Veteran actor James Karen and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Kevin Brownlow presented a documentary Saturday chronicling the rise and fall of Buster Keaton’s career with MGM Studios.
The documentary “So Funny it Hurt” was released in 2004 as a special for Turner Classic Movies. The film revealed the story of Keaton’s troubled history with MGM, and the turmoil it caused in his life. Due to the changing face of film, Karen explained Keaton had trouble working with the new, stricter formulas used to make movies. He said the stress caused by these changes contributed to Keaton’s problems with alcohol and infidelity. However, the film also showed Keaton’s rise from his personal problems and his marriage with Eleanor Norris — his second wife. Karen said Keaton found peace in his later years, a direct result of the relationship with his wife.
Karen said he was privileged to have known Keaton personally in his later years, and had become close friends with him. He said he and Keaton were close enough that Keaton was the godfather of Karen’s son.
“It was an honor to have him in our lives,” Karen said.
Brownlow, director of the documentary, said he was impressed by actors like Keaton, because they were “average joes” but also creative geniuses. Brownlow has had extensive experience restoring silent films throughout his career, and he said films like Buster Keaton’s and Charlie Chaplin’s were in dire need of restoration. Brownlow said Keaton’s films now look just as good as they did 70 years ago.
“I kept seeing Chaplin films that looked like bacteria under a microscope,” Brownlow said.
He said he was amazed to see the support a festival receives from a community like Iola.
“I can’t get over the fact that so many people come here,” Brownlow said. “Normally for things like this it’s three old people sitting on the front row.”
He said Iola is one of the stops on a tour through the area, including Kansas City and Fayetteville, Ark.. However, he said he saw the Buster Keaton Celebration as the most important.
Documentary reflects Buster’s ups and downs
