Buster Keaton's - One Week (1920), Celebrating 100 years of cinema history.

Have you wondered watching a film which got released exactly 100 years before?. We are so excited to watch Buster Keaton's - One Week (1920) a short film in 2020.

Premise: Newlyweds receive a gift of a portable house that can be put together in one week.

Film title: One Week

Initial Release: 1 September 1920 (USA)

Written by: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton

Directed by: Edward F. Cline, Buster Keaton

My take from this film: The equanimity with which Keaton solves his problems is one of the most appealing aspects of “One Week.” He is one of the brilliant filmmakers during the dawn of cinema era. We should be grateful to have such filmmakers who set standards with limited resources in the history of cinema.

Detailed Story: In the story, a jealous boyfriend mislabels the crates holding the parts of a portable house given to Keaton and his new bride (played by Sybil Seely) as a wedding present. Following the printed instructions leads to a surrealist’s dream of a house, with canted angles, a too-small roof, and a door to nowhere on the second floor. The characters could have come from an old Arbuckle short, especially “Handy Hank,” played by an unidentified actor who was similar in looks and style to Arbuckle’s nephew Al St. John. But Keaton directed in a markedly different manner than his mentor. He was a patient storyteller, willing to set up jokes early in the film that wouldn’t pay off until much later. One small example: The short opens with a calendar shot for Monday the 9th, an One Week By Daniel Eagan Excerpted by permission of the author from America’s Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, Bloomsbury Academic, 2009 This advertisement appeared in Motion Picture News on Oct. 9, 1920. Courtesy Media History Digital Library. insignificant date until Friday rolls around. Keaton restricts views of the house he is building until it is finished, focusing on construction gags that give viewers little glimpses of the disasters awaiting. He is also careful to show how his jokes work so that he doesn’t trick and therefore disappoint his audience. (Src. Library of Congress).

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