialogue. In those, we did our old routines. Then, when it was natural to talk, you talked. You didn't avoid it. But you laid out your material that way, and in many places it didn't call for dialogue...."

That is to say, Wall-E is a movie where dialog is present, but not necessary. It utilizes to maximum benefit the charm, story-telling, pathos and humor that comes through telling a story visually. In the end, the movie feels like those comfortable silences with someone you love where you simply are together, enjoying each other's company. I very much enjoyed Wall-E's company.

Buster Keaton is God

And I'm not the only one who thinks so!

I rifled through some old, unread newspapers last night and a beautiful, large color image from WALL-E was printed on the front of the entertainment section. It made me pause and as I considered reading the article, my eyes flicked down and immediately caught the words "Buster Keaton is God". For a second, I thought I was having some Freudian-like slip-of-the-thought transference (does that sound like a real psychological turn of phrase?), literally reading my own thoughts in some random phrase like "Burger King is Good".

But, no! I blinked, read again, and it still said "Buster Keaton is God". I didn't even stop to read the rest of the article. I pulled out that section of the paper for keeps and smiled because the writer of the article (Michael Sragow) and a creator of WALL-E (specifically, Andrew Stanton) were relating WALL-E to Buster Keaton and the silent era.

And just like that, WALL-E became a Must-See-In-Theaters-,-Maybe-Even-More-Than-Once movie. I was suddenly twice as excited about the film, and five times more confident that it will (at least) contend with Monsters, Inc. as my favorite Pixar flick.

It makes more sense than ever now how much the scenes in the WALL-E trailer have delighted me. Actually, I feel like I should have been able to make the connection to a silent movie immediately, with all the minimal "dialog" and physical comedy. But, I didn't. In my defense, however, I have been keeping away from WALL-E promotions and articles in an attempt to avoid spoilers and such. I've only seen the trailer for the movie once in its entirety, and so far know only that I like its style, and that it's a movie about a "trash" robot that finds love. And presumably faces some huge challenge that leads to saving her, or the world, or the galaxy.

The movie always looked promising to me. Now, however, it has high expectations to live up to. I sure do hope it delivers.

Recher Mural

I went to a show last week at the Recher Theater in Towson, Maryland. They have a little mural by the entrance. Buster makes it on there twice. Unfortunately, there was some metal stuff in front of half the mural, over one of the Keaton images.

Curtis Eller's "Buster Keaton" & Silence in "talkies"

My last post included images of a project where I created imagined CD art for "Taking Up Serpents Again" by Curtis Eller's American Circus. I thought maybe I should explain who that is, for anyone who might be unfamiliar with them.

Curtis Eller is "New York City's angriest yodelling banjo player." As far as I can tell, Eller sometimes performs alone as Curtis Eller, but when accompanied, the group is called Curtis Eller's American Circus. Curtis Eller happens to have a song dedicated to Buster Keaton named, appropriately, "Buster Keaton." It's on the CD "Taking Up Serpents Again." Video and lyrics below:

"Buster Keaton" by Curtis Eller

Well, since they started in with the talkies, you can't get a moments peace
But they're talking just to hear their own voices, well at least...
That's what it seems like
'Cause there's nothing that I've heard that bears repeatin'
Won't you come back to the movies, Buster Keaton

You know it barely took a decade for those negatives to decay
But what the Hell, there was nitrate in the film stock from those days..
I guess that's the problem
But I'm not tired enough to admit that I've been beaten
Won't you come back to the movies, Buster Keaton

I wish that I was Buster Keaton when they took it all away
Gettin' drunk every night on Irish whisky
Or maybe Fatty Arbuckle when the headlines finally declared,
"Well I guess that it's just a mystery"
But I'm not gonna be like Charlie Chaplin, jumpin' on the first boat
And sail away before they have a chance to miss me
No, I'm stayin' here...here in New York City
I don't care how bad it gets

Well they keep on making pictures, but they're worthless and they're sad
And they never will make up for the silence that we had
And now we're stuck with it...
And the kids are watching T.V. while they're eatin'
Won't you come back to the movies, Buster Keaton
Won't you come back to the movies, Buster Keaton

It's a fantastic song, and it's hook, "won't you come back to the movies, Buster Keaton," reflects my thoughts exactly. That was the inspiration for the CD art I created; inserting Buster Keaton into some more modern iconic movie imagery.

Watching current movies, I often imagine how the movie would be different or improved if Buster had a hand in making it. I believe Buster could hold his own in today's movie climate, although I wouldn't go so far as to say he'd be making blockbusters or movies that were terribly commercially successful. But they would likely have been critically successful.

Consider 2007's No Country for Old Men. There was quite a lot of marvel and praise when the movie came out for how quiet the movie is, for its use of dialog only when necessary.

This isn't a revolutionary approach to film-making. Buster Keaton was saying since the invent of the talkies that people needn't talk for the sake of talking, and that a story with minimal dialog makes the spoken aspect all the more powerful and relevant. Here are excerpts from an interview with Buster when he talks about this:

When sound came, we found this out--we found this out from our own pictures--that sound didn't bother us at all. There was only one thing I wanted at all times, and insisted on: that you go ahead and talk in the most natural way, in your situations. Don't give me puns. Don't give me jokes. No wisecracks. Give that to Abbott and Costello. Give that to the Marx Brothers. Because as soon as our plot is set and everything is going smooth, I'm always going to find places in the story where dialogue is not called for. There can be two or three people in a room working at jobs--well, they work at them without talking. That's the way I want it. So you get those stretches in your picture of six, seven, eight, nine minutes where there isn't a word of dialogue. In those, we did our old routines. Then, when it was natural to talk, you talked. Then, when it was natural to talk, you talked. You didn't avoid it. But you laid out your material that way, and in many places it didn't call for dialogue....

Then, of course, when you give me a Jimmie Durante.... Well, Durante just can't keep quiet. He's going to talk no matter what happens.... They'd say, "This is funny," and I'd say, "I don't think so." "This'll be good"; I'd say, "It stinks." It didn't make any difference; we did it anyhow. I'd only argue about so far, and then let it go. And I knew better.

Consider what No Country for Old Men would look like with Buster Keaton helming it. It would be a totally different movie. Probably, the only resemblance to the original would be part of the plot's basic conflict, and the dominating silence.

Links:
Curtis Eller's website and Myspace

Interview excerpts were taken from

Buster Keaton Patterns

When in college, I had a tendency to tailor class assignments around Buster Keaton. Especially at the end of semester. It was one way to ensure that I wouldn't slack off because I'd stay interested in the assignment. I wrote a lot of final papers on Buster Keaton (And got A's on all of them, by the way).

I've been taking graphic design courses for a while now. This semester was all about designing using Adobe Illustrator. Two out of the three projects I did where we got to choose subject matter ended up relating to Buster Keaton.

The first assignment was to design CD packaging. I redid Curtis Eller's American Circus's "Taking Up Serpents Again" CD and made "Buster Keaton" the title song.

The images are line drawings I did that take Buster Keaton's face and impose it on iconic images from other movies. The inspiration came came from the song "Buster Keaton," from the line, "Won't you come back to the movies, Buster Keaton." So, the CD art imagines him as "back in the movies." The cover and CD art is Buster Keaton in Sweeney Todd. The left inside flap is Buster Keaton in 300. The CD would be inserted there. The right inside flap is Buster Keaton in North By Northwest. The black section on the inside is the insert with lyrics, etc. When that lifts out, the background is the completed image (plane), in tan and black. I don't love it, but I think it turned out alright. If I were to redo it, I think I'd like to take out the 300 image and put something from the 80s in, like Say Anything..., with Buster Keaton as Lloyd holding up the boom box. That way, the images would sample three very different decades and movie styles.

The final project for the class was to make several patterns. I used two basic forms related to Buster Keaton for patterns: the porkpie hat and eyes line drawing that is on the hardcover of Buster's autobiography, My Wonderful World of Slapstick, and Buster's autograph.

Here are some designs using a repetition of the hat & eyes image. The second also uses his autograph.

Here are some designs using his autograph, repeated dozens of times, like in the first one, or a quadrillion times, like in the fifth:


































The longer formats are ones I turned in:



























I had a lot of fun with the patterns. I made and turned in some other patterns that didn't have any relation to Buster Keaton, as well. Those were harder for me to stay interested in, and I didn't like them as much. However, as much as I love Buster and enjoyed making the patterns, I can't deny that I'm happy to be done with the class.

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

About a week ago, I was pleasantly surprised to receive this text message from a friend:

Puppet of B K from Mr Magorium. Can you see it?

My response was enthusiastic pride that a Buster Keaton sighting is automatically reported to me by my friends. I sent back a message of thanks and love. Naturally, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium got an immediate addition to my Netflix queue.

The Buster Keaton puppet has a small cameo about 12 minutes into the movie. However small, the scene is, in more ways than one, magical to Keaton enthusiasts. In its cameo, the Buster Keaton puppet has life, and finds itself tangled up in the very strings meant to control it. Without expression (of course), the Great Stone Face inspects the strings and seems to be assessing its situation and how to overcome it.

Here are some screen caps:





The scene is quintessential Buster Keaton: A quiet moment while chaos ensues around him, facing an obstacle with calm curiosity, and undoubtedly about to conquer it.

The scene also resonates with anyone who is familiar with the story of a young Buster Keaton who was fascinated with a vaudevillian ventriloquist dummy named Redtop. After "talking" with Redtop one day, and having few friends, Keaton decided to steal the dummy. The dummy's owner, however, had caught on to Keaton's plan and surprised the young boy just as he was about to steal the puppet by bringing it to life to warn Keaton away. It frightened the living daylights out of the child. This incident is remembered by Keaton in Steamboat Bill, Jr.; during the hurricane sequence, when he is "caught on stage," there is a moment where the wind animates a dummy sitting on a table next to Keaton and startles him. And now, almost a century later, Buster Keaton is himself the animated puppet.

Indeed, there were many aspects of magic and the surreal throughout Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium that seem quite in the spirit of Buster Keaton's work. I have a feeling that the core of the movie would have resonated deeply with Buster Keaton.

Because of that, I cannot help but enjoy the movie, as uneven as it may be.

Introduction

I've decided to start a blog dedicated to my all-time favorite comedian, actor, director, inventor, magician, and genius (one often in slapshoes and a flat hat): Buster Keaton.

Buster Keaton is my favorite of the silent comedians, and tops my list of all-time favorite comedians. Too many people assume that because Buster's movies are silent, in black-and-white, and made in the 20s, they must be slow, boring, and/or too dated to be relative or relatable to modern viewers. Not true. His movies were in fact quite visionary and ahead of their time.

His life was incredibly interesting, as well: his godfather was Harry Houdini; he was being thrown around the Vaudeville stage before other kids learned their times tables; he survived a crushed finger, split head, and a ride in a cyclone all in one day, as an infant; he invented crazy contraptions to embarrass tourists before kids today can drive; he performed one of the most dangerous stunts in cinema history because he believed that whenever possible, whatever the audience sees should be real, in a fundamental sense.

I could go on, but I won't. Not right now. Another day, another post. That's what this blog is for; it's my excuse to revisit Buster on a regular basis. By chronicling how he makes his way into my life on a regular basis, whether by chance or design. This blog is my own little world celebrating my obsession. And if I'm lucky, maybe someone will join me every once in a while in celebrating all things Buster Keaton.