Seven Chances + Sherlock Jr. 11/12/24

Kino Classics
Blu-ray

They’re not listed as Buster Keaton’s best silent comedies, but we think they’re fantastic, from the peak of his directorial genius. Seven Chances exaggerates the dilemma of a fellow who must marry on a deadline to inherit a fortune, precipitating an onslaught of women in wedding dresses, a (comic) nightmare horde. In Sherlock Jr. Keaton plays fast and loose with film form. The story involves treacherous girl-nappers, but Buster expresses his hero’s romantic yearnings with fantasy sequences that deconstruct cinema: he ‘enters’ a movie screen and joins in the storyline. The restoration is a collaboration between Kino, Blackhawk Films and the French company Lobster; the music scores are by Robert Israel. On Blu-ray from Kino Classics.
11/12/24