News

The Academy Awards are a funny thing: At once steeped with tradition, yet desperately fighting to reinvent itself and retain relevancy at every turn. Although there are certain categories that have been with the iconic awards ceremony since the very beginning, others have come and gone. Sometimes this is in response to changes within the industry -- types of films waxing or waning in popularity, for example, or certain elements of filmmaking becoming obsolete -- while other times it's decidedly more political. 

But the categories that the Academy Awards chooses to feature say almost as much about the state of the industry as do the films they celebrate. As Hollywood evolves, the Academy constantly finetunes its awards ceremony, and for that to happen, some categories have had to be jettisoned over the years. Pull out the awards speech you've been practicing in the mirror since you were 12 and put on...

by Chad Kennerk

Images courtesy of Silents Synced

In explaining montage, or ‘assembly’ as he liked to refer to it, Alfred Hitchcock once explained the Kuleshov Effect or, as Hitch called it, ‘pure cinematics’; the juxtaposition of imagery to create different ideas. In the same way, comparison and contrast of music and image have been used practically since the origins of film language to create additional meaning. What would the shower scene in Psycho be without Bernard Herrmann’s strings? Jaws wouldn’t be nearly as ominous sans John Williams’ iconic ‘da-dum…da-dum.’ In the same spirit, Silents Synced reimagines film score by pairing classic silent films with the music of contemporary artists. Specifically designed for independent movie theatres, the new event cinema series kicked off in the US with an appropriately released October pairing of the Radiohead albums Kid A and Amnesiac with F. W. Murnau’s 1922 symphony of horror,...

Once more, and with feeling…

Roxy Cinema

Our 35mm print of Bertrand Bonello’s House of Tolerance has a final screening on Sunday; Spike Lee’s He Got Game and Hoosiers play on prints, while Blonde Ambition screens this Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

The films of Med Hondo play in a massive retrospective.

Film Forum

Hondo’s West Indies begins screening in a 4K restoration; the Belmondo-led Classe tous risques begins playing in a new 4K restoration; Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman plays with live music on Sunday.

Film at Lincoln Center

The films of Wojciech Has are highlighted in a new series.

Paris Theater

A new retrospective shows just how incredible a year 1974 was: Chinatown, Badlands, Amarcord, California Split, The Conversation, Kiarostami’s The Traveler and more screen, many on 35mm.

Museum of the Moving Image

The Red Shoes screens on Saturday and Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

The...

Nicknamed "The Great Stone Face," Buster Keaton was one of silent cinema's most significant figures. Working predominantly as an independent auteur, Keaton made 19 short films and 12 feature films as an actor/director throughout the 1920s. Roger Ebert hailed Keaton as arguably the greatest actor/director in movie history. Keaton's films contain world-class slapstick humor mixed with death-defying stunts that Keaton performed himself. While most silent-era comedians excelled at expressive pantomime, Keaton always kept a straight face, making his brand of comedy distinctive from his contemporaries.

Sadly, Keaton's career rapidly declined after he infamously signed a contract with MGM, which left Keaton without the creative control he maintained as an independent filmmaker. Although Keaton never reached his silent era heights in the sound era, his output in the 1920s produced some of cinema's greatest works. Seven of Keaton's films, One Week, Cops, Sherlock Jr., The Navigator, The General, Steamboat Bill, Jr.,...

As of today, the traditionally protective Walt Disney Co will have to deal with an onslaught of Mickey Mouse parodies, mockeries and likely rather explicit variations as the iconic character slips into the public domain.

Sorta.

In the sober light of 2024, Steamboat Willie, the 1928 short that effectively launched the empire that Walt built, can now be used by anyone and everyone. The legal status of Mickey and Minnie Mouse from Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy, from earlier that same year, has been long fought over and probably not something to which Disney was looking forward. Yet, in a new year that also sees Virginia Woolf’s groundbreaking Orlando, Peter Pan, Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus, Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman and Tigger from AA Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner now in the public domain, if you are anticipating a Steamboat Willie free-for-all, think again.

Besides Disney being notoriously litigious,...

Today, Jan. 1, isn’t just New Year’s Day — it’s also Public Domain Day, where thousands of cinematic treasures, literary classics, Great American Songbook selections, and works of art see their copyrights expire and enter the public domain.

The headliner this year is the fair use of Mickey Mouse — at least, the Steamboat Willie version of the beloved character — as that copyright expiration has been anticipated for years. However, there’s much more than just Mickey entering the public domain in 2024.

Jennifer Jenkins, Director of Duke’s Center for...

Dan O’Neill was 53 years ahead of his time.

In 1971, he launched a countercultural attack on Mickey Mouse. In his underground comic book, “Air Pirates Funnies,” the lovable mouse was seen smuggling drugs and performing oral sex on Minnie.

As O’Neill had hoped, Disney sued him for copyright infringement. He believed it was a legal parody. But after eight years in court, he was saddled with a judgment he could not pay. To stay out of prison, he agreed never to draw Mickey Mouse again.

“It’s still a crime for me,” said O’Neill, 81, in a phone interview from his home in Nevada City, Calif. “If I draw a picture of Mickey Mouse, I owe Walt Disney a $190,000 fine, $10,000 more for legal fees, and a year in prison.”

Mickey and Minnie will enter the public domain on Jan. 1. From then on, Disney will no longer enjoy an exclusive copyright over...

"Doctor Who" has long been regarded as one of the pillars of science fiction television. Unfortunately, back in the 1960s and 1970s, the BBC regarded previously broadcast "Doctor Who" episodes as junk that was just taking up space, so the episodes were destroyed to make room for new programming. Some lost "Doctor Who" stories have since been recovered from collectors, overseas broadcasters, and -- in the case of two episodes of the serial "The Daleks' Master Plan" -- in the basement of a Mormon church. However, despite decades of searching, 97 episodes remain lost.

That number could be whittled down to 95, according to a new report by The Observer, but there's a problem. Film collector John Franklin, who knows the locations of the two missing episodes, says their guardians are afraid that if they come forward their precious mementos could be confiscated, and that they might even face criminal prosecution. The...

Deadline has reported that Rami Malek is set to star in Amateur, a CIA thriller which James Hawes will helm.

Gary Spinelli wrote the most recent draft of Amateur, which follows “a CIA cryptographer who, after his wife is tragically killed in a London terrorist attack, demands his bosses go after them. When it becomes clear they won’t act due to conflicting internal priorities, he blackmails the agency into training him and letting him go after them himself.” James Hawes is best known for helming the first season of Slow Horses on Apple, so he certainly knows his way about spy-craft stories. Hawes has also directed episodes of Raised by Wolves, Snowpiercer, Black Mirror, Penny Dreadful, and more. No start date has been set for Amateur, but it could wind up being Rami Malek’s next project.

Related Rami Malek in talks to star in Buster Keaton series from...

Buster Keaton was one of the biggest names in early cinema, famous for his physical comedy. He thrived on an ability to improvise these gags; Keaton grew up as a vaudeville performer, and spent his childhood improvising slapstick routines with his father onstage. As a Hollywood filmmaker, Keaton continued to rely on improvisation for his comedy — but this required him to follow one simple rule.

Keaton got his start as an entertainer traveling in a company alongside Harry Houdini. It was here that he learned to improvise fluidly and hilariously. His first time in front of a camera was in Fatty Arbuckle's "The Butcher Boy." "[Arbuckle] only had to turn me loose in the set and I'd have material in two minutes, because I'd been doing it all my life," Keaton explained (via A Hard Act to Follow).

When it came to his own films, Keaton made sure there was...

After beating the odds last year by hosting a physical edition in the midst of the pandemic, Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux’s Lumière Festival kicked off in Lyon with great fanfare and prestigious guests including Paolo Sorrentino, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Netflix’s co-ceo Ted Sarandos, Valeria Golino, Joachim Trier, Rossy de Palma, Melanie Laurent and Edouard Baer.

The festival, which unfolds in the birthplace of the Cinematograph and its creators, the Lumière brothers, is dedicating its 13th edition to its long-time president Bertrand Tavernier, the beloved filmmaker who recently died.

During his opening speech, the usually voluble Frémaux had to take a moment to regain his composure as he paid an emotional tribute to Tavernier, his friend and close collaborator, with whom he worked side by side for nearly four decades at the Lumière Institute.

“Bertrand has left us with a heritage that is so major and so immense, and your...

This week’s episode of the Casual Cinecast returns to wrap up the Apu Trilogy with Criterion’s Apur Sansar, while also discussing The Cameraman and Inception. Mike, Chris, and Justin are back with another Casually Criterion chat as we go ahead and conclude the Apu Trilogy (check our previous episode on Pather Panchali and Aparajito) with […]

The post Casually Criterion Wraps Up a Trilogy and Discusses 10 Years of Inception appeared first on Cinelinx | Movies. Games. Geek Culture..

Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness” and Tsai Ming-liang’s “Days” are among the highlights of the Masters and Auteurs section of the upcoming Hong Kong International Film Festival. The festival will hold screenings in front of live audiences next month.

It had originally been scheduled to take place in March, but was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. The 44th edition will now run Aug. 18-31.

“Endlessness” earned Andersson the best director award at the Venice festival last year. While another selection, Pedro Costa’s “Vitalina Varela” earned the top prize at the Locarno festival last August.

Other films in the section include: “Balloon” by Pema Tseden; “Ema” by Pablo Larrain; “It Must Be Heaven,” by Elia Suleiman; “Marghe and Her Mother” by Mohsen Makhmalbaf; and “The Cordillera of Dreams” by Patricio Guzman.

The festival says that it expects to round out the section with other titles by Bruno Dumont,...

Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none

By Raymond Benson

Most of the available home video options for the works of Buster Keaton consist of his classic—and brilliant—independent films of the 1920s… movies like Our Hospitality, Sherlock Jr., The Navigator, The General, Steamboat Bill Jr., among other features and many shorts. These have separately been repackaged and restored recently by companies like Kino Video and Cohen Media Group.

Now The Criterion Collection is grabbing a corner of the Buster Keaton market with the release of two of his pictures from the late 1920s, after the actor/director was forced to close his indie studio and sign a contract with MGM in order to survive. That’s right, Criterion’s new Blu-ray release of The Cameraman is a double feature! You get not only The Cameraman, Keaton’s 1928 first feature with MGM, but also the second title made with the studio,...

Thank God for Edgar Wright. The “Shaun of the Dead” and “Baby Driver” director has teamed up with Letterboxd to publish a giant list of his 100 favorite comedy films. Wright stresses these 100 films are just a selection of some of the best comedies ever made and not his definitive list of the absolute best. Regardless, Wright has offered up an amazing list just when cinephiles need it most. The list is presented in chronological order, starting with Harold Lloyd’s 1923 silent comedy classic “Safety Last” and ending with Shinichiro Ueda’s zombie comedy “One Cut of the Dead.” Wright did not include any of his own comedies on the list.

Any Wright fan won’t be too surprised to see Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton films dominate the early side of his list. Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush,” “The Circus,” and “City Lights” all appear in the first 10 selections, as do Keaton’s “Our Hospitality,...

The world may be crumbling, but at least a handful of stellar films are coming to The Criterion Collection this summer. They’ve announced their June slate which includes their first Neon release, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, with Parasite to come at a later date. Also among the slate is Elem Klimov’s anti-war masterpiece Come and See, which we recently explored in-depth here. Also including work from Buster Keaton, Kon Ichikawa, and Paul Mazursky, check out the full slate and special feature details below.

The Cameraman

Buster Keaton is at the peak of his slapstick powers in The Cameraman— the first film that the silent-screen legend made after signing with MGM, and his last great masterpiece. The final work over which he maintained creative control, this clever farce is the culmination of an extraordinary, decade-long run that produced some of the most innovative and enduring comedies of all time.

Beginning Sunday, Sept. 15, Turner Classic Movies will have a fifth host to introduce the uncut and uninterrupted films of the Silent era: Jacqueline Stewart, a professor at the University of Chicago, who wants to make her hosting duties feel like "an extension of my classroom," she tells The Hollywood Reporter.

But not only will Stewart, the author of Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and Black Urban Modernity, become the first-ever host of TCM's Silent Sunday Nights programming, which began with airing Buster Keaton's The Cameraman 25 years ago on April 17, 1994, but she will make history as ...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Quad Cinema

The Alain Delon retro winds down and leads into a series on anthology films, which includes work by literally too many notable directors to name.

Metrograph

Two essential restorations are running: Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue and Akira.

As he revolutionary cinema of 1968 is showcased in a new, J. Hoberman-curated series, Icarus...

Later this month, the mighty Kong returns to the big screen! To celebrate, we’re looking back at all the major primate appearances in film.

For as long as films were being made, humans have starred alongside primates. Unlike other animals, their human-like qualities can lend a sense of comedy or horror. Throughout the history of film, primates have been used to fulfill certain roles. In the early days, they were often a form of antagonist, carrying out dastardly deeds or causing mayhem. More common is the primate cast in a role of mischief, causing all sorts of comedic hijincks. While most primate roles were portrayed by live animals, it was not uncommon for men to dress up in ape suits for roles where the primates needed to carry out specific actions. Later, the advent of CGI has led to men mimicking primates in real time to create a motion-capture performance.

Samuel Beckett’s Film and Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman screen together this Friday through Sunday (July 29th-31st) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, Mo 63119). The program begins each evening at 8:00.

Samuel Beckett, the celebrated author of Waiting for Godot, made one film, and it was called Film and made in 1965. It’s in essence a chase film; the craziest ever committed to celluloid. It’s a chase between camera and pursued image that finds existential dread embedded in the very apparatus of the movies itself. The chased object is the silent film legend, Buster Keaton.

Keaton’s The Cameraman runs 70 minutes and is considered to be one of his very finest. The first picture he made after his newly inked contract with MGM, The Cameraman is generally considered to be his last masterpiece. It is reminiscent of some of his early slapstick works:...

Jim Jarmusch, progenitor of quiet, low-key, talky indies you almost never see today (except from him), shares his ten favorite movies (hat tip: Open Culture). The iconic American indie still makes movies in black-and-white, which is reflected in his love of Ozu, Bresson, Griffith and most everybody on this list, a near-perfect menagerie of genres and styles, Euro art movies and American classics. 1. "L’Atalante" (1934, Jean Vigo) 2. "Tokyo Story" (1953, Yasujiro Ozu) 3. "They Live by Night" (1949, Nicholas Ray) 4. "Bob le Flambeur" (1955, Jean-Pierre Melville) 5. "Sunrise" (1927, F.W. Murnau) 6. "The Cameraman" (1928, Buster Keaton/Edward Sedgwick) 7. "Mouchette" (1967, Robert Bresson) 8. "Seven Samurai" (1954, Akira Kurosawa) 9. "Broken Blossoms" (1919, D.W. Griffith) 10. "Rome, Open City" (1945, Roberto Rossellini) Read More: Toh! Ranks the Films of Jim Jarmusch...

The Flash, Season 1, Episode 15, “Out of Time” Written by Aaron Helbing & Todd Helbing Directed by Steve Surjik

Airs Tuesdays at 8pm Et on the CW - The Flash has had a long and complicated history to say the least. These complications all began with “Flash of Two Worlds!” a landmark comic book story published in 1961, that introduces Earth-Two, and more generally the concept of the multiverse, to DC Comics. Long story short, by the 1980s, the DC Universe was drowning in these parallel Earths and multiple continuities and so the writers over at DC decided to solve these problems with Crisis on Infinite Earths, a reality-bending crossover event that removed the concept of the Multiverse, and depicted the deaths of many long-standing superheroes. The goal was to streamline the world and history of the DC heroes and make them more accessible to new readers. A main story point in Crisis...

At this Los Angeles film festival, movie buffs wallow unashamedly in nostalgia and the golden era of Hollywood, and get to meet the odd star of the classic films being screened

Hollywood Boulevard was closed to traffic and the crowds were gathering outside Grauman's Chinese Theatre to spot the stars – Peter O'Toole, Tippi Hedren and Mickey Rooney among them – as they walked the red carpet and filed past hundreds of famous foot and handprints for the premiere of Gene Kelly's 1951 film, An American in Paris. Fans cheer and cameras flash.

At the TCM Classic Film Festival stars from yesteryear rub shoulders with paying guests who made their way past the pair of giant Chinese Ming Heavens dogs guarding the main entrance of the 85-year-old picture palace.

Home to the biggest film premieres in Hollywood since 1927, the theatre interior rises 90 feet to a bronze roof, two coral red columns sitting...

Last year at SXSW, Austin band Bee vs. Moth performed a special live score accompanying Buster Keaton's silent movie The Cameraman. And they're back again, this time for The Oyster Princess. If you fell in love with The Artist or caught the live-score event last year, this is a must-see event. I tracked down Sarah Norris of Bee Vs. Moth to get the inside scoop.

Slackerwood: Describe the film for us in a couple of sentences.

Sarah Norris: The Oyster Princess is a 1919 German silent comedy by Ernst Lubitsch. The film tells the story of a spoiled heiress whose quest to marry a prince leads to mishaps, mockery and mistaken identities. Austin band Bee vs. Moth plays our original soundtrack live with the film.

What's one thing about the film that is going to make it impossible for people to resist seeing it?

Watching a silent film with live accompaniment is a fun,...

"More than fifty years have passed since critics rediscovered Buster Keaton and pronounced him the most 'modern' silent film clown, a title he hasn't shaken since." So begins Jana Prikryl's terrific essay, "The Genius of Buster," in the New York Review of Books:

In his own day he was certainly famous but never commanded the wealth or popularity of Charlie Chaplin or Harold Lloyd, and he suffered most when talkies arrived. It may be that later stars like Cary Grant and Paul Newman and Harrison Ford have made us more susceptible to Keaton's model of offhand stoicism than his own audiences were. Seeking for his ghost is a fruitless business, though; for one thing, film comedy today has swung back toward the sappy, blatant slapstick that Keaton disdained. There's some "irony" in what Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler do, but it's irony that clamors to win the identification of the...

The South by Southwest Film Festival announced its feature film line-up Wednesday, piling heaps of cinematic goodness on an already stellar program that includes Jodie Foster’s The Beaver, Duncan Jones’ Source Code, Ti West’s The Innkeepers, Conan O’Brien’s tour documentary, and the latest Simon Pegg-Nick Frost comedy, Paul, with Seth Rogen.

Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) returns to the festival with her latest film, Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried, after the writer-director spoke on a screenwriting panel in 2009.

Plus a few favorites from the Sundance Film Festival last month, like Tom McCarthy’s Win Win, Morgan Spurlock’s The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and Max Winkler’s Ceremony.

I’m extremely excited, even if I’m already having flashbacks to intense sleep deprivation. Like the last two years, I’ll be on the ground covering as much of the festival as I can within the packed 9 days of screenings,...

‘Tapping into the cultural zeitgeist,’ at SXSW 2011

Austin, Texas – The SXSW 2011 Feature Film Lineup was unveiled Wednesday afternoon. The festival lineup will consist of 130 features, in nine full days of programming, promising to deliver a film-going experience unlike previous years.

With a reputation for taking chances on relatively unknown filmmakers, the SXSW panel of judges carefully picked 130 films from 1,792 feature-length film submissions, (1,323 U.S. and 469 international). The program consists of 60 World Premieres, 12 North American Premieres and 16 U.S. Premieres.

The main competition categories return with eight Narrative Features, and eight Documentary Features, both competing for their respective Grand Jury Prize. New for films in competition this year, are awards for screenplay, editing, cinematography, music, and acting.

(The Midnighters and SXFantastic feature sections, along with the short film program, will be announced next week.)

Here are a few of the Features to be screened, among many others.

Narratives:

The Beaver (World Premiere)

Dir.

Readers of Sound On Sight can be sure that we will indeed be covering the SXSW Film Festival once again. As previously reported, Duncan Jones’ latest film Source Code is opening the festival and there will also be premieres for the documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, Greg Mottola’s Paul, and Jodie Foster’s The Beaver. Now the full line-up has been announced it is incredible.

Hit the jump to check out the line-up, and be sure to visit our site during the event.

The 2011 SXSW Film Festival runs from March 11 – 19th in Austin, Texas.

SXSW Film Announces 2011 Features Lineup

Austin, Texas – February 2, 2011 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the features lineup for this year’s Festival, March 11 – 19, 2011 in Austin, Texas. The 2011 lineup continues the SXSW tradition of tapping into the cultural zeitgeist, highlighting emerging talent and breakthrough performances and supporting first-time filmmakers.

The South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival announced this year's features lineup. The festival takes place March 11-19 in Austin, Texas.

There are a total of 130 features screening this year including 60 world premieres, 12 North American premieres and 16 U.S. premieres! This year the a total of 1,792 feature-length films were submitted, which is the most ever.

There are going to be some amazing films shown this yea. Opening night kicks off with Duncan Jones' Source Code (Moon). The fest rolls on with Jodie Foster‘s The Beaver, Greg Mottola‘s Paul, Sundance Grand Prize doc winner How to Die in Oregon, Errol Morris‘ Tabloid, Victoria Mahoney‘s Yelling to the Sky, Azazel Jacob‘s Terri. There will also be a special screening of Catherine Hardwicke‘s Red Riding Hood.

The Midnight and SXFantastic sections will be announced with the shorts program next week.

See the complete lineup below via...

The South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) just announced their entire 2011 feature film lineup, and there’s isn’t a lot of note, with regards to this blog’s focus.

Titles you should be aware of – all of which we’ve previously profiled on Shadow And Act – include, Victoria Mahoney’s feature film debut, Yelling To The Sky (which will actually make its world debut at the Berlin Film Festival later this month); plus Blacktino, the first feature film from writer/director Aaron Burns, a self-described “blacktino nerd from Austin, Texas,” who got his start at Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios doing visual effects; Benda Bilili, a documentary about a band of homeless, disabled Congolese; and last, but not least, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey, a documentary about the black man that happens to be the man behind the puppet (which also played at Sundance).

There might be...

The South by Southwest Film Festival has announced their features lineup for the 2011’s Festival, which will take place March 11th to the 19th in Austin Texas. Read the full press release after the jump. SXSW Film Announces 2011 Features Lineup Austin, Texas – February 2, 2011 – The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the features lineup for this year’s Festival, March 11 – 19, 2011 in Austin, Texas. The 2011 lineup continues the SXSW tradition of tapping into the cultural zeitgeist, highlighting emerging talent and breakthrough performances and supporting first-time filmmakers. The Midnighters and SXFantastic feature sections, along with the short film program, will be announced next week. “This is the most exciting moment for us. After a fantastic festival of discovery in 2010, we can finally unveil the line up for this year’s event,” says Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson. “SXSW prides itself on taking chances, sifting for...

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival is thrilled to announce the features lineup for this year's Festival, March 11 - 19, 2011 in Austin, Texas. The 2011 lineup continues the SXSW tradition of tapping into the cultural zeitgeist, highlighting emerging talent and breakthrough performances and supporting first-time filmmakers. The Midnighters and SXFantastic feature sections, along with the short film program, will be announced next week.

"This is the most exciting moment for us. After a fantastic festival of discovery in 2010, we can finally unveil the line up for this year's event," says Film Conference and Festival Producer Janet Pierson. "SXSW prides itself on taking chances, sifting for films that are the seedlings of the next generation of must-see artists. This year's line up is full of emerging voices and filmmakers who transcended the resources they had on hand, often with an alchemist's touch."

Over the course of nine days, 130 features will...

It’s not that Buster Keaton invented film comedy – though he has about as legitimate a claim on it as anyone – but he did perfect it. His best work is sublime in every way. It can (and should) be enjoyed on a surface level as uproarious comedy, but it can withstand technical and artistic scrutiny as well.

From his childhood on the stage he understood the higher equations of comedy – the timing, momentum and release that makes gags work – and he brought that bred-in-the-bone knowledge to the nascent art of film. If you look at the work of his movie forbears and contemporaries, only Griffith and Chaplin were truly his equals.

Not only did Keaton make the medium plastic, he brought a tremendous amount of grace and wit. And if Chaplin tended toward sentimentality at times, Keaton was the antidote.

The Cameraman is a key Buster Keaton work. Not only...

Jim Jarmusch In Context, London

With their relaxed pace, obsessions about seemingly meaningless detail and contempt for the very concept of plotting, Jarmusch's films are very much a context of their own. But on the back of his latest, The Limits Of Control, this is a good chance to see other fine Jarmusch movies such as Dead Man, Down By Law, and Stranger Than Paradise alongside films that inspired them, like Buster Keaton's The Cameraman, They Live By Night and L'Atalante, as well as kindred spirits such as Wings Of Desire and The Man Without A Past.

Ica Cinema, SW1, Fri to 23 Dec

Phelim O'Neill

Sally Potter, London

With Dennis dead and Harry taking a well-earned rest, the UK's current Potter of choice is award-winning, genre-bending director Sally. Her small but significant body of work includes 1992's critically lauded Orlando, a highly unusual and witty imagining of Virginia Woolf's classic gender-switching novel.