I just watched this movie last night in an open air setting with brilliant accompaniment from a bluegrass band. It was fantastic.
Keaton's, Chaplin's, Lloyd's silent films don't age. If anything aspects of them are more impressive now than they were upon first release. Keaton did all his own stunts, risking life and limb countless times per production for our entertainment like Lloyd, and painstakingly repeating takes until he got the shot just right, like Chaplin.
Take for example a scene in "Our Hospitality" where Keaton's love is floating perilously close to the edge of a waterfall, and he ties a rope to himself and swings across and snags her right before she falls. How dangerous was this to complete, and how many times did they need to do it before they finally got it right?
Keaton's movies were so inventive and ingenious that you can still feel what I imagine people felt when they saw them the first time, over a hundred years ago. There is a magical quality to them, where you can see the work that went into each frame, and more than anything else, the love. You get the feeling like you're watching geniuses at work.
You don't get the same from modern movies. It's been lost. Despite the zillions of dollars they pour into their monstrosities, what they end up with is shallow and smug and anodyne. There's no love in modern movies.
"Our Hospitality" is like a palate cleanser after suffering through "Madame Web".
Keaton's, Chaplin's, Lloyd's silent films don't age. If anything aspects of them are more impressive now than they were upon first release. Keaton did all his own stunts, risking life and limb countless times per production for our entertainment like Lloyd, and painstakingly repeating takes until he got the shot just right, like Chaplin.
Take for example a scene in "Our Hospitality" where Keaton's love is floating perilously close to the edge of a waterfall, and he ties a rope to himself and swings across and snags her right before she falls. How dangerous was this to complete, and how many times did they need to do it before they finally got it right?
Keaton's movies were so inventive and ingenious that you can still feel what I imagine people felt when they saw them the first time, over a hundred years ago. There is a magical quality to them, where you can see the work that went into each frame, and more than anything else, the love. You get the feeling like you're watching geniuses at work.
You don't get the same from modern movies. It's been lost. Despite the zillions of dollars they pour into their monstrosities, what they end up with is shallow and smug and anodyne. There's no love in modern movies.
"Our Hospitality" is like a palate cleanser after suffering through "Madame Web".