We all like to complain that the film industry does nothing but recycle old bits of intellectual property, but sometimes that can be a good thing, even noble in a way. This assembly is a case in point. Cinematic jack of all trades Josh Frank, who has worked as a writer, producer, director and composer and now runs the Blue Starlite Mini-Urban Drive-In Movie Theatre in Austin, Texas, has packaged together Buster Keaton’s immortal 1924 comedy Sherlock Jr with some tracks from REM’s mid-1990s albums Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi. It’s all part of Frank’s ongoing Silents Synced project, which earlier mashed together the 1922 OG version of Nosferatu with Radiohead.
Since Sherlock Jr is only about 45 minutes long, Frank has thrown in Keaton’s 22-minute two-reeler The Balloonatic, with a techno soundtrack by Brazilian composer Amon Tobin. Neither musical choice particularly enhances the films they accompany, or even feels suited to the stories, but neither is especially offensive. The whole point of Silents Synced, presumably, is to lure people into cinemas to experience the films, turning viewers on to some of cinema’s finest silent-era auteurs and a few rock dinosaurs as well. It’s not the most original idea of all time, but presumably some real legal artistry went into clearing the rights so this could tour cinemas around the world.
In addition, a little bit of jiggery pokery has been applied to the films, such as colourising objects on screen and adding effects. It’s debatable whether Keaton himself would have approved of these additions, but as much as his reputation rests on his astonishing stunt work, shown off well in both films here, he clearly liked messing around with what could be done with in-camera effects, as seen in the fantastic sequence where he falls through a variety of landscapes thanks to the magic of editing. This packaging offers a nice opportunity to appreciate how groundbreaking Sherlock Jr was for its time, as Keaton’s schlubby projectionist falls asleep at work and dreams himself into the film he’s screening: a work of cinema that’s about cinema, meta before that was even a standalone adjective.
REM x Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr is in UK cinemas from 5 February.