Samuel Beckett’s FILM and Buster Keaton’s THE CAMERAMAN This Weekend at Webster University

Samuel Beckett’s FILM and Buster Keaton’s THE CAMERAMAN  screen together this Friday through Sunday (July 29th-31st) at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood, Webster Groves, MO 63119). The program begins each evening at 8:00. 

Samuel Beckett, the celebrated author of Waiting for Godot, made one film, and it was called FILM and made in 1965. It’s in essence a chase film; the craziest ever committed to celluloid. It’s a chase between camera and pursued image that finds existential dread embedded in the very apparatus of the movies itself. The chased object is the silent film legend, Buster Keaton.

Keaton’s THE CAMERAMAN runs 70 minutes and is considered to be one of his very finest. The first picture he made after his newly inked contract with MGM, THE CAMERAMAN is generally considered to be his last masterpiece. It is reminiscent of some of his early slapstick works: there’s a pure anarchistic glee throughout that finally explodes in an incredible scene involving a monkey, a movie camera, and Keaton amidst a full-fledged Chinese gang war (!) that must surely go down as one of the most ambitious gags anyone has ever attempted. But the whole film is great fun and should make for a fascinating double bill with Samuel Beckett’s FILM and you’ll have the chance to catch these on the big screen when they play this weekend Friday through Sunday (July 29^th -31st) at Webster University.

Admission is:

$6 for the general public
$5 for seniors, Webster alumni and students from other schools
$4 for Webster University staff and faculty

Free for Webster students with proper I.D.

Advance tickets are available from the cashier before each screening or contact the Film Series office (314-246-7525) for more options. The Film Series can only accept cash or check.

The Webster University Film Series site can be found HERE

http://www.webster.edu/film-series/