Abstract
This essay explores after-images of Buster Keaton’s stardom: first in the Hollywood biopic The Buster Keaton Story (1957), and second in the avant-garde short Film (1965), based on a script by Samuel Beckett. The Buster Keaton Story’s factual deviations from the former star’s biography reflect Hollywood’s anxious self-mythologization in a time of media transition. Film offers an alternative account of film history and of the perceptual dynamics of fading stardom. Set in 1929, Film is a travel back in time, but it is a time in which Keaton’s face and body show all the age of a ruined statue, worn down by an existence defined entirely by perception. Symptomatic of the turn away from Hollywood’s official myths, Film activates alternative remembrances of stars’ pasts.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Lasting Screen Stars |
| Subtitle of host publication | Images that Fade and Personas that Endure |
| Editors | Lucy Bolton, Julie Lobalzo Wright |
| Place of Publication | Basingstoke |
| Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
| Pages | 127-139 |
| Number of pages | 13 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781137407337 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781137407320 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- Film star
- Movie star
- Buster Keaton
- Beckett
- Film
- Slapstick
- Donald O'Connor
