And my mother played musical instruments and danced with him. My dad was a comedian and a very eccentric dancer, and tricks - he wasn't exactly an acrobat, but darn near. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW")īUSTER KEATON: By the time I was 4 years old, I was a regular member of the act, wearing slap shoes and grotesque clothes with a bald-headed wig and Irish beard on. This is part of a documentary called "A Hard Act To Follow." Buster Keaton here talking about his parents and their vaudeville act. And you'll hear music underneath his voice. And I thought we'd listen to an excerpt of Buster himself talking about this. He was born in Kansas, 1895, and at a young age got involved in his family's vaudeville act. He was - he kind of came into the 20th century as so much was changing. And that's been changing slowly, you know, in the decades, basically, since Keaton's death, in the '60s, '70s, '80s onward.īut I just - I feel like his legacy is something that's really just a beautiful and important part of American history - you know, not just American film history, but American history and the history of American art.ĭAVIES: Right. And silent film really fell into a period of decades where it was just simply not a concern, not coming to anyone's attention and not being preserved or promulgated in any way. You know, something like 75 to 80% of silent films that were ever made are now gone because they were not valued by the generations that came right after and, you know, were just essentially discarded after they made the rounds and were shown. I mean, so many of those movies are lost forever. So silent cinema just - it still plays a very small role kind of on the periphery of the imagination, even of big cinephiles, you know, and film critics, I think. But one of the two of them will often be the only silent filmmaker that makes it into that top 10 or top 25 or whatever it is, right? Sometimes it's Chaplin pulling just ahead of him. And often now, you know, when there's these crowdsourced lists of the greatest films of all time, where critics from around the world contribute their titles, he will be the only silent filmmaker - not always. STEVENS: I mean, not just in American cinema, but, as this book is sort of trying to pull out the camera in order to talk about, of American history, I would say, you know? I mean, his films, first of all, as you said very well in your introduction, have just become these monuments of world cinema. Let me just begin by asking you why you think he's an important figure in the story of American cinema. But I'm guessing a lot of our audience has never seen a silent film, beginning to end - kind of don't know this world. I'm excited to talk.ĭAVIES: I have become a Buster Keaton fan, in part because of - the director of our program, Roberta Shorrock, has been sending me videos of his stuff for years. Her new book is "Camera Man: Buster Keaton, The Dawn Of Cinema And The Invention Of The 20th Century." Well, Dana Stevens, welcome to FRESH AIR.ĭANA STEVENS: Oh, thank you so much for having me. ![]() Stevens is the film critic for Slate and co-host of its long-running podcast called "Culture Gabfest." She's also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and other publications. ![]() ![]() Our guest, Dana Stevens, is a veteran film critic who's written a new book about Keaton. He fell from stardom and battled alcoholism, then regained his footing and had a long career in show business as a writer and performer. Born in the 19th century and a vaudeville star by the age of 5, his life took some hard turns after his burst of creativity in the '20s. Seven of Keaton's silent films are on the National Film Registry.Īpart from his influence on American cinema, Keaton's story is a fascinating one. Orson Welles, to name one, called Keaton a supreme artist and said his film "The General" is one of the greatest of all time. In the 1920s, Keaton starred in and directed a string of silent films that are cited by a long list of great American filmmakers as inspirations. It's true he had a gift for physical comedy, but that doesn't begin to describe his talent or his influence. If you know the name Buster Keaton, you probably think of him as a guy in old black-and-white silent movies known for slapstick and sight gags. I'm Dave Davies, in today for Terry Gross.
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