Tag: Marcel Perez
-
What’s a Nice Car Like You Doing in a Comedy Short Like This?
Putting Humpty Together Again, Thanks to the Museum of Modern Art and the Library of Congress It isn’t often that a two-reel comedy can be reassembled by accessing a reel from one archive and a reel from another, but we were fortunate in the case of this film. Oh! What a Day (1918) is a…
-
Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Perez, and a Pair of Drowning Ladies
There was a lot of borrowing and sharing of material in the days of silent comedy shorts, a tradition that grew out of vaudeville and circus. In the milieu of live comedy performance, there were certain routines that were a particular comedian’s property, to be sure, but there were many routines that everyone knew and…
-
Buster Keaton’s Leap to ‘One Week’, and Marcel Perez’s Jump from “Split-reelers” to 2-reelers
Stretching to Two Reel Length was no Stretch For Marcel Perez What has always struck me as remarkable about Buster Keaton (well, one of several things) is his maturity as a filmmaker at the ripe old age of 25. His first solo release, One Week (1920), looks nothing like any of the 14 two-reel Arbuckle comedies…
-
Marcel Perez…or “Marvel” Perez?
Buster Keaton’s Idea of “Impossible Gags” Take on ‘Popeye’ Proportions In the Tweedledum/Twede Comedy Shorts Stylistically, there are two things about the American films of Marcel Perez that make them stand apart from the work of all the other slapstick comedians of the silent era. One of them I can’t yet put my finger on.…
-
The Humor of “Jackass” and AFV In the Early 1900s, as Performed by Marcel Perez and Others
The injury humor of Johnny Knoxville, the Farrelly Brothers, and thousands of anonymous klutzes is nothing new — French and Italian comedians were doing it during movies’ first decade. Last September, a lot of people sent me a link to an article in the New York Times that articulated something I’d been thinking for some…
-
new DVD release: “The Marcel Perez Collection”
I’m very excited announce the release today of my new DVD, The Marcel Perez Collection! The DVD contains 10 rare short silent comedies in new digital transfers from prints preserved by the Library of Congress and by the EYE Filmmuseum (Netherlands), and each has a brand new piano score by yours truly. The films on…
-
NEW DVD COLLECTION OF FORGOTTEN SILENT FILM STAR MARCEL PEREZ
THE MARCEL PEREZ COLLECTION SHOWCASINGFORGOTTEN SILENT FILM COMEDIAN CONFIRMED FOR RELEASE ON FEBRUARY 3 IN NEW DVD FEATURING NEW DIGITAL TRANSFERS OF RARE ARCHIVAL PRINTS Undercrank Productions Collaborates with Library of Congress and EYE Filmmuseum (Netherlands) to Shine Spotlight onOverlooked Silent Clown & Director; New Book on Perez by Steve Massa Also to be Published.…