A Film Canon

The Cameraman plays like a parody of Man With A Movie Camera, presenting Buster Keaton as an amateur reporter whose cinematographic idiosyncrasies (oblique angles, superimposition, film reversal, split screens) are accidental, rather than intentional, and greeted with derision, rather than wonder. This services a fairly insidious glorification of MGM newsreel production, which not only contributed to the film's finances, but provides its basic narrative topos. It's no surprise then, that Keaton's ingenious physical comedy should be reduced to what is appropriate, or at least tenable, for a reporter - clearest in the persistent attempt to deflect it away from physicality itself, anticipating a more dialogic, sound-oriented wackiness most evident in and around the reporters' office. At the same time, the significance of his iconic 'trajectory-gag' is reduced to its start and finish points, rather than the oblique connection between them, while his capacity to engage with objects is construed as so many mistakes, incompatible with his eventual, professional socialisation. The only compelling argument for such a reduction might be that it facilitates narrative coherence (although The General confirms this as a false dichotomy), but the fragmented, piecemeal quality of the newsreel aesthetic seems to have precluded this, giving the impression that the entire second act, or something of a similar scale, is missing.