The Great Buster: A Celebration

A documentary about Buster Keaton. The narrative begins with the stage. As a child Keaton worked in vaudeville with his family; the act depended on his father throwing him about, and that is how the boy learned to fall. Then cinema: the shorts, his own studio and the features he made in the 1920s. The film covers that period in detail and shows how the sequences were built. Then the fall: the studio loses its independence, he signs a contract and can no longer control his own work. Years of drink, divorce and being forgotten. The last section describes the return. Keaton works in television, in advertisements and in small parts; in the 1960s his films are rediscovered and he is given standing ovations at festivals. The structure is slightly unusual: the director holds the best films to the end and tells the whole life first. Among those speaking are Mel Brooks, Werner Herzog, Quentin Tarantino, Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner. Peter Bogdanovich directed and narrates. A warm and informative production for anyone who likes film history and silent comedy. For a viewer expecting a critical study, the film is a celebration as its title says and keeps no distance.