Buster Keaton is one of the funniest guys to have ever lived. He’s also one of the best filmmakers, having made silent hits like Sherlock, Jr., The General, and Steamboat Bill, Jr. If you are at all interested in comedy or movies, then you should already be intimately familiar with the works of Buster Keaton. For my money, Keaton is funnier than Chaplin. His silent films have been carefully looked after, but many of them have degraded over the decades, and are only available in low-quality home video versions.
The good news: Variety announced today that Italy’s Cineteca di Bologna will restoring every single one of Keaton’s silent movies as part of a newly launched Keaton Project. This follows a decade-long project by the Cineteca to restore all of Charlie Chaplin’s silent movies. The restoration will be paired with a theatrical release of most of Keaton’s films in Italy. It’s entirely likely that a stateside re-release of some of Keaton’s classics will follow.
Check Out: Five Great Silent Movies
Keep an eye out at your local arthouse or repertory theater, and you might have a chance to catch some of these comedy classics on the big screen, looking better than they have in years. There’s really no excuse not to.
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
