Christina reviewed Camera Man by Dana Stevens
Review of 'Camera Man' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I had this on hold before the James Curtis' biography of Buster Keaton. The Curtis book came in first and I agree with Kevin Brownlow that it's a wow. I don't need a Slate film editor to tell me what in Buster's century-plus-ago filmography is problematic to sensitive audiences. Lots of overlap too, one can imagine each craning their neck over to copy each other's notes, or waiting until the other returned their sources to the library. I could have given this an extra star if it were the only Keaton book I read this year, and it's not a Keaton biography, Camera Man is more than that, there are essays on Mabel Normand and Robert E. Sherwood for example. Being able to look at the referenced May 1916 Harper's Weekly issue on archive.org in which Minnie Maddern Fiske and Robert Grau both write about Chaplin's eye-popping contract with the …
I had this on hold before the James Curtis' biography of Buster Keaton. The Curtis book came in first and I agree with Kevin Brownlow that it's a wow. I don't need a Slate film editor to tell me what in Buster's century-plus-ago filmography is problematic to sensitive audiences. Lots of overlap too, one can imagine each craning their neck over to copy each other's notes, or waiting until the other returned their sources to the library. I could have given this an extra star if it were the only Keaton book I read this year, and it's not a Keaton biography, Camera Man is more than that, there are essays on Mabel Normand and Robert E. Sherwood for example. Being able to look at the referenced May 1916 Harper's Weekly issue on archive.org in which Minnie Maddern Fiske and Robert Grau both write about Chaplin's eye-popping contract with the Mutual Film Company keeps this a solid three out of five stars.
I can argue against a claim or two from what I know about silent film production history.