Welcome!

Hello everyone, my name is Olga Egorova and this is a new, English branch of busterkeatonvk project. Some of you might already know me from our Buster Keaton discussions on Facebook, or perhaps you've come across our website, read our Instagram channel, or watched our Keaton videos on YouTube. Either way, I'm thrilled to welcome every reader, and here I will try to share something new and unique about Buster and his films that you won't find in any of his numerous biographies. For those of you who have never encountered our project before (or perhaps even Buster Keaton himself!) — here is our most popular video essay, dedicated to his stuntwork, narrated by none other than Buster's wonderful great-granddaughter, actress Keaton Talmadge:  

And I'd like to start here by sharing my own story of discovering Buster. In early 2019, not being a huge cinema enthusiast but loving everything unusual, I decided out of pure curiosity to explore a few early silent films. After watching Hitchcock's "The Lodger" and a few dramas, I wanted something lighter. Browsing IMDb's best comedies made before 1925, I stumbled upon "Sherlock Jr.," a film by an author I knew nothing about and had never heard of before. I watched "Sherlock Jr." on February 23, 2019, and was so captivated that soon all my free — and not so free — time was dedicated to Buster. I had never encountered a real-life character so astonishing or a life story so incredibly fascinating.

Keaton is deceptive. His films are famous primarily for Buster's crazy stunts, but their true value lies in their beauty and grace, in the subtlety of his performance, and in his humane view of the world. The hero of these films never smiled, but their creator found reasons to laugh even in the darkest moments of his life. The attentive gaze of his huge, fantastically beautiful eyes highlighted the absurdity of our pursuits and struggles, not with judgment, but with a gentle irony that permeates all his works, making them timelessly relevant. Behind the image of a timid underdog was a smart, active, proud person who knew exactly what he was capable of and what he was worth. His life is often portrayed as a melodrama, if not a tragedy, however, in reality, it is not just a story of phenomenal rise and spectacular fall, but a real Hero's Journey straight out of Joseph Campbell's pages. Having gone through hell and purgatory, he remained himself, unbroken and steadfast in his favorite stoic motto "come what may," and in the end, he found peace and happiness — just the kind he had imagined them to be.

Since I "met" Keaton, I have been studying this journey, still full of amazing discoveries, and I hope to eventually tell Buster's story in my own book and possibly a documentary film. I hope this blog will be an interim step on my own path to realizing this dream, and I will be endlessly grateful to everyone who wants to join me.