Films in this curation
BUSTER KEATON
Buster Keaton was born in 1895. His parents were Vaudeville performers. (Vaudeville is a form of extreme comedy theatre) Buster's dad had a travelling show with the great magician Harry Houdini himself.
His birth name was Joseph. At the age of 18 months, he fell down from stairs without an injury and someone said (rumoured to be Houdini himself) "He's a regular Buster". Back then Buster meant Someone who falls down a lot. So that nickname stood and people started calling him Buster. Nobody deserves that name more than Buster Keaton. He eventually made a career out of falling down.
So from the age of 4-5 he started performing with his parents. The show was called "The three Keatons". Mother, Father and the son would perform, and the kid would do a lot of stunts. There have been instances where the father would throw the son at the audience and buster would laugh and enjoy and come back up on stage. So buster was used to a lot of acrobatics and physical comedy at a very young age.
In 1917 he met Roscoe arbuckle aka Fatty Arbuckle who was a very famous performer at the time and joined his film company and started making shorts along with him. In the early 20s Arbuckle went through a very popularized court case which left him in a very bad condition and Arbuckle gave his studio to Buster Keaton, and it became Buster Keaton productions.
Keaton never looked back after that.
charlie chaplin
Chaplin was born in London in 1889. He had a very difficult childhood. Filled with poverty and absent father and sick mother. He started performing at a very young age. His parents used to be music hall performers and his mother encouraged Charlie's performances. He signed with a company which took him to the United States, and he started performing in the states.
Charlie Chaplin started his stage career in early the 1910s. He quickly went up the ladder and started working in films. He became a member of the Keystone film company and started making shorts. Furthermore, he created his character "The Trump" there. By 1915 he had become a famous comedy actor. He then moved to Essanay studios and eventually to Freedom studios.
In 1919 he co-founded his own studio called The United Artists along with DW Griffiths, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Who were the most popular performers at the time. This gave him a lot of control over his own films, and he made his first longer film "The Kid".
All his shorts until The Kid were very popular comedies. But The Kid cemented the genius in storytelling and artistry of Chaplin and made Chaplin the world's first superstar.
And the rest his History.
Sherlock Jr. vs. The Kid
Sherlock Jr is 98 years old, and The Kid is 101 years old. These films were made a century ago. The fact that we're still showing these films and talking about these films, speak so much about the legacy of Keaton and Chaplin. It speaks volumes about the genius of these two craftsmen.
Even though they are from the same era and made similar films compared to the films that we're seeing now. There are some difference between them. There is a Visual simplicity in the films of Chaplin. Whereas Keaton's films are visually complex. Keaton used his knowledge of mechanics to build complex visuals. Chaplin always thought that camera should not intrude. Story takes precedence over everything else. But in Keaton's films camera is constantly visible. He used camera as part of the joke. The same gag might not work in a different angle. Hence, the camera is very evident. Cinema itself if responsible for the jokes.
Keaton's face is stoic. Chaplin was very expressive. Chaplin appealed to emotions and pathos more than Keaton. Chaplin's characters are the first to put emotions and morality and class differences in comedy. There is a certain poetry to Chaplin's movies. Keaton appealed to the actions.
Chaplin most of the time was a one-man show. He wrote and directed and acted in all of his films. Many a times he edited and composed music for them. He also owned his own studio. He had control over everything. He made sure all his films were revisited. But Keaton always worked for someone else. One of the reasons why Keaton couldn't survive the sound era. Because Chaplin had complete rights over everything his films were preserved well. Keaton's films died out after 30s. And even Keaton thought that all his had been destroyed. His films were never seen after 30s for a few decades.
Chaplin was probably be a better director and writer and composer and an overall artist. Keaton was probably a better performer. And probably a better physical technician.
The General vs. City Lights
The Kid was the last film Chaplin made along with a different production company. He was free to make whatever he wanted as an independent producer. He made "A Woman of Paris", "The Gold Rush" and "The Circus" soon after The Kid, which were great successes. And in 1931, he made City lights.
By that time, sound films were already getting popular. But Chaplin believed that "talkies" lacked the artistry of silent films and thought that giving his character a voice would limit his appeal and rejected the talkies and still continued making silent films. He had worked on the film for almost a year and it took another 2 years to make the film to reach the level of perfection Chaplin wanted and it was in production for almost 3 years with almost 180 days of shooting days and the film was released in 31 and it became Chaplins most financially successful film.
Chaplin worked sparingly compared to Keaton. In the 1920s Chaplin made 4 films and he acted in only 3 of them whereas Keaton worked rigorously. He made atleast 10 features and many many shorts in that period, Esp the films he made under Buster Keaton productions. The 6 year period between 23 and 28 was his most creative and most prolific. Whatever we know if Keaton comes from that Era.
After Sherlock Jr, he made The Navigator, Go West and Seven Chances. Soon after he made The General. It was one of the biggest films ever made at the time with the the most expensive stunt for that time. Ofcourse as usual Buster Keaton did all of his own stunts. It combines physical comedy and his love for trains. He loved trains and most of the film is takes place on a train.
Buster Keaton called The General as his favourite film and Chaplin Called City lights as his most cherished and memorable film. So both of these are personal favorites of the artists and you do see the effort and love that they put into these films.
Steamboat Bill Jr. vs. Modern Times