One Week (1920)

• Realism 


  The opening wide shot shows K + wife coming out of the church is a state long shot, the lack of editing avoids controlling the audience response.
• Realism


  The editing of the film is all for functional purposed rather than to create meaning. Therefore the edits are used to advance the plot rather than have an effect on how the audience percieve the events.
• Realism


  The stunts, while extreme, are realistic in the sense that they are all carried out by Keaton himself.
• Expressionism

  Wide shot of them leaving the church uses the vignetting technique to act as a transition to the next sequence; the faded edges makee the shot resemble a wedding photo.

  The use of editing to create meaning and provide information is an expressionistic technique.
• Expressionism

  Exaggerated mis en scene is used to fact that the house is badly constructed.

  When the house starts spinning or when the floor of the upstairs room begins descending present a disproportionate reality.
• Expressionism

  Realism is entirely abandoned in the bath sequence, where the wife breaks the fourth wall looking directly at the camera causing a hand to cover the lens as she climbs out the bath.

  This scene suggests we shouldn't be watching her
• What are four different readings of the house?

  The house is a grotesque parody of the American Dream.

  The house is a symbol of the modernist movement and the surrealist art form.

  The house is a symbol of Keatons powerlessness as an everyman.

  The house is a metaphor for the falsity of an idealised life.
• One week draws on Keatons own life experiences: the many mishaps recalling the uncanny number of accidents that he suffered early on in his family home.
• The spinning house references when Keaton was almost sucked out of his bedroom window by a tornado
• One week satirised the proliferation of prefabricated housing of the 1920s
• Between 1908 and 1940, approximately 75,000 prefabricated houses were self-built in the US.
• The promised empowerment from the house is foiled first by malice, then accident, then nature and finally the industry itself (the train.)
• Parisian Surrealists of the 1920s were fascinated by Keatons films.

  They saw a serious intent in the absurdism: namely to transform the rationalism of industrial technology and efficiency into something magical and wonderous.
• Beneath the slapstick comedy, the house acts as a mirror of his own childhood trauma.
• The house shows an anarchic structure where the domestic may at any moment turn dangerous.
• House shows darker undercurrents of powerlessness in the face of gigantic forces beyond any individuals control.
• Meaning is created in the frame itself, rather than through editing or cuts - 'what you see is what the filmmaker made happen.'
• Realism?

  The editing is used for functional purposes - it is extremely minimal.
• Comedic conventions used by Keaton

  Stunts, falls, chase sequences, set design, mis en scene
• Equal partners both participaitng in the building of the house - defying representation of masculinity and feminity.
• Keaton = an everyman
• From the technical standpoint, OW is one of the most impressive short films. Stunts only get bigger and better.
• Death-defying physicality
• Realist elements


  CU on the calander gives the audience a realist idea of time presented in the film through the use of mis en scene.
• Realist

  LS of Buster + Sybil leaving church after marriage uses deep focus and natural lighting allowing the audience a realist view.
• Realist

  Costumes = typical housewife costuming
• Realist

  Build yourself house inspired by the Ford Commerical

  Long extended shot in deep focus shows Keaton cutting the wood for house .
• Realist

  Continuity editing

  Match on action when Sybil throws up the hammer - showing their harmonious relationship
• Realism

  Deep focus wide shot - house on rails = realistic transport methods of 1920s

  Similair framing used for the spinning house
• Expressive

  Opening:

  CU of the bell forces the audience to acknowledge the setting of church for wedding.

  Bell movement causes the audience to envision the sound of bell in their head.
• Expressive

  Opening:

  Deadpan expression ('old stone face') as guests throw shoes for confetti done for comedic effect
• Expressionism

  Exaggerated mis en scene: busters oversized costuming, extra large shoes for comedic effected.

  Relates to German expressionism

  Enhances little man persona
• Expressionism

  Build a house exaggerated / satirised through small box it comes in
• Expressionism

  Cubistic set design - wonky = comedic effect.

  Sharp jaggered lines is reminiscent of German Expressionism, especially during the spinning scene

  Surrealism
• Expressionsim

  Mis En Scene

  Makeup worn by Handy Hank = dark under eyes

  To look sleep deprived and evil
• Expressionism


  Breaking the fourth wall
• Hailed as the 'comedy sensation of the year.'
• Ford = symbol of the American working class
• Buster turns Fords dream house into a nightmare.
• 'Spinning house' was built on a spinning mechanism, it is 30 feet tall, 20 wide.