Buster Keaton

• Slapstick visual comedy


  Comedy genre perfectly suited to the silent era
• American Silent Film Comedy

  • Emerged as a staple genre in 1912 with Mack Sennett's Keystone company and studios
  • Many classic silent film actors developed their craft at Keystone, including Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd
  • The 1920s was a golden age of American comedy, as the silent 'clowns' were given creative freedom and established their individual star personas, a major selling point for their films
  • Conventions include thrilling stunts, falls and chases played for laughs, surreal gags and critiques of American society
• Buster Keaton

  • As a child, learned acrobatics and developed his 'stone face' persona as part of his family vaudeville act 'The Three Keaton's''
  • In 1919, film executive Joseph M. Schenk set up Buster Keaton Productions and gave Keaton creative freedom to produce, star, write and co-direct his 'two-reeler' comedy films
• One Week (1920)

  • The idea came from a Ford Motors documentary Home Made (1919) about pre-fabricated homes
  • Challenges an idealised domestic lifestyle as Keaton is unable to successfully build a home for himself and his wife
  • The bathroom scene is self-reflexive, as Sybil Seely is aware of the camera and uses her hand to block the view
• The Scarecrow (1920)

  • The use of contraptions and objects having a dual function references Rube Goldberg's illustrations
  • The intertitle 'I don't care how she votes, I'm going to marry her' is a reference to women gaining the right to vote in 1919
  • Chase sequences were a key feature of American silent film comedy
• The 'High Sign' (1921)


  • Keaton's debut as an independent producer. However, he was disappointed with the film and released it a year later
  • The newspaper gag is an example of surrealism. Later surrealist artists were inspired by these gags
  • The Blinking Buzzards are a comic representation of underworld gangs of the 1920s
• Cops (1922)


  • The opening gag uses clever framing and editing to suggest Keaton is behind bars, when he is actually 'locked out' from the upper class wealth of his girlfriend's family
  • Many gags are staged to create symmetry and balance in the frame, such as the 'see-saw' gag
  • Deep focus gives a sense of perspective in the scenes involving chases with the cops
• Realist cinema

  Critic Andre Bazin viewed cinema as an important medium for duplicating reality. Bazin championed the use of long takes, deep-focus, non-professional actors and limited editing
• Expressive cinema

  Bazin argued that staged lighting, décor and composition was against the realist mode of filmmaking. He referred to German Expressionist and Soviet Montage filmmakers as 'plastics'
• Realism in Keaton's films

  • Keaton often set and shot scenes on the real streets of Los Angeles near the production studios. Cops makes extensive use of nearby LA streets
  • Keaton used realist techniques such as flat lighting, deep focus and many long takes. While these filmic devices adhere to Bazin's notion of realism, they were primarily used to accentuate the gags
• Expressiveness in Keaton's films

  • Surreal and dream-like gags are examples of anti-realist devices
  • The use of symmetry and geometric shapes with vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines are typical of cubist art of the period
  • The elaborate stunts and exaggerated use of the body are more expressive than realist
• Buster Keaton

  US silent film comedian known for his deadpan expression and dealing with a chaotic world
• Buster Keaton films categorised

  • One Week (1920)
  • The Scarecrow (1920)
  • The 'High Sign' (1921)
  • Cops (1922)
• This collection of Buster Keaton 'two-reelers' epitomises the peak of sophisticated visual comedy of the early 1920s
• Buster Keaton's star persona

  • Deadpan expression
  • Simple man dealing with a chaotic world
• Useful sequences and timings/links

  • The Scarecrow - The kitchen sequence
  • One Week - The train gag at the end
• Cinematography in Keaton's two-reelers


  • Long shots followed by close ups are common
  • Long shots encourage audience to look around the frame and see the joke for themselves
  • Close ups allow focus on characters' emotions
  • Deep-focus used to show Keaton's character in the foreground with the city in the background
  • Keaton placed at the centre of the frame
  • Natural lighting and reflectors used to create an even and bright look
• Mise-en-scène in Keaton's two-reelers

  • Sets can function as characters, like the house in One Week
  • Keaton avoided title cards and focused on gesture and action
  • Keaton's deadpan expression serves as a blank slate for the audience
  • Props are an important element, like the trick house in The High Sign
• Editing in Keaton's two-reelers

  • Long takes to construct stunts within the mise-en-scène
  • Long shots allow marvel at Keaton's acrobatic stunts
  • Restricted narration used in the train gag in One Week
  • Framing and cuts used to create gags, like in the opening of Cops
• Sound in Keaton's 'silent' films

  Musical accompaniment played by live musicians to heighten and emphasise the comedy
• Keaton as an auteur


  • Involved in all aspects of production
  • Interested in the geometry of a gag
  • Films contain 'cartoon gags' that are surreal and function as magic tricks