Review of Forgotten Silver (1997) by Harpo Z — 15 Sep 2005

For the past couple of weeks I've been accompaniying a friend of mine to her Film Studies classes at the University of Victoria. There are approx. 200 students, so I blend in just perfectly. I don't bring any text books or anything, just my admiration for cinema. The first film we watched was the documentary faux, 'Forgotten Silver' by Academy award winning filmmaker, Peter Jackson. I had never heard of this film prior to the classroom screening, and it is an absolute gem. It's the so-called true story of Colin Mackenzie, a filmmaker, we are told by various industry pros (Harvey Weinstein and Leonard Maltin) is to be the greatest filmmaker never heard of. Jackson tells us a story of how he discovered this film in a neighbours shed. What he found was said to be footage of extrodinary importance and history. We are shown early footage of the first tracking shot, shots made in colour -- years before it was even discovered; sound in cinema, years before Al Jolson belted out his tunes and recorded footage of the very first airplane taking flight, four months before the Wright bros. took to the air. This film is remarkable, and heavily reccomended to cinema lovers.

The second film we viewed was Sherlock Jr. by the master himself, Buster Keaton. It's an inventive and hilarious story about a young theater projectionist in love, while training to be a Private Investigator. He's framed by a sinister man who tries to steal the woman of his dreams. Buster finds himself caught up in a dream sequence of utter amazment and originality. In one particular scene, the Prof pointed out that Keaton had acctually broken his neck, didn't realize the seriousness of it and continued to film his movie. One of my personal favorite comedies.