A documentary inquiry into the strange but true collaboration of Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton.A documentary inquiry into the strange but true collaboration of Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton.A documentary inquiry into the strange but true collaboration of Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton.
Ross Lipman
- Narrator
- (voice)
James Knowlson
- Self
- (as Jim Knowlson)
Samuel Beckett
- Self
- (archive footage)
Boris Kaufman
- Self
- (archive footage)
Buster Keaton
- Self
- (archive footage)
Milton Perlman
- Self
- (archive footage)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaFilm Festival Screenings: (1) Hong Kong Film Festival (March 2016) (2) Film Society of Lincoln Centers' Film Comment Selects (February 2016) (3) BFI London Film Festival (4) International Film Festival Rotterdam (5) CPH: DOX (Copenhagen, Denmark).
- ConnectionsFeatures Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
Featured review
More scholarly than entertaining
For a film revolving around three people whose work I really admire - Buster Keaton, Samuel Beckett, and legendary book publisher Barney Rosset - this documentary was a little tough to truly like. I loved the spirit of the thing, hearing Beckett's voice, and getting the anecdotes about Keaton both on the set and in his treatment for alcoholism. What an extraordinary pairing Keaton and Beckett were. Unfortunately, while the documentary is a well-researched labor of love from Ross Lipman, it sprawls on in ways that are often more scholarly than entertaining. I think it also suffers for me because its subject, the 24 minute short titled Film, is not all that compelling, and here we have it expanded into 130 minutes. As Beckett wrote about the absurdity of the human condition, it was equally absurd of him and Alan Schneider to not use Keaton's filmmaking knowledge while creating Film, the irony of which is a little depressing. To think this is what the great Buster Keaton was relegated into doing near the end of his life is tough, as is knowing he died just five months after Film's release at the Venice Film Festival where he got the standing ovation we see here. Anyway, Lipman probably should have pared this effort down and probably gotten better interviews as to what Beckett was trying to say. Regardless, I think I'm with Buster, I'd prefer a ball game.
helpful•30
- gbill-74877
- Sep 9, 2020
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Nie film
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $2,241
- Runtime2 hours 9 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1
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