FAVz064 Buster Keaton and Silent American Cinema

Filozofická fakulta
jaro 2017
Rozsah
2/0/0. 5 kr. Ukončení: zk.
Vyučující
Peter Krämer (přednášející)
Mgr. et Mgr. Marie Barešová, Ph.D. (pomocník)
Mgr. Veronika Jančová (pomocník)
Mgr. Kateřina Šardická (pomocník)
Mgr. Radomír D. Kokeš, Ph.D. (náhr. zkoušející)
doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D. (náhr. zkoušející)
Garance
prof. PhDr. Jiří Voráč, Ph.D.
Ústav filmu a audiovizuální kultury – Filozofická fakulta
Kontaktní osoba: Patrycja Astrid Twardowska
Dodavatelské pracoviště: Ústav filmu a audiovizuální kultury – Filozofická fakulta
Rozvrh
Po 3. 4. 10:50–12:25 U34, 14:10–19:05 U34, Út 4. 4. 15:50–19:05 U34, St 5. 4. 12:30–14:05 U34, 15:50–19:05 U34
Omezení zápisu do předmětu
Předmět je nabízen i studentům mimo mateřské obory.
Předmět si smí zapsat nejvýše 80 stud.
Momentální stav registrace a zápisu: zapsáno: 0/80, pouze zareg.: 0/80, pouze zareg. s předností (mateřské obory): 0/80
Mateřské obory/plány
předmět má 10 mateřských oborů, zobrazit
Cíle předmětu
While primarily known as a comic performer, Buster Keaton is also widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and distinctive filmmakers in American (and indeed in world) cinema. In the early months of 2017 we can celebrate the 90th anniversary of the original American release of his epic Civil War comedy The General, which, judging by various critics’ polls and audience surveys, is arguably the most highly acclaimed and most resonant of all silent American movies in today’s culture. Keaton’s reputation rests mainly on this masterpiece and the other nine feature films as well as the nineteen short films he made at his own studio between 1920 and 1928, yet his career started in the early 1900s and lasted until shortly before his death in 1966. Born on 4 October 1895, Joseph Frank Keaton was advertised as ‘Buster’ by his parents who featured him in their stage act from the age of five onwards. Best known for his acrobatic mock fights with his father, Buster was a major star of American vaudeville, before the family act lost much of its appeal as the young performer entered his teenage years. When the act was dissolved in 1917, Keaton had a contract to appear in a prestigious Broadway musical review, but instead decided to join a recently formed film company, where he would be a sidekick to what was, next to Charles Chaplin and Mabel Normand, the biggest film comedy star (and director) of the time: Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle. After supporting Arbuckle in fifteen two-reel comedies, in 1920 Keaton was promoted - by Arbuckle’s producer, the media mogul Joseph Schenck - to be the star (and director) of his own series of comedy shorts, in effect taking over Arbuckle’s studio (because the superstar had left to make features at Paramount). At the same time, Keaton also co-starred in a prestigious Metro feature entitled The Saphead. This course consists of five lectures and several screenings, mainly covering Keaton’s work up to the late 1920s. We will start by taking a close look at Keaton’s early stage performance and his status as a child star, locating it within the institutional framework of American vaudeville. We will also examine Keaton’s career decision in 1917 with regards to the relationship between various forms and media of popular entertainment in early 20th century America, notably vaudeville, so-called ‘legitimate’ theatre and the cinema. This will reveal Keaton’s close association with one of the most powerful clans in the entertainment industry, the Schenck-Talmadges (in fact he married one of the Talmadge sisters in 1921). We will try to get a sense of how personal relationships and business interests intersected in 1920s Hollywood, and explore the idea that Keaton was an ‘independent’ filmmaker (whose productions were, however, released by the major studios). In addition, we will reconstruct the roles he took on in the production of his films – as actor, writer and director – and the ways in which he collaborated with his cast and crew, contrasting Keaton’s approach with the major studios’ mode of production. Furthermore, we will discuss the thematic preoccupations and stylistic characteristics of his movies, the distinctive features of his star image (notably his ‘frozen faced’ expression), the enormous (but by no means unanimous) critical acclaim he received in the 1920s and the perhaps somewhat surprising lack of box office success of his releases. Here we will also survey the dominant hit patterns of the decade: Which kinds of film and which stars had the biggest success at the box office in the United States? As a conclusion, we will try to understand why Keaton had to give up his own studio and join MGM as a contract actor in 1928, and survey his subsequent career, which included a series of quite successful sound comedies at MGM as well as numerous short films, theatre and circus performances, and television appearances.
Osnova
  • In advance of the first day (or during that day), please read the following two texts: Reading 1: Charles Wolfe, “Buster Keaton: Comic Invention and the Art of Moving Pictures”, Idols of Modernity: Movies Stars of the 1920s, ed. Patrice Petro, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2010, pp. 41-64 Reading 2: Peter Krämer, “Battered Child: Buster Keaton’s Stage Performance and Vaudeville Stardom in the Early 1900s”, New Review of Film and Television Studies, vol. 5, no. 3 (December 2007), pp. 253-67 Monday, 3 April 10.50-12.25 Lecture 1: An Introduction to Buster Keaton 14.10-15.45 Screening 1: Sherlock Jr. (1924, 45 min), plus discussion 15.50-17.25 Lecture/Screening 2: From Stage to Screen (including a screening of The Butcher Boy [1917, 20 min]) 17.30-19.05 Lecture/Screening 3: From Sidekick to Star (including screenings of One Week [1920, 20 min] and The Blacksmith [1922, 20 min]) After Lecture/Screening 3 and before Screening 4, please read: Reading 3: Peter Krämer, “Derailing the Honeymoon Express: Comicality and Narrative Closure in Buster Keaton’s The Blacksmith”, The Velvet Light Trap, no. 23 (Spring 1989), pp. 101-16 Tuesday, 4 April 15.50-17.25 Screening 4: The Saphead (1920, 70 min), plus discussion 17.30-19.05 Lecture 4: The Saphead and Keaton's Classic Features After Lecture 4 and before Screening 5, please read: Reading 4: Peter Krämer, “The Making of a Comic Star: Buster Keaton and The Saphead (1920)”, The Silent Cinema Reader, ed. Lee Grieveson and Peter Krämer, London: Routledge, 2004, pp. 279-89 Wednesday, 5 April Inbetween Screening 5 and Lecture 5, please read: Reading 5: Noel Carroll, Comedy Incarnate: Buster Keaton, Physical Humor, and Bodily Coping, Malden: Blackwell, 2007, Ch. 2 “Style in The General”, pp. 75-123 12.30-14.05 Screening 5: The General (1927), plus discussion 15.50-17.25 Lecture 5: The General and Beyond 17.30-19.05 Research Seminar
Výukové metody
Lectures
Metody hodnocení
written test + essay
Vyučovací jazyk
Angličtina
Informace učitele
Peter Krämer is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of East Anglia (Norwich, UK) as well as a regular guest lecturer at Masaryk University and at the University of Television and Film Munich (Germany). He has published more than seventy essays on American film and media history, in academic journals and edited collections. He is the author of The General (BFI Film Classics, 2016), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (BFI Film Classics, 2014), A Clockwork Orange (Palgrave, 2011), 2001: A Space Odyssey (BFI Film Classics, 2010) and The New Hollywood: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars (Wallflower Press, 2005), and the co-editor of Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives (Black Dog, 2015), The Silent Cinema Reader (Routledge, 2004) and Screen Acting (Routledge, 1999). He also co-wrote a book for children entitled American Film: An A-Z Guide (Franklin Watts, 2003), and is a regular contributor to the on-line film magazine Pure Movies, the Women’s Film and Television History Network (UK/Ireland) blog and the ThinkingFilmCollective blogspot.
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