There was a man who was a master of comedy with Chaplin's contemporaries.
His films still have unrivaled influence in the film and television industry.
His fame, on the other hand, was far lower than Chaplin's.
He is the master of comedy known as the "cold-faced laughter", Buster Keaton.
Film industry tyco Federico Fellini once said of them both -
"Chaplin is playing a child, and Keaton is a child."
Orson Wells, director of Citizen Kane,
He also made this comment about Keaton's film "The General":
It is a high level of humor that Chaplin did not possess.
truly.
Buster Keaton's comedy is different from traditional artistic performances,
Moreover, most of the works come from his whimsical ideas, self-written and self-directed.
In an era when there were no computer effects,
These super difficult performances have also become its unique comedy signboard.
This is also why, when Jackie Chan first set up Hollywood,
He would be known as "China's Buster Keaton".
Because Jackie Chan also admitted that his action comedy style was mainly learned from Buster Keaton.
Some of the classic action sequences are homaging to Keaton.
Keaton "Captain II"
Jackie Chan "Plan A 2"
Keaton
Jackie chan
In that silent film era,
Keaton's film is more like a very imaginative film language,
The value provided for later comedy, or even any film creation, is incalculable.
For example, there are many classic shots in this 1924 work "The Navigator",
Infinite tumbling room -
The most classic false kiss in history,
These can be called the most imaginative and visually impactful bridge sections of that year.
Buster Keaton was born in 1895 into a family of stage actors.
His original name was Joseph,
His stage name, Buster, was also played by the escape master Houdini, who performed with his parents that year.
It is said that at one point, he saw Keaton fall down the stairs unscathed.
Lying in his heart, he shouted "Buster" (strong child),
It later became Keaton's stage name.
It turns out that Keaton is indeed talented.
He grew up "thick skinned and thick-skinned".
When he was a child, he used to be in danger several times in a day—
First the fingers were strangled by the shaker, and then the head was smashed by the bricks to go to the hospital for stitches,
Finally crawled through the window with two wounds and was blown away by the hurricane,
He was unscathed and came back very calmly....
But because it was too skinny, Keaton's parents did not dare to leave him alone at home.
Instead, he was taken around performing, sometimes on stage with him.
The family put on a show called Three Keatons, which was a great success.
It's on this show that
Little Keaton awakened to his unique style of comedy performance.
At the age of 21, Keaton first broke into Hollywood,
Because of its performance style, it has a unique sense of contrast between indifference and antics,
was the "Stone Face" stone face by the media,
This is also the origin of his title of "cold-faced laughing craftsman".
Keaton himself commented on this title:
"When I became famous, film critics called me Stone Face, and I used to take out the earliest films to check, and found that I really didn't laugh, I didn't know it myself, but since everyone liked it, I've always been like this." 」
Between 1923 and 1929, Buster Keaton made a total of 12 feature films.
It can be called his most brilliant 6 years.
He also became the most prominent comedian in Hollywood in the 20s.
The most famous of these are Sherlock Holmes II and The General.
And "Sherlock Holmes II" was rated as the first in the top 100 film history films by the well-known film magazine PasteMagazine.
Speaking of which, this film mainly tells the story of a film projectionist who travels through scenes in a sleep.
Conduct all kinds of bizarre detectives.
The film uses a play-within-a-play approach, allowing Keaton to freely traverse between unrelated scenes.
This kind of shooting method made the audience at that time shoot the case amazingly.
However, from 1928 onwards, Keaton gave up independent production to sign to MGM.
It became the biggest mistake of his acting career,
He lost the ability to create creative freedom as a result of signing a contract with a large company.
After that, the work began to become general, and there was no previous blockbuster.
In 1960, Keaton won the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Since then, his acting career has also come to an end.
But the technology he left behind in the film and television industry, or the legacy of the spirit,
But it has become the most precious treasure in the world.
How much is this wealth worth?
Just look at how many filmmakers imitate and pay tribute to him.