DVD
The cameraman
Call Number
- DVD COMEDY (CEN)
Edition
DVD special edition.
Languages
Silent film with English intertitles and musical accompaniment.
Performers
Buster Keaton, Marceline Day.
Publication Information
[Irvington, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2020]
Physical Description
1 videodisc (69 minutes) : silent, black and white ; 4 3/4 in.
Audience
Not rated.
Uniform Title
Summary
Buster Keaton is at the peak of his slapstick powers in The Cameraman--the first film that the silent-screen legend made after signing with MGM, and his last great masterpiece. The final work over which he maintained creative control, this clever farce is the culmination of an extraordinary, decade-long run that produced some of the most innovative and enduring comedies of all time. Keaton plays a hapless newsreel cameraman desperate to impress both his new employer and his winsome office crush as he zigzags up and down Manhattan hustling for a scoop. Along the way, he goes for a swim (and winds up soaked), becomes embroiled in a Chinatown Tong War, and teams up with a memorable monkey sidekick (the famous Josephine). The marvelously inventive film-within-a-film setup allows Keaton's imagination to run wild, yielding both sly insights into the travails of moviemaking and an emotional payoff of disarming poignancy.
Notes
Originally released as a motion picture in 1928.
Special features: New 4K digital restoration ; score composed and conducted by Timothy Brock and performed by the orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and I Virtuosi Italiani in 2020 ; audio commentary from 2004 featuring Glenn Mitchell, author of A-Z of silent film comedy ; Time travelers, a new documentary by Daniel Raim featuring interviews with film historians Jeffrey Bengtson and Marc Wanamaker ; So funny it hurt: Buster Keaton & MGM, a 2004 documentary by film historian Kevin Brownlow and filmmaker Christopher Bird ; The motion picture camera, a 1979 documentary ; new interview with James L. Neibaur, author of The fall of Buster Keaton.