THE GENERAL (1926)
Last weekend, I caught Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL (1926) (trailer here) on the big screen at the Hollywood Legion, with a live piano accompaniment by Cliff Retallick, an introduction by Buster's great-granddaughter Keaton Talmadge, and a post-screening Q&A with Retallick and two Buster experts: International Buster Keaton Society president Patricia Eliot Tobias, and Slate's Dana Stevens, who just wrote the literal book on the guy. As a fan of early screen legends like Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd, I'd always wanted to see a silent comedy with live music in a theater full of people, so experiencing that for the first time was a total joy. When I wasn't laughing along at Keaton's impeccable physical comedy or signature deadpan delivery, I was gobsmacked by the pure spectacle of THE GENERAL; after the screening, Tobias and Stevens discussed the technical mastery (along with the occasional wildfire and many an injury, of course) that went into filming the iconic train sequences. It's a hilarious film, sure, but it's also an incredible action movie, without which BULLET TRAIN probably wouldn't be playing in your local theater right now. I highly recommend finding a Cliff Retallick-accompanied screening to attend—he IMPROVISES his scores in real time, by the way—and checking out Stevens' book CAMERA MAN: BUSTER KEATON, THE DAWN OF CINEMA, AND THE INVENTION OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
—Alicia Devereaux, Development Assistant
