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One Week

Director: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1920
Run-time: 22 min
Source: Youtube

Watching this after Tih Minh was like a nice, glass of iced tea after a hot summer day.  I've always been a huge fan of Buster Keaton, and this list is a nice opportunity to see some of his lesser-known works as well as watch some favorites once again.  In this one, the classic Keaton persona hasn't really developed yet, but the slapstick and incredible stunts are all there.

The film itself is a parody of an educational short promoting prefabricated houses, but anyone who's put together an Ikea bookshelf can understand the humor.  The bizarre misshapen house that gets produced due to some mislabelled boxes is one of the best singular props in early cinema - it alone makes the film worth it.

As for the stunts themselves, they make it clear how Disney and Looney Tunes stole shamefacedly from Keaton and the vaudeville tradition.  Keaton himself is sometimes Bugs Bunny, sometimes Daffy Duck:  he saws a board that he's sitting on, drives the bottom half of a car out from under him, and never looks worse for wear.

This is a great film for anyone looking to see what Keaton was all about.  It has many of the same tricks as Steamboat Bill, Jr, and they're a little more jawdropping in that film, but the humor is much more concentrated here.  You can't ask for much more in 20 minutes.






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