Keaton Close-Up (One Week)
One Week (Buster Keaton, 1900s) is a story about a newly married couple who are gifted a kit house. It opens with a title card displaying “Today is Monday 9th”. This immediately gives context like the date and begins the series of sequences seen throughout the film. This is expressive cinema as it gives the audience information and doesn’t let them interpret anything for themselves. Through inter titles and the first shot being of a bell, we know the film is taking place at a wedding. This is also expressive as it manipulates the audience and doesn’t let them find out it’s a wedding on their own. This is reinforced through the first shot of a bell being seen through an iris shot because it focuses our attention on the bell. When we next see people walking down some stairs with lots of people around them we only know it’s a wedding because of the cross-fade between this scene and the bell. This is an example of soviet montage and an expressive way of filmmaking.
After this short wedding sequence, we see another title card reading “handy hank, the man she turned down” and then a man sitting in a car with an angry expression on his face. This is a form of expressionism because we now know the man is angry towards the couple. After they drive for a while and the couple try to escape Handy Hank, Keaton randomly interrupts the chase to attack a policeman. He does this because at the time, this wouldve been quite funny since police were an unwanted authority. So, Keaton portraying real life here is a way his films are sometimes more realist than expressive. We see further examples of Keaton representing real life; with things like lack of housing causing kit houses to be created.
Our first view of the poorly built house is a long take with a wide shot with a deep field of focus. This is realist filmmaking since it allows the viewer to look at anything they want to that is on screen. Another form of realist filmmaking he shows is real life gender stereotypes. These may have not been done for a particular reason except from the fact that, that is how life was back in those times.
There are multiple times throughout the film where, Keaton’s wife breaks the fourth wall and looks at the camera. This emphasises what is happening on the screen since she directly addresses the audience which is a manipulative form of filmmaking (aka Expressive filmmaking). Keaton is seen breaking physics in this film to create jokes such as the piano scene. A man carries a piano with ease and as soon as he gives it to Keaton, the piano gains weight and falls to the ground. By trying to make the audience laugh he is unintentionally using expressive filmmaking techniques.
Forms of expressionism seen later on in the film are yet again, title cards, odd geometrically confusing sets and a series of over the top performances trying to make the viewer laugh. The wife breaks the fourth wall again in a way more obvious way than before which is the character sharing a joke with the audience and this direct communication makes it expressive. The house spinning is very exaggerated mise-en-scene, only really seen in German expressionism.
Keaton speeds up the film at one point to make the actions funnier. This form of editing is very expressive and relates to Soviet montage. Keaton tricks the viewer with the trains at the end of the film to create a surprise joke. This only works with a particular perspective since you would see the second train coming. This is an expensive joke and was only filmed once. The mis direction and then the surprise are both expressive ways of making a joke. Overall, Keaton uses expressive filmmaking much more than realist but there are still examples of realist filmmaking in One Week showing how he doesnt know about the two forms but that a combination of the two works best.