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Conversations With Filmmakers Series
Buster Keaton: Interviews
With his trademark porkpie hat, floppy shoes, and deadpan facial expression, Buster Keaton (1895–1966) is one of the most iconic stars of Hollywood's silent and early sound eras. His elaborate sets, careful camerawork, and risky pratfalls have been mimicked by film comedians for generations. His short films, including One Week and Cops , and his feature-length comedies, such as Sherlock Jr. , Go West , and The General , routinely appear on critics' lists of the greatest films of all time.
Buster Interviews collects interviews from the beginning of his career in the 1920s to the year before his death. The pieces here provide a critical perspective on his acting and cinematic techniques. Although the collection begins in the 1920s, at the height of Keaton's career, they also give insight on his work in Hollywood and television throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Including pieces by Studs Terkel and Rex Reed, as well as a French interview that has never before appeared in English, the book is a valuable resource on one of cinema's early geniuses.
Buster Interviews collects interviews from the beginning of his career in the 1920s to the year before his death. The pieces here provide a critical perspective on his acting and cinematic techniques. Although the collection begins in the 1920s, at the height of Keaton's career, they also give insight on his work in Hollywood and television throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Including pieces by Studs Terkel and Rex Reed, as well as a French interview that has never before appeared in English, the book is a valuable resource on one of cinema's early geniuses.
278 pages, Paperback
First published May 17, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 15, 2012
The interviews are a bit repetitive, but that is the fault of the interviewers. Some interviews are interesting, others paper thin. Again that is the fault of who is conducting the interview. There is an audio available of Robert Franklin and Joan Franklin’s 1958 interview with BK online at
http://www.fathom.com/course/10701030/
A video of Fletcher Markle’s 1964 interview is available here: http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories...
http://www.fathom.com/course/10701030/
A video of Fletcher Markle’s 1964 interview is available here: http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories...
May 6, 2010
Not the world's best interview subject but certainly one of history's greatest filmmakers, Keaton resolutely refused to get theoretical about his approach to making such sublime movies as THE GENERAL, THE NAVIGATOR, STEAMBOAT BILL, OUR HOSPITALITY, and SHERLOCK, JR. His insights to what makes a gag work, though, are worth the price of the book. I bought a huge DVD set of practically all his surviving films and read the interviews as I watched. Best time I've had in front of a television since Nixon resigned, and that's a while ago.
June 30, 2014
A rare treat, a Silent comedian in his own words. And all the rarer for this is one of the shyest and introverted people to come out of Hollywood, great Buster Keaton.
This is my first time reading any of his interviews, aside from small bits and pieces in biographies of Buster. I can imagine every word spoken in his deep bass voice.
I read one reviewer said that the interviews are too repetitive, that he says the same thing over and over, but they're only as good as the interviewer asking the same questions ad infinitum.
The earlier couple of interviews are more the results of studio publicity than true in-depth interviews. But once you realize what they are they have a fun of their own.
As we get into the 1950s the interviews are more like, "Well whatever happened to you?"
I have the feeling with these interviews that Buster, at times, can barely conceal is frustration and annoyance but he is ever the gentleman and never badmouths anyone.
Then in the early and middle 60s Buster Keaton experience a renaissance, with the release and exposition of his great silent films.
From out of that comes the best interviews in the book, people asking Keaton's opinions on the other early comedians that he worked with and the technical people in the early days of Hollywood, these interviews are pure gold.
Kevin Brownlow's interview is one of the best in the book. Brownlow has written one of the definitive books on the silent age, The Parade's Gone Bye. Subsequent to the interview Brownlow made it wonderful biography film on Buster, "Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow."
The last interview is a very short piece by Rex Reed talking about Buster's tremendous reception at the Cann Film Festival upon the release of Keaton film for Samuel Beckett in 1965. Keaton is spoken of as the superstar that he very rightly is and Reed makes a point of the two five-minute plus standing ovation that Buster Keaton received at Cann. Buster says happily that he has more work then he can film in the year and has to turn project down. His next project is going to Rome to shoot Richard Lester's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." Keaton at 70 says he's full of energy and feels like he could live forever.
The world would lost Buster the next year to lung cancer.
This is my first time reading any of his interviews, aside from small bits and pieces in biographies of Buster. I can imagine every word spoken in his deep bass voice.
I read one reviewer said that the interviews are too repetitive, that he says the same thing over and over, but they're only as good as the interviewer asking the same questions ad infinitum.
The earlier couple of interviews are more the results of studio publicity than true in-depth interviews. But once you realize what they are they have a fun of their own.
As we get into the 1950s the interviews are more like, "Well whatever happened to you?"
I have the feeling with these interviews that Buster, at times, can barely conceal is frustration and annoyance but he is ever the gentleman and never badmouths anyone.
Then in the early and middle 60s Buster Keaton experience a renaissance, with the release and exposition of his great silent films.
From out of that comes the best interviews in the book, people asking Keaton's opinions on the other early comedians that he worked with and the technical people in the early days of Hollywood, these interviews are pure gold.
Kevin Brownlow's interview is one of the best in the book. Brownlow has written one of the definitive books on the silent age, The Parade's Gone Bye. Subsequent to the interview Brownlow made it wonderful biography film on Buster, "Buster Keaton: A Hard Act to Follow."
The last interview is a very short piece by Rex Reed talking about Buster's tremendous reception at the Cann Film Festival upon the release of Keaton film for Samuel Beckett in 1965. Keaton is spoken of as the superstar that he very rightly is and Reed makes a point of the two five-minute plus standing ovation that Buster Keaton received at Cann. Buster says happily that he has more work then he can film in the year and has to turn project down. His next project is going to Rome to shoot Richard Lester's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." Keaton at 70 says he's full of energy and feels like he could live forever.
The world would lost Buster the next year to lung cancer.
December 7, 2022
I treasure just about everything I have on Keaton, and returning to this book was a pleasant way to spend a month or so. The only drawback is that I think Keaton should be seen and heard instead of read. When he's on the page it just isn't the same...
April 14, 2022
Una serie de entrevistas sobre distintos temas en las cuales Buster responde siempre de manera sencilla y con mucha información interesante.
December 4, 2022
Yes, you'll have to read a lot of the same stories/myths over and over, but I found these interviews to be worth the while, on the whole. Especially in the second half the book, the questions either get better or just get Buster talking more. A lifetime in show business meant that he had his own history down to the word for the routine questions. Now, on to Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie Down.
May 16, 2022
angel
Want to read
December 6, 2017About fifty percent you have in your mind before you start the picture and the rest you develop as you're making it.
cf. Harmony Korine: Interviews
MK: So the script would have a scene that would be imagistic, and another section would say, “Now there’s going to be a party.”
HK: No, this is what would happen. I wrote out the script perfectly. We would ask the actors to do the scenes without me imposing my ideas of how it should be blocked. Most of the time, it was a different way than I dreamt it. In some cases, it was worse, and we’d go with my blocking. In other cases, it would be really exciting and I’d change the scene spontaneously.
January 13, 2013
Not much to say here that has not already been written by other reviewers. There is a lot of valuable material here, and offers a much richer and more varied portrait of the man than Meade seems to have been interested in even attempting in her wretched book.
Nonetheless, Sweeney's decision to publish interviews in their entirety, honorable as it may seem, has also resulted in a maddeningly frustrating level of repetition, as Keaton repeats many of the same anecdotes about his early film career to one interviewer after another, again and again, with only slight variations.
Nonetheless, Sweeney's decision to publish interviews in their entirety, honorable as it may seem, has also resulted in a maddeningly frustrating level of repetition, as Keaton repeats many of the same anecdotes about his early film career to one interviewer after another, again and again, with only slight variations.
March 9, 2016
This book could have done with some heavy editing. There's an awful lot of repetition in Keaton's interviews, especially early on. (Mostly biographical) If you've read anything on Buster Keaton prior to this book you probably already know a lot of what it contains. The real value in this book (to me) lies in Buster's insights into early film making. He gives some really interesting information on the art of silent cinema and also on vaudeville's influence on the medium. I recommend sifting through the repetitive bits to find those gems...it's worth it.
January 3, 2009
Love Buster, but the interviews are extremely repetitive and too biographical.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews