Hey y'all, hope you've been doing okay during the period of silence.
Since the search function is down right now, I can't check if I've already posted about it, but some time recently, I saw Buster Keaton's
The Cameraman. This was the first film that Keaton made for his new employers at MGM in 1928 and is regarded as his last great film.
At the beginning, Buster is a street photographer peddling what is called a
Tintype. During a street parade he meets and falls in love with Marceline Day, who works for a newsreel studio. To continue their acquaintance, Buster decides to become a news cameraman - he buys a beat-up old hand-crank and looks for a freelance job at her firm. He is initially quite inept at handling the camera and the boss dismisses his work (this is a bit of an inside joke, since the montages Buster makes are rather interesting surreal trips making use of double exposures, and varying the speed and direction of the action). But with the sympathetic Marceline's encouragement, Buster persists and his big moment comes when she hands him an exclusive tip about a gang war in Chinatown. Buster rushes off and covers the chaos with his customary athletic grace and daredevilry (one shot shows him cranking the camera even as the platform he is standing on comes crashing down). A few misunderstandings get in the way, but Buster finally wins the girl and his place as a bonafide cameraman. While a notch below productions like
The General and
Steamboat Bill Jr in terms of inventiveness and sheer chutzpah, The Cameraman is a highly watchable and entertaining Buster Keaton picture with several memorable visual jokes and thrills.
Apparently, there was a bound script with contributions from a battery of writers at MGM, which was against Buster's usual style of having a more diffuse narrative which they would then fill up with on-set improvisation, taking inspiration from the locations and props. But the difficulties of shooting on location in New York gave him the opportunity of convincing a young Irving Thalberg that he could make a more efficient picture if he were allowed to throw away the bound script and work with his own team. Sadly, despite the film's success (MGM apparently used it as a training film for their comedy division), this was the last time Buster got such a break, and his growing dissatisfaction coupled with the juggernaut of sound cinema, domestic troubles and alcoholism led to his being marginalized as a film-maker. It was only much later that his mastery of visual comedy was rediscovered by film fans and he began to get the respect he deserved.
The
Criterion BD gives a mostly excellent presentation of the film. The opening few minutes come from a lesser source (16mm, I think) and look rougher, but the bulk of the movie has healthy contrast, detail and image stability. There's a newly recorded chamber orchestra score in lossless stereo and naturally sounds good.
For extras, there's a good load in here:
A bonus movie called
Spite Marriage, also made at MGM, in which Buster is a laundryman besotted by a stage actress, that attends all her performances in borrowed clothes, and even takes on the guise of a fellow actor to be near her. The actress marries him to spite her co-star who she has just been jilted by, but regrets the decision soon after. Somehow they both find themselves on a large sea-going boat which is attacked by pirates. Buster, with the girl's help, wins the day and her heart. This one is less ambitious and feels more like an elongated version of his earlier shorts, but it is reasonably well made with some hilarious moments and stunts (although here, Buster is restricted by the studio from undertaking some of the more crazy acts he performed in his previous works).
Audio commentary - This one was boring for me, a lot of the time just being an audio description of the plot, interspersed with details of the locations it was shot in.
There's a Kevin Brownlow documentary on the fate of Buster Keaton after he joined MGM, detailing his professional and personal troubles, and ending with a coda about his rediscovery by critics and fans. Rather nice. Similar ground is covered in a newer interview on the disc.
There is a documentary on motion picture cameras that's a lot less interesting than it promised to be, since it focuses on the designs of early cameras and not on the images they produced.
A rather substantial booklet includes a critical essay as well as a conversation with Buster Keaton in which he talks about "The Worst Mistake of My Life".
This is easily recommended as a quality release for fans of silent films and action films that did it the old-skool way.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Linear Mode
