The Playhouse is a 1921 film written and directed by and starring Buster Keaton. The movie runs for 22 minutes, and is most famous for its opening sequence in which Keaton plays every role.
The film is set up as a series of humorous tricks on the audience, with constant doubling, and in which things are rarely what they at first seem to be. It opens with Keaton attending a variety show. In this first sequence, Keaton plays the conductor of the or...
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The Playhouse is a 1921 film written and directed by and starring Buster Keaton. The movie runs for 22 minutes, and is most famous for its opening sequence in which Keaton plays every role.
The film is set up as a series of humorous tricks on the audience, with constant doubling, and in which things are rarely what they at first seem to be. It opens with Keaton attending a variety show. In this first sequence, Keaton plays the conductor of the orchestra, every member of the orchestra, the actors, the dancers, the stagehands, the minstrels, and every member of the audience, male and female. This elaborate trick-photography sequence turns out to be a dream when Joe Roberts rouses Keaton from bed. The bedroom then turns out to be not a bedroom, but a set on a stage.
Keaton's portrayal of nine members of a minstrel show required the use of a special camera shutter. It had nine exactingly-machined strips of metal which could be moved up and down independently of each other. Elgin Lessley,...
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