Tweet Peter Bogdanovich will direct Buster Keaton documentary

Story from the Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-peter-bogdanovich-direct-buster-keaton-documentary-1005395

Charles S. Cohen, CEO of the Cohen Media Group, will produce.

The previous Brownlow/Gill work will be A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW...

-Craig

This is the man who printed the legend not the facts in THE CATS MEOW.

But that was not a documentary. It was speculative drama.

Bogdanovich's love of film, and his scholarship, is evident over time in a very large body of work, on film and in print.

-Craig

If he loved film, wouldnt he want to be accurate, like Martin Scorsese was in HUGO? Bogdonavich could have at least acknowledged the real facts in publicity for CATS MEOW while saying that the lies made it more entertaining, but he did or said nothing about the true story.

I always like it when a film maker discusses the work of another film maker. I always learn something new about both of them. Historians are fine, but they tend to focus on details, not the overall push and pull of the creative process and how the pictures ended up the way they did.

For the 1971 documentary, Directed by John Ford, Orson Welles supplied narration, and Bogdanovich filmed fresh chats with John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and Ford.
A similar approach -- interviewing co-workers from the documentary subject's prime---would be impossible in the case of Keaton. Only co-stars from Buster's tail end are available e.g. Michael Crawford, Frankie Avalon, Dion .... and if the Hollywood Reporter story is any indication,
they're not the kind of folks who'd be making the cut.
My wild guess/fear is the documentary will be a borderline infomercial,
with some interview subjects chosen not entirely for their deep and
long-standing appreciation for all things Keaton, but rather for their celebrity value
(much like when film "personalities" are given voice work in animation strictly for the
free publicity their names provide). Oh, and I suppose, between the gorgeous Blu-Ray film clips,
a few directors from Bogdanovich's generation will turn up, telling us how they've loved
(if not thought of) Buster since film school. In other words, my expectations for the documentary are currently, perhaps unfairly, at the lower end.

Bobbi Shaw, Eddie Hodges, Irene Tsu, George Maharis, James Karen, and Norman Lloyd are all still around and could potentially be interviewed. I really don't see what Bogdanovich could do to top the masterful Brownlow documentary, but I'll take a look at it once it's available.

I'd like to see a documentary about Keaton's creative process.The Unknown Chaplin series was mind blowing to me, and even without outtakes, they could reconstruct the working process from shooting schedules and paperwork. That's where Bogdanovich would be most useful. A film maker talking about how another film maker works is like a magician analyzing how another magician performs his tricks. A biographical narrative isn't really needed. We all know that side of the story.

Bogdanocich is a improvisational director himself. Paper Moon is full of scenes that appear to be tossed off quickly, but are perfect jewels of personality and comedy. I can see how he might have particular insight into Keaton.

If he loved film, wouldnt he want to be accurate, like Martin Scorsese was in HUGO? Bogdonavich could have at least acknowledged the real facts in publicity for CATS MEOW while saying that the lies made it more entertaining, but he did or said nothing about the true story.

Peter didn't write CAT'S MEOW; it was adapted by Steven Peros from his own play. And they stated right at the outset that this was a dramatization of one of several theories.

That said, my late friend Walter Ralphs once told me that his godparents were the "other couple" on the boat that weekend. When he saw the movie, he said it matched up very well with what they'd told him when he was old enough to understand it. So let's not dismiss it out of hand, and let's certainly not blame Peter for its level of accuracy.

Mike S.