- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Santa Monica Press (Jan 23 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 189166106X
- ISBN-13: 978-1891661068
- Product Dimensions: 27.9 x 21.6 x 1.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 653 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #277,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
From Library Journal
Buster Keaton ranks as one of the foremost clown princes of Hollywood. As a child, Keaton learned his craft as one of vaudeville's Three Keatons, where he was the target of knockabout comedy so rough many observers considered it a form of child abuse. Sadly, personal problems, alcoholism, and a lack of business acumen caused Buster to lose artistic control over the making of his films in later years, and he was reduced to taking bit roles in "Beach Party" films. Knopf (theater, Univ. of Michigan) offers a timely, academic appreciation of the great stoneface, examining why Keaton's films intrigued surrealists and intellectuals such as Salvador Dal!, Federico Garc!a Lorca, and Luis Bu?uel. (One of Keaton's final appearances was in a short film scripted by Samuel Beckett.) Knopf also does an excellent job of tracing the vaudevillian roots of Keaton's stunts and gags. On the other hand, Bengtson's Silent Echoes shows more than 100 sites from early Keaton films, comparing the film view with the scene as it exists today. (Unlike other silent film figures, Keaton preferred natural settings for his pratfalls. As a result, his early films offer a wonderful view of early Hollywood landmarks that are, like some of Keaton's films, now lost to posterity.) This dedicated bit of detective work will be of great interest to Hollywood and urban historians. Although the definitive history of Keaton's life and career has yet to be written, both books will nicely supplement the collections of libraries that already own earlier studies, like Keaton's Wonderful World of Slapstick, Marion Meade's Buster Keaton: Cut to the Chase or Tom Dardis's Keaton: The Man Who Wouldn't Lie DownAnot to mention Kino on Video's ten-volume The Art of Buster Keaton. Recommended for all academic and large public libraries and specialized film collections.AStephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
"The book is meticulous. It's ingenious. It's inexhaustibly fascinating."
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow, what a great film history book,
By
This review is from: Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton (Paperback)
John Bengtson has done something so simple yet so essential to film history. If you live in LA the book will have a greater meaning. If not you can marvel at the almost film-archeological work Bengston has done in finding the exact places the great Buster Keaton filmed some of his best films.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Some Sort of Masterpiece,
By Sand Flea Press (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton (Paperback)
Depending on your point of view, you might see this as a pointless exercise, or as an astounding accomplishment. I incline toward the latter view. This is a magnificent documentary on Keaton's work as well as a meditation on lovely, fantastic old Los Angeles as it fades into the past. Necessary reading!
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Bible For Hollywood Tourists,
This review is from: Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton (Paperback)
The first time I went to Hollywood, I had this then-new book in my camera bag. If it weren't for this book I would have missed so many interesting spots from Buster's silent comedies. As I tooled up Hollywood Blvd, a street sign for "Cosmos" sounded familiar so I took out Bengtson's book and there it was; a picture of the building in front to my left was in the background of a few scenes in "Cops." Any silent film buff worth their weight in silver nitrate needs this book before they tour Hollywood!
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