Manchester's HOME - a theatre a cinema venue, truly do have a varied and cross-section of films throughout their seasons. Up to the minute Hollywood blockbusters rub shoulders with European curiosities, whilst documentary films, animation, experimental, all happily share dressing rooms with latter-day classics and, as in this case, films from the golden era of silent comedy.
This afternoon, I sat down in the comfortable cinema 1, HOME's largest, to enjoy a double bill of films from the early 1920s and the oeuvre of one of the truly great physical funny fen of that time, Buster Keaton. However, there was something a little more special about this afternoon's showing than just that. The music to accompany the films was to be played live by three musicians in front of the screen - just like in the old days... well, not quite, no. For today's music the piano (or organ) was substituted with a keyboard and the majority of that was already pre-recorded through computer software.
The three musicians, Paul Robinson, Gita Nazareth, and Dai Pritchard [I hope i have their names right], played various instruments between them including violin, saxophone, piccolo, clarinet and accordion. However, I did feel somewhat cheated when realising that much of the music over and above this was relayed from pre-recorded tracks on a computer. Moreover, sometimes I found that what they were playing didn't seem to correlate with what was happening on screen. Nowhere was this more apparent than when things were getting frantic and frenetic on screen, and the violin was playing long legato passages. It also happened during the scene in Sherlock Jr when we see, in the dream sequence, a film being shown in a cinema with the cinema orchestra playing in front (albeit silently!) - however, our live band was more than obviously playing something completely different and at a much slower tempo than the band on screen, and this was very odd.
There is a timeless nature to films such as these though, and it was very heartening to see a couple of families with young children in the audience this afternoon. What better way can there be than live music and classic comedy to introduce children to both?.
'One Week' is a lovely short 19 minute film which is the first week of a young newly-weds life. Interestingly, this was the first film that Keaton released on his own. He had already had a long and fruitful career with 'Fatty' Arbuckle, but this film was produced by Joseph Schenck and directed by Keaton himself. Keaton plays the groom whilst his wife is the ,lovely Sybil Seely. They move into a brand new housing lot, and have a flat-pack home delivered to them. Their first week sees them erecting the house, a rainstorm practically destroying the house and then a train driving through their house. The ending is a little odd. Two other alternative endings were favoured by producers and other cast members [one which sees the couple move to their correct plot to see a brand new beautiful house, perfectly built standing there; the second which sees them move to their correct plot to find a large muddy hole.] However it was Keaton himself who insisted on the ending they finally used which sees the young couple shrug their shoulders and walk off dejectedly into the horizon. Look out for Joe Robert's strong man antics as The Piano Mover, and film-buffs keep your eyes peeled for a small cameo by Charlie Chaplin!
The longer and more well-known film, Sherlock Jr, sees Keaton once again as director under Schenck's producing. Here he is a downtrodden and unhappy cinema employee who dreams of becoming a famous detective. His is also down on his luck in the love department too as he is wrongly accused by his fiancee's father of stealing a watch and chain whilst in his house. One day, he falls asleep whilst at the projector and his dream becomes a reality for him as he is transported into the film and becomes the famous detective Sherlock Jr. The swift location changes, the innovative and excellent comedy routines with the car chase sequence etc, have made this film one of the most 'culturally and historically significant films of all time'. Keaton's love interest in this film is Kathryn McGuire, but it is Keaton's intense and sensitive acting combined with his incredible physicality and agility and love of comedy which make this film. Of course all the stunts in these good old days were all real and done by the actors themselves, and some of the scrapes Keaton gets himself into are just utterly unbelievable and highly dangerous - but oh my, what a performer. A true great.
These timeless classics are superb, and should be compulsory viewing for anyone interested in cinema or comedy. Keaton (along with Harold Loyd, Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin) were trailblazers in cinematic comedy paving the way for a whole plethora of funny-men to follow. But in my mind, it was always Keaton who was the most sincere actor of this bunch.
HOME are showing a few more films of this genre in December; take a look at their website for dates and times... https://homemcr.org/event/
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 9/12/18
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