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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4TH
1965 WAS Buster Keaton day at the Venice Festival. At the Press Conference
after the preview of Film (in which Keaton interprets a Beckett script),
the appearance of the familiar stocky figure determinedly stumping on to
the platform was the signal for a standing ovation of wild affection from
the press. "Caro Buster . . ." said somebody happily, after a
long pause while Keaton blandly seated himself among a line of fussing
officials, and went on to ask what he thought of the Beckett film. "I
don't know what it was all about," the hoarsely grating voice
promptly replied, "perhaps you can tell me." A hand waved
expressively in the air: "The camera was behind me all the time. I
ain't used to that."
What was he doing in
Italy? He was making a comedy called Two Marines and a General -"I'm
The General." Loud cheers made it clear that the audience agreed, and
an attempt by the young lady valiantly struggling with three languages to
translate this as ''Il Maresciallo" was drowned by roars of protest.
Keaton was obviously
warming to his task. He stood up and started talking without waiting for
questions, and spoke of the new Dick Lester film he was shortly joining in
Spain. "I've had several other offers, but couldn't take 'em. No time
to spare" - and there was a certain satisfaction in the way he said
these last words, as if his present activity made up a little for the
waste and neglect of the last twenty years. One notes that, unlike certain
comedians, Keaton does not need to keep up a stream of wisecracks. Buster
himself had taken over the Palazzo, in full command of his audience once
again.
At the evening gala show,
more unexpectedly, the smart Venetian audience also rose to their feet
with delighted applause as the celebrities took their places. Somebody in
the next seat poked Keaton. He looked surprised. "For me?" one
could almost hear that dead-pan eyebrow exclaim; and he got up and bowed,
beautifully.
Next day, thanks to the
cooperation of Mr. Raymond Rohauer, we were able to interview Keaton at
the Excelsior Hotel. Several other papers and television networks also had
the same idea, and we had to wait a little while. Eventually we saw him
peering through a door off the main foyer, apparently wiping down the
glass panel with his handkerchief for the benefit of a lady admirer. It
was only when he put his head through the space and started cleaning the
"glass" from the other side that we realised that it was a
beautiful Buster gag.
Keaton started talking
almost before we got our equipment ready, and insisted on giving us the
most comfortable chairs. He sat bolt upright on the other side of the
table, large eyes staring straight ahead, with the Great Stone Face set
throughout in expressive immobility except for one charming moment duly
noted in the interview. Our questions triggered off an immediate response,
precise down to the last little detail, almost as if his films were
parading before him as he talked. And in his mind, Keaton the director
seemed quite inseparable from Buster the actor.
J.G.
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