Keaton

"Back to trains again in a way – it’s a biography of Buster Keaton. I just think if you’re going to think about films you should think about how good they possibly can be, and that is probably The 39 Steps and Buster Keaton’s The General , which is about a train. To me, Keaton is the Michelangelo of cinema. He created films in his head: if anyone ever was an auteur it was him, and his masterpiece is The General . But it’s just that other world – it’s so different now. “To me, Keaton is the Michelangelo of cinema.” Keaton physically cut those films together and, well, you know the scale of those stunts and how much he put himself on the line. I do think he’s a really great artist and that he is underestimated, so I just think it’s worth reading about Buster Keaton. And worth reading about scripts that are perfect and brilliant and don’t have direct dialogue in them."