Buster Keaton’s standard instructions to cameramen filming his highly dangerous stunts was that they should keep the camera rolling unless he either yelled ‘Cut!’ or was killed. Showing as part of the Leeds International Film Festival’s Masters of Film Comedy event, The General, which was co-written and directed by Keaton, featured a live accompaniment from the immensely talented duo Unsilent Movies.
“These are real stunts, there’s no CGI,” says Ric Elsworth, the percussionist, and creative core of Unsilent Movies, when we meet for a chat afterwards. “It’s almost like a revelation to most people when they realise this.” There is certainly plenty of Keaton’s customary disregard for his own personal health and safety in The General. As engineer, Johnnie Gray (a character loosely based in historical fact apparently), Keaton gambols his way about the exterior of a moving train as he gives chase to the two loves of his life: his fiancée (Keaton regular, Marion Mack) and The General, the locomotive which gives the film its title. The picture famously ends with a real steam engine plunging from a burning bridge into the river bed below, reputedly the most costly silent era set-piece ever filmed. “Keaton had four different cameras set up to shoot that moment,” explains Ric. “It was basically a one-take opportunity.”
The venue selected for the screening of The General is Leeds City Varieties (“Definitely a highlight of my career to play so amazing a venue”). This proves an apt choice it turns out: “Simon (Hanson, the original pianist with Unsilent Movies) and I had done panto together for years,” says Ric describing how Unsilent Movies got started. “In panto, you just make it up. If someone’s doing something stupid on stage, you just follow it. I thought, ‘Why don’t we do it to a film?’ and so we put the two together.”
The resulting partnership gives audiences the chance to reconnect with film storytelling in its purest form. Ric’s accompanist for The General is school-friend, Andrew Shirtliff, returning to the piano after an absence of nearly a decade. “Andrew’s amazing as you can hear,” enthuses Ric. “Quality doesn’t die really. Just let him do what he wants, and it’s always the right thing every time.” For the audience, it proves to be an immersive encounter. “There’s an interest in what we’re doing for about ten minutes. Then the film goes on and people kind of forget we’re there,” comments Ric. “I do consider that a compliment in a way because that’s our job.”
The call to perform The General at Leeds International Film Festival came from one of the event’s organisers who contacted Ric via Twitter. It comes on the back of a recent UK tour of heritage cinemas accompanying another silent film, The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney – effectively, the pair alternate between ‘Old Stoneface’ and the ‘Man of a Thousand Faces’! “It’s a got a different feel to The General,” says Ric about The Phantom of the Opera, “It’s slower paced and more dramatic.” Perhaps not such an obvious crowd pleaser, Ric has still been highly encouraged by the audience reaction wherever they performed the film: “The thing with the silent classic era, it does attract enthusiasts.”
It is The General, however, which holds a special place in the duo’s repertoire. What is more, it gathers new converts wherever it is performed. “People find it hilarious,” says Ric. “We’re from an era where we watch films and everything caters to you not losing your short attention span, but when you see something like The General, it’s quick moving – people are engaged.” Granted this is testament to Keaton’s skill as a film-maker – Orson Welles said nothing ever came near The General for beauty – but the onstage chemistry between the pianist and percussionist is staggering. Ric laughs, “It’s hilarious when we get it right, and it’s very funny when we get it wrong.” Judging by the guffaws sounding out around the theatre during the screening, the audience definitely agrees with him.
Ric’s enthusiasm for silent films is infectious. Next up, he wants to tackle some shorts by Charlie Chaplin. Let us hope a return visit to Leeds City Varieties is not too long in coming.