Nits de Cinema 2026. Centre Cultural La Nau
Nits de Cinema
The acting legacy of Buster Keaton. A hundred years since The General
Live and Silent
Film, Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider, 1965
“Film” is the only incursion of Samuel Beckett at the film industry. Written in 1963, it was set in New York during the summer of 1964. It was directed by Alan Schneider and starred by Buster Keaton. For the filming, Beckett made his only trip to United States, in July 1964.
The film does not have dialogues and it only has one sound – a single “¡sssh!”, and a part of the Berkeley theory “Esse est percipi”, which means, “to be is to be perceived”. Even when every external perception is eliminated –whether if it is animal, human or divine– auto-perception remains there. However, in spite of this philosophical principle, the film –as any work of Beckett–, contains humoristic elements. Buster Keaton performs the role of a man that, fleeing down a street practically deserted, he enters in a vestibule, he takes the stairs of the building, and enters in a room –probably his room–, where he carefully erases every external reality. He moves the curtain, covers the mirror, gets the cat and dog out, locks the door, covers the bird cage and the fish bowl, and starts to tear up the pictures from his past. However, the problem of auto-perception continues unresolved. (FILMAFFINITY)
Sherlock, Jr., Buster Keaton, 1924
Film about the cinema world. Keaton is a projectionist that dreams about becoming a detective, when, miraculously, he finds himself inside the film he is projecting. There, he will try to rescue her beloved from the dangerous villain. One of the most acclaimed silent film tapes, full of visual gags and with a marvellous Buster Keaton. (FILMAFFINITY)
With live music by Wild Cat Quartet (Pierre Bastien, Mark Cunningham, Dr. Truna & Mike Cooper)
Introduction: Jordi Revert
Concert introduction: Luis Puig
Original version with Valencian subtitles
Free entrance, limited capacity
