One Week (Keaton, 1920)

In ‘One Week’, both expressive and realist elements are used to create narrative meaning throughout the film in order to move the story forwards.

Expressive

• Buster carries a supposedly brick chimney up a tall ladder that he had taken off the front of his porch as attempts to build his crooked house which should be an impossible feat as a traditional chimney would have been heavy and not nearly light enough to carry.
• Buster’s wife is in a bathtub where she is washing herself to get clean after the mil explosion in her face. She reaches for a bar of soap located next to the bathtub which is just out of reach so she begins to reach for it, half-standing, before stopping and acknowledging the camera, engaging with the audience and breaking the fourth wall before the hand of presumably the cameraman covers the lens as she once again reaches for the soap and moving away once the wife has sat back down, acting as a joke as it initially gives the audience the impression that she is going to stand up without clothes, therefore breaking the illusion whilst having an effect on the audience.
• The spinning around of the house as he attempts to get back in is unrealistic in the windy circumstances and presents how hopeless the husband is as his feeble attempts to get back into the house repeatedly fail and his poor craftsmanship leads to the destruction of their American dream
• Pathetic fallacy could be considered under both categories as weather is natural, but the specific timing of the weather in cohesion with the disastrous events around them makes it seem more expressive than realist when the rain and wind, representing their futile situation as their guests leave, their house falls apart around them and they spend the night sleeping cold on their suitcase covered in mud.
• At the climax of the film, when the house gets stuck on tracks with an approaching train. The husband and wife both attempt to move the house before diving out the way which passes by on the other side of the track, completely missing the house leaving them in a relieved state before another train hits it head on. The camera angle means that from the audiences perspective, the train is about to hit and by doing this, it creates suspense as the audience anticipate the house will be destroyed and then shock when it misses and is then hit in the opposite direction, sending the house crumbling to the ground

Realist

• The wide shot showing the sudden explosion of milk in the wife’s face is very realistic as during the 1920s there were no tabs on milk bottles, meaning the user had to poke the cover off, causing the milk to spray everywhere and create a mess as scene in the film
• There are several references to superstition in the film – the reaction from the women in the house at the umbrella being open indoors is supposed to bring bad luck to its user and his disposal of the horse shoe after he has been launched out of his house and he and his wife sit drearily in the mud with their suitcase. A horseshoe is supposed to bring good luck and fortune when hung over a persons front door. His throwing away of the object could signify his loss of hope that his house is going to be a success.