I've just produced a piece on the stash of silent films that was returned from the Russian Gosfilmofond archive last year, which you can hear here if it is your will
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Thanks for sharing that clip. Even though that's just a sampling, I can see the appeal of the comedy. Slickly-executed choreography, absurdist qualities, and a general air of good-natured goofiness.
I'm behind the times. I hadn't heard about the Russian archives, but I love the idea of a "lost" stash of silent films being uncovered. :>
Isn't that cool? Lost silent films are being found all over the world-- they were really easy to distribute internationally because all you had to do was swap out the title cards. Nitrate film is really durable apart from its unfortunate tendency to burst into flame, so hundred-year-old movies can still be recovered.
If you like Buster (and who doesn't, he's basically live-action Looney Tunes), I highly recommend checking out a couple of his shorts. My favorite is The Scarecrow, and Hard Luck is also considered a classic-- what's cool about that one is that the end sequence, which Buster thought was one of the greatest jokes he ever came up with, was lost for years before someone found a stray print (I can't remember where or when, but it was in the last ten years).
Oooh yes, it's been found and it's on the Keaton Plus disc that comes with the Kino box set. Which I have. So you HAVE to come visit :)
His memoirs are pretty great, if sanitized-- read them in conjunction with Rudi Blesh's 1965 biography or the newer one by Marion Meade for a fuller picture. There's also a poncy French art book called "The Look of Buster Keaton" that you might get a bang out of-- it's way out of print but often libraries have it.
I'm only trying to be half as good as you, my dear :) But YES come visit! I think you and I and Cappy should have a Giant Mauve Couch Silent Film Festival!
Congrats on your coup de nerdesse. It's always a good day when the Library of Congress comes to me for information. I think it's happened four times in nine years.
Every time I watch a silent film, I'm looking at the sunlight of a day ninety years gone.
Yes! I really love this about all "classic" film, but the silents bring us as far back as we can go with captured moving sunlight.
Seeing a silent film performed with accompaniment also makes me realize that they had this whole other dimension of live, shared theatre that talkies don't have. It's such a rich experience.
I'm very excited about this Russian archive! Thank you for sharing this (and the article too!)
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I'm behind the times. I hadn't heard about the Russian archives, but I love the idea of a "lost" stash of silent films being uncovered. :>
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If you like Buster (and who doesn't, he's basically live-action Looney Tunes), I highly recommend checking out a couple of his shorts. My favorite is The Scarecrow, and Hard Luck is also considered a classic-- what's cool about that one is that the end sequence, which Buster thought was one of the greatest jokes he ever came up with, was lost for years before someone found a stray print (I can't remember where or when, but it was in the last ten years).
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I've yet to read his memoirs, though. There's gold in them thar hills, but only so much, and this limited amount of Buster has to last me a lifetime.
In recent watching, though, his ten second cameo in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World stole the picture. Completely.
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His memoirs are pretty great, if sanitized-- read them in conjunction with Rudi Blesh's 1965 biography or the newer one by Marion Meade for a fuller picture. There's also a poncy French art book called "The Look of Buster Keaton" that you might get a bang out of-- it's way out of print but often libraries have it.
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Yes! I really love this about all "classic" film, but the silents bring us as far back as we can go with captured moving sunlight.
Seeing a silent film performed with accompaniment also makes me realize that they had this whole other dimension of live, shared theatre that talkies don't have. It's such a rich experience.
I'm very excited about this Russian archive! Thank you for sharing this (and the article too!)
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