The Dryden will screen Buster Keaton Silents with live piano accompaniment by Philip C. Carli featuring Cops (Buster Keaton and Edward C. Cline, U.S. 1922, 16 min., 16mm), The Balloonatic (Buster Keaton and Edward C. Cline, U.S. 1923, 27 min., 16mm), and Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton and Edward C. Cline, U.S. 1923, 27 min., 16mm).

Tonight's program showcases the brilliant, surreal visual humor of the great, grave comedian Buster Keaton in three films which show how he loved and could manipulate the very elements which make film itself special. For instance, Cops plays with confounding visual expectations and a very simple story where Keaton cumulatively manages to have an entire police force center its ire on him alone; The Balloonatic goes into the stratosphere and has Keaton visually become one with a giant ascension balloon. Finally, Sherlock Jr. is possibly the most amazing and funny film about what film can actually do, with Keaton's small-town movie projectionist actually becoming part of the film he is showing; this crams more gags and cinema wizardry into its brief running time than possibly any other film ever made.

[source: Dryden website, 2015-Aug-31]