Silent Films’ WIN: My Road Through the Beginner’s Guide
My Favorite Easiest to Catch
Between D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms (Birth of a Nation… and Intolerance), Battleship Potemkin, The Phantom of the Opera ( or The Hunchback of Notredame), or Buster Keaton’s The General (or… Steamboat Bill, Jr.)… I have to admit I have an honest bias for Buster Keaton.
Yes, it’s falling on him!!!
The man is crazy amazing. I was most impressed with his stunts (and effects!) in Steamboat Bill, Jr.~ which my dad *cough* got for me some time after the new year. I know that movie is not part of the Beginner’s Guide, but it ultimately made me more adamant in catching The General, which I liked a lot as well.
I’ve watched some other of his films — thanks to MUBI! — like The Goat (1921), My Wife’s Relations (1922), and especially College (1927) — that scene in which he jumps through trees and bushes to high-jump through a window is… mind-blowing.
yay Buster Keaton!
as for Charlie Chaplin, watch “The Gold Rush!”
@Diandra Rodriguez, yeah! I’ve been meaning to watch The Gold Rush and The Great Dictator, but you know~ xD life and movie updating gets in the way. Also, I’m supposed to be clearing all my list of Beguinner’s Guides — planning to graduate! LOL
Any other Buster Keaton recommendations?
@amy, one of my favorite movies ever is Sherlock, Jr. My favorite short I’ve seen so far from Buster is “One Week.” I also recommend “The Haunted House.”
As for other silent films, I recommend F.W. Murnau’s “The Last Laugh “Der Lezte Mann.”