BUSTER KEATON in SHERLOCK, JR. (1924) “Keaton told film historian Kevin Brownlow that one scene inspired the entire picture: a man, in this case, a projectionist, tries to enter the movie he is watching. At first he can’t; the characters in the film he is watching throw him out of the screen. When he sneaks back in he suddenly finds that he has no control over the narrative: a nighttime scene in a garden cuts without warning to a busy city street, then to a mountain cliff, then to a jungle filled with lions, to a desert, etc. It is a scene with a precision and clarity that is breathtaking. Keaton, his cameramen, and technical director Fred Gabourie filmed it with surveying equipment to align the separate elements… It may be the first time a filmmaker ever questioned the meaning and function of linear narrative.” — Daniel Eagen
