Buñuel discusses what he found poetic in Langdon’s and Turpin’ work in comparison to Chaplin’s work which he said had lost originality and was ruined by intellectuals. He talks about very specific methods of bringing comedy to a film that is efficient and meaningful as opposed to just merely existing in a film. It was refreshing to see his perspective on comedy which is a genre loved by many audiences but is not commonly dissected in the way that he spoke about it in his writing. He also discusses Keaton’s work in College (1927) which he describes as pure in comparison to what was traditional comedy. He goes into details such as facial expressions which when looking at Keaton, was precise in its timing and physicality. He expresses how fond he was of Keaton’s ability to blend narrative with technique as well. I really admire the way that Buñuel speaks about different techniques in relation to filmmaking. In his writing about Découpage, he talked about and emphasized the importance of process/segmentation in film and how it is just as important as what takes place during filming which in relation to comedy, goes hand in hand. He really made a point to explain how a series of shots can lose meaning if not properly segmented which can take away from the true message and meaning of a film leaving it to serve as, what he said would be, “the photography of animated images” (Buñuel, p.133). He shows a passion and deep understanding of découpage which he puts emphasis on as a very necessary skill in the process of film creation.
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