Screening

About Sherlock Jr.

Year Released:

1924

Genres:

Comedy, Children’s

Metadata:

Directed by Buster Keaton

Sherlock, Jr. (1924) screens before The Kid (1921)

Buster Keaton plays a lowly film projectionist who dreams of one day becoming a detective. After being usurped by a rival in his attempt to charm the woman of his dreams, Keaton imagines himself as the heroic protagonist of his own detective movie. One of his most inventive films, Sherlock, Jr. not only exhibits Keaton’s incredible expressive capabilities and uncanny acrobatics that defined his career as an actor, but also displays some of his most brilliant and original implementations of visual magic as director. Perhaps one of cinema’s first “meta” works, Sherlock, Jr. is visual storytelling at its purest.

Introduction is being provided by Landon Palmer, PhD Candidate in the Department of Communication and Culture.

(16mm, Live piano accompaniment by Dave Drazin)