Buster Keaton Part 2

Cops 1922 

- Joke within a joke - joke behind prison gates becomes a reality 

- Use of found footage

- Size + Scale, extreme long shot 

- Persona: suitor and outsider, lower class, anarchist 

- Use of props (e.g. bomb) + mise-en-scene

- Large scale set pieces

- Speeding up footage 

- Use of ladders + wire work for stunts 

- Pace + Timing 

- Claustrophobic ending - alludes to darker ending 

- Mise-en-scene used for narrative + for jokes 

- Use of animals 

- Ideology of the police (joke figure) 

- Ends on gravestone art - hint at the resolution

- Deadpan face as a joke

- Use of the bomb: 1920s anarchist, obviously using bomb as a cigarette lighter

- Keaton in a way becomes the anarchist

Key Moments:

- 'Prison Gates' opening

- Police chase

- Ending (suitor = death)

Contexts:

- Silent Film Conventions 

- 1920s anarchism

- Vaudeville 

The High Sign 1921

- Establishment through title cards narrative
- Persona: Outsider ('he came from nowhere')
- First action: Throws himself on a train and nicks a newspaper
- Sees a job
- Callback of jokes
- Exaggerated carefulness when shooting
- Using slight build + casting (non-alpha male)
- More title cards for gang squad (20s gangster)
- Letter, photo + notes
- Physical proximity
- Gets more jokes out of gun shot bit
- situations affect circumstances
- Verbal jokes via title cards
- Breaking the fourth wall
- Mocking of melodrama 'oh no woe is me' actions
- Impossible gags
- Mocking of Charlie Chaplin
- His own personal motives

Context:
- Vaudeville
- Silent Film Conventions + Stars
- Subverts from normal gags (irony + fourth wall)

Key Moments:
- Beginning due to his persona
- Working on the shooting range
- House chase scene
-