Social, cultural and political contexts

• What was Buster Keaton's fascination?

  Workings of mechanical objects bridges the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, with the rise of new industries and the expanding consumer culture
• American society in 1920s

  Increased consumerism, as advertisers began to link products to idealised lifestyles and saw the potential of film to sell products.
• How did Keaton develop the idea of One week?

  After viewing a Ford Motor Company documentary Home Made (1919). The documentary demonstrates how Ford workers can build their won affordable , pre-fabricated homes. In One week, Keaton attempts to construct the ideal home for himself and his new bride and live an ideal married life. However the film undercuts this notion of the idealised life as Keaton is unable to construct the home for himself and his bride.
• How does Keaton depict the world around him?

  Both confused and fascinated by the mechanical world.
• What was the house in Scarecrow a reference to?

  The comic illustrations of American illustrator Rube Goldberg, which were published in national newspapers. Goldberg drew characters surrounded by crazy contraptions as a comment on how devices can often confuse us and complicate our lives
• What is Cubism?


  influential articstic movement of the period. Artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque would break objects down into distinct areas or forms, creating abstract and fragmented images.
• When and how is Cubism referenced in Buster Keaton?

  In One week, for comic effect, as the house takes on a cubist form, resembling an abstract, angular face. The roof rakes on the appearance of a tiny hat, while the pickets on the front porch resemble large teeth
• What was another of Keaton's fascination?


  Fascinated with modes of transport, reflecting a general fascination at the time with the locomotive and the motor car such as the Ford Model T, manufactured between 1908 and 1927, opened up the possibility of motor transport to middle class americans.
• What shorts feature transport?

  One week features gags with cars and motorcycle. The climatic gag is when a steam locomotive comes hurtling through the house, whilst in The High sign begins with Keaton being kicked off a locomotive
• What are locomotives?


  Locomotives were associated with modernity, speed, romance and danger. The locomotive or steam train, featured heavily in silent cinema