Month: March 2022

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

Nosferatu (1922)

Nosferatu, directed by FW Murnau and starring Max Schreck as Count Orlok, was the first film adaptation of Dracula, although completely unofficial, and due to this was almost lost entirely when Bram Stoker’s estate sued FW Murnau, won, and had every known copy of it destroyed.

Luckily not even copyright can defeat a vampire, and so Nosferatu somehow survived. Which is nice, because as everyone already knows, it’s pretty marvellous.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray, and grabbed the screenshots from this version on youtube.

2. After watching some films that weren’t 100 years old at all yesterday, today I’ve made up for it by watching a film that is exactly 100 years old.

3. To the day

4. According to wikipedia at least

5. This was pure chance but still…

6. More than I could ever say about Nosferatu has almost certainly already been said.

7. And much more interestingly no doubt.

8. So instead, here’s a picture of Count Orlok’s skelebone clock, which I don’t think enjoys quite the popularity it should do really.

9. I wish I had a skelebone clock like that.

10. And maybe a ruined castle in which to keep it.

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Film Information

Title: Nosferatu
Director: FW Murnau
Year: 1922
Runtime: 95 minutes
Watch: youtube
Further Information: Nosferatu: History and Home Video Guide: part 1; Nosferatu: History and Home Video Guide: part 2; Wikipedia

Categories
This Film Isn't 100 Years Old At All

The Balloonatic (1923) / The Love Nest (1923)

These films aren’t 100 years old at all! But I watched them anyway and nobody can stop me.

The final two Buster Keaton shorts, in The Balloonatic, Buster Keaton gets bored harassing girls at the park and becomes a stowaway on a hot air balloon, while in The Love Nest, Buster gets dumped by his girlfriend, so he sails out to sea in a sulk and becomes a whaler.

The Balloonatic is a bit disappointing really (not least because there’s less than a minute of balloon action, but upwards of 20 minutes of Buster pissing around slightly tediously by the river), and although The Love Nest is better, it’s definitely not one of Buster’s best (while still being pretty good fun).

And that’s all the Buster Keaton.

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Notes

1. I watched these on my trusty blu-ray set once again. I shall never see its like again.

2. These are the last two films on there.

3. And so I have broken my rules to watch them now rather than wait another ten months or so.

4. But I might actually review them properly next year.

5. Along with whatever else Buster got up to in 1923.

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Film Information

Title: The Balloonatic
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1923
Duration: 25 minutes
Watch: youtube

Title: The Love Nest
Director: Buster Keaton
Year: 1923
Duration: 22 minutes
Watch: youtube

Categories
This Film Is 100 Years Old

The Electric House (1922)

After being mistaken for an engineer, Buster Keaton must electrify a rich man’s house, which he does by filling it with the most wonderful assortment of automated contraptions ever seen on film (or at least since various other Buster Keaton films already released).

The Electric House is quite similar to a fair few other Buster Keaton films (especially the haunted house sections of The Haunted House), and also reminded me of The Haunted Hotel and Hotel Electrique (not to mention Wallace and Gromit, due to the inclusion of a food delivering train set), but the whole things done with such flair and charm I didn’t really mind. I’m not sure I’ll ever really tire of pointless automated contraptions like this on film. Or Buster being scared of “ghosts”.

Not only that, but Buster, as always, knows that even the best of premises can be spiced up a little by the entirely superfluous addition of animals, so half way through we get the delightful appearance of these kittens watching a train of food go past.

Hooray for everything.

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Notes

1. I watched this on blu-ray. The screenshots are from a version on youtube.

2. There’s only two more of these Buster Keaton shorts left in the boxset, but they’re both from 1923.

3. So now I have to decide whether to keep to the premise of this website and wait a year to watch them, or break the entire premise of this website and watch them tomorrow because I have no self control at all.

4. Buster is such a temptress.

5. And I am so easily tempted.

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Film Information

Title: The Electric House
Directors: Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline
Year: 1922
Duration: 24 minutes
Watch: youtube