The Great Buster

This portrait by director Peter Bogdanovich (Paper Moon, The Last Picture Show) celebrates the life and career of one of America's most influential and celebrated filmmakers and comedians, Buster Keaton, whose singular style and fertile output during the silent era created his legacy as a true cinematic visionary. Keaton's beginnings on the vaudeville circuit are chronicled in this film, as is the development of his trademark physical comedy and deadpan expression that earned him the lifelong moniker of "The Great Stone Face", all of which led to his career-high years as the director, writer, producer and star of his own short films and features. Interspersed throughout are interviews with nearly two-dozen collaborators, filmmakers, performers and friends, who discuss Keaton's influence on modern comedy and, indeed, cinema itself.