If you sleep in the cinema, you’re missing out. With a lot of luck as a cineaste, you can also experience the unbelievable, like Buster Keaton in the silent film “Sherlock Jr.”: In this masterpiece, the comedian and action star plays an amorous projectionist who falls asleep next to a rattling film projector. In the dream he walks through the cinema hall to the screen – and gets into the running film.
There he stumbles from one scene to the next, from a busy road to the high mountains, from the beach to a lion’s den. But soon he finds his intended role of the eponymous master detective, he fights against rivals, foils assassination attempts and finds a kidnapped girl. And of course he also wins his great love.
The film, which is only 99 years old, is still entertaining today, as usual, Buster Keaton didn’t let himself be doubled in the action scenes. Legend has it that he was thrown against train tracks during a chase. Then he complained of a headache – and continued. It was only decades later that it turned out that his neck had cracked.
The Film Museum is showing “Sherlock Jr.” and two short films by the film pioneer Alice Guy-Blaché with music: All three films will be set to music live in the cinema by the “Filmcombo”, an association of HFF students.
Sherlock Jr., USA 1924, Director: Buster Keaton, Thursday, April 27, 7 p.m., movie museumSt.-Jakobs-Platz 1