Monday, July 12, 2010

Buster and Sam














Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.
~ Buster Keaton













I shall state silences more competently than ever a better man spangled the butterflies of vertigo.
~ Samuel Beckett




Stills from Film
[Dir: Samuel Beckett]

2 comments:

Ed Howard said...

Excellent! That's such a cool little film, really unique and surprisingly affecting - using a declining comedy legend to lend pathos to a portrait of fear, aging, mortality, identity, etc. It's the kind of collaboration no one ever would have expected, and yet it works so brilliantly, providing a new context and meaning to Keaton's sprightly physical comedy instincts.

jesse said...

I own Film on VHS, I need to get it on DVD.
I agree, Ed, a great casting choice, though Keaton was down the list of Beckett's preferences [Zero Mostel was his first pick, iirc].
The first hand accounts of folks on the set are great- Keaton was monosyllabic throughout, except to tell stories about the silent years. He was apparently glued to his baseball games, annoyed when drawn away from the t.v. to attend to discussions about the film. He stated more than once, "I have no idea what this film is about",leaving exegesis to the critics.