Short and Sweet
A breathtaking action-comedy about the media, drama, love, and compassion. The clumsy street photographer Buster (Buster Keaton) is followed by misfortune. When he meets the beautiful Sally (Marceline Day), he immediately falls hopelessly in love with her. Sally works as a secretary at the MGM newsreel. To win her heart and be close to her, Buster hires on as a cameraman at MGM, but only delivers disastrous results. Sally suggests he film at the New Year’s celebration in Chinatown: And indeed, a wild shootout breaks out between mafia gangs of the Chinese Triads…
Comedy legend “Stoneface” Buster Keaton once again delights in one of his last silent films with brilliant sequences, an action-packed, turbulent plot, and, of course, a heartwarming love story!
About the Music
The music is structurally based on the film music dramaturgy of the silent film era, also incorporating themes from 1920s film archives, but is largely a new composition. This creates an exciting balance of “old images” and “new sounds,” which don’t simply run in counterpoint beside or against the film, but instead create a dramaturgically coherent intertwining.
The silent film has been successfully screened in various cinemas, churches, and concert halls in Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Slovakia, and Oman.
“Family Cinema”: What was it like in the cinema during your great-grandparents’ time, in the “silent film era”?
With the help of silent film musician Wilfried Kaets, we show what cinema looked like in the days without sound. Silent film comedian Buster Keaton consistently implemented all technically possible gags of the time in this exciting and extremely funny action-comedy and even performed the breathtaking stunt scenes himself.
The result is a charmingly funny film about the two truly important things in life for big boys and girls: exciting adventures and friendship/love…
Recommended for children from 9 years old, along with their older siblings, parents, and grandparents.
Director
Buster Keaton (born Joseph Francis Keaton on October 4, 1895, in Piqua, Kansas; died February 1, 1966, in Woodland Hills, California) was an American actor, comedian, and director. Keaton was one of the most successful comedians of the silent film era, alongside Charles Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. Due to his deliberately serious, stoic expression, he was called “The Great Stoneface” and “The Man Who Never Laughed.” Another trademark was his pork pie hat, a round, flat felt hat.
With his acrobatic talent, Keaton began his career in vaudeville as a child, before appearing in Roscoe Arbuckle’s films at the age of 21. Three years later, he started producing his own very successful comedies. His breakthrough came in 1924 with The Navigator, joining the ranks of the most popular comedians of his time, Chaplin and Lloyd.
After the financial failure of his ambitious film The General, Keaton became an actor at MGM in 1928. By 1933, struggling with alcoholism and ongoing conflicts with the company’s executives, he was fired and faded into obscurity. In the 1950s, his technically innovative silent film comedies began to be rediscovered and appreciated, and they are now considered some of the most significant works in film history.