One Week

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Nick M One Week marks Keaton's transition from headlining with Roscoe Arbuckle to starring in and directing his own shorts under his new production company: Buster Keaton Productions. The film centers around the homemaking boondoggle of a pair of young newlyweds who are building their own catalog-ordered house, a premise likely satirizing a 1919 promotional film by Ford Motor Company encouraging people to buy prefabricated houses. Like their lopsided home, the construction of the film as a whole is a bit wonky, but many of the gags are original and laugh-out-loud hilarious. This is very much slapstick, but considering that his history as a comedian has been dominated by physical comedy I was surprised to see that he didn't lean more heavily on this strength for his directorial debut. This is to the picture's benefit, because the gags involving the house itself are where the film really shines. One can identify elements lifted from Chaplin (e.g. oversized clothing) and Arbuckle (e.g. subtlety and charming self-awareness), but already within this first independent project one can feel a distinct style emerging. One thing in particular that I found refreshing was the kindness and consideration he shows his wife. Too often in these comedies women are either wooed as sex objects or are barely tolerated as burdensome wives. But despite the initial digs at the man who's gone and ruined a perfectly good life by getting married, the couple is presented as mutually supportive and truly caring for one another. I'm excited to see more of his new brand of shorts! Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 11/09/24 Full Review Isabel T To be honest i was not expecting much from this movie, Mostly cause its from the early 19th century and well not all the films were the best back then. They didn't start getting good until the fifties. But this movie exceeded my expectations, it was hilarious and the stunts were so absolutely fantastic and unexpected. I really enjoyed watching this film. I totally recommend this if you haven't already seen. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 12/15/22 Full Review Audience Member Another engaging picture from Keaton. Not one of his best, but still a fun watch. One Week, delves deep into Keatons wit and brings only a charm he can in this tale. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review sean l Evidently a direct satire of a then well-known Ford Motor Company advertisement (build your own prefab house in just seven days), Buster Keaton's One Week works just as well with no prior knowledge of the source. It follows a hapless bride and groom, newlyweds fresh from the chapel, who are gifted just such a boxed home and proceed to naïvely plow into every roadblock and pitfall imaginable. Not that the couple is free of blame - their approach to every problem is fundamentally backwards - but a few mean-spirited bits of sabotage from a jilted suitor certainly do them no favors. It's a natural playground for Keaton, who creatively misuses every step of the construction process: failing to secure load-bearing walls, blindly feeling his way up a ladder with a brick chimney over his head, sprinting through a second-story doorway into thin air, lazily failing to properly install carpeting over the floorboards. The problems persist even after the dwelling is complete, with a harsh windstorm revealing every shortcut to unsuspecting housewarming guests, and yet the stakes rise still higher from there. The climax, a literal runaway house rumbling towards a busy set of train tracks, serves as a prime example of Keaton's gigantic, ludicrously ambitious sense of scale. Go big or go home, the saying says, and Buster really went for it this time, stretching his luck so thin he was laid up in a doctor's office before the end of production. This wouldn't be the last time. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Perfectly demonstrates the genius of this comedy star of the silent era. One Week is a short "2 Reeler" where a pair of newly weds build a home from a flatpack kit with disastrous results. It is non-stop physical humour and madcap antics from the opening scene and the stunts, all performed for real by Keaton and other members of the cast are amazing. Definitely a good place to start if you are unsure about the comedy classics of this era and a hell of a lot funnier than many modern counterparts. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Superb! Such great gags! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/03/23 Full Review Read all reviews

One Week

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