Buster Keaton: The Realist vs The Expressive – One Week (1920)

• The beginning of the film has more realist elements, with continuity editing and realistic sets/ locations.
• The idea of all of the materials to construct a house being contained within a relatively small box is more expressive, which is done for comedic effect.
• House could be a metaphor for building a life with another person, but in the ‘correct’ sort of way.
• The spinning wall breaks reality for comedic effect.
• The house being incredibly wonky is also done for comedic effect.
• 4th wall break as the woman looks at the camera as if there are actually people there watching them.
• The weight of the piano is made to seem really light and breaks reality as no one can realistically carry a piano on one shoulder.
• The floor being pulled down and then the man having his head jammed through the roof isn’t realistic.
• Buster carrying the chimney around and up a ladder isn’t actually possible in reality.
•  4th wall break as the woman looked towards the camera before she has to reach out of the bath. The camera man putting their hand over the lens is also a 4th wall break as they aren’t apart of the actual narrative of the film.
• Friday 13th is a well known date for being supposedly unlucky.
• The house spinning around is a departure from reality as that wouldn’t actually happen.
• Iris shots throughout the film are used to show a point of view and are also done as a way to draw the audiences focus towards specific parts of the frame.
• The second railway track is out of frame so that when the train doesn’t hit the house we feel relief. This then makes us put our guard down so that when a different train does hit the house we are surprised by it.