Double Feature: New Digital Restoration! SHERLOCK JR., and STEAMBOAT BILL, JR.

Double Feature: New Digital Restoration!
SHERLOCK JR., 1924, Cohen Media, 45 min. Dir. Buster Keaton. Buster Keaton’s sublime comedy about reality and illusion, in which projectionist Buster literally dreams himself into the detective movie he’s screening! A film with myriad technical feats (including the illusion of Keaton “climbing” into a movie screen). Keaton reportedly broke his neck during filming while performing a dangerous stunt on a ladder hanging over a giant water basin. “Is this, as some critics have argued, an example of primitive American surrealism? Sure. But let’s not get fancy about it. It is more significantly a great example of American minimalism – simple objects and movement manipulated in casually complex ways to generate a steadily rising gale of laughter.” – Time
New Digital Restoration! 90th Anniversary! STEAMBOAT BILL, JR., 1928, Cohen Media, 70 min. Dir. Buster Keaton. Decidedly not manly William Canfield Jr. (Keaton) joins the crew of his father, a gruff and sourpuss riverboat captain. When William falls for the daughter of his father’s arch business rival, mayhem ensues. The finest moments of STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. occur during its cyclone sequence, in which Keaton performs what is probably his most notorious (and later imitated) stunt: During the blustery tumult, an entire building front collapses on him, narrowly missing him as he stands directly where the door would be. No trickery! Just the courageous bravura of Buster Keaton.