Buster Keaton - The Art of the Gag
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as a short, excellent analysis of Keaton and visual comedy.
What it is
An Every Frame a Painting video essay on Buster Keaton's visual comedy, examining how he built and framed his gags. It uses clips from his silent films to show the thinking behind them.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2019 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends scott_s · 2019-04 · on “Buster Keaton: Anarchitect”
The Every Frame a Painting channel on YouTube has an excellent short piece on Buster Keaton covering some similar themes, but with more of a focus on camera frames than architecture: [this video]
Recommends mimimi31 · 2022-07 · on “Rowan Atkinson: Visual Comedy (1992) [video]”
Reminds me of some of the videos from Every Frame a Painting about visual comedy in film. Specifically "Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy" [1] and "Buster Keaton - The Art of the Gag" [2]. They give and explain some great examples from different movies. [1] [LINK] [2] [this video]
Recommends keiferski · 2025-01 · on “How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)”
Video of some of his better stunts: [LINK] And a great Every Frame a Painting film essay on his work: [this video] He was truly an innovator that makes today’s “films of people talking to each other” look amateurish. A few months ago the local theatre was playing Sherlock Jr. with a live band, and it was awesome. Try to see it in similar circumstances if possible.