← Back to the films
THE CAMERAMAN lettering above Momo operating a large movie camera among blue and cream skyscrapers.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

Romantic comedy

The Cameraman

FunnyRomantic Great first watch · Easy Romantic comedy

A street photographer buys a motion-picture camera and tries to become a newsreel cameraman while pursuing a woman who works at the studio.

Year
1928
Director
Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton
Country
United States
Length
69 min

What to expect

Keaton makes filmmaking itself the source of comedy: framing, timing, missing footage, accidental evidence, and the gap between an event and who receives credit for recording it. The romance gives his technical apprenticeship a human stake.

How to ease in

No knowledge of silent film is needed. Watch what the camera sees, what the studio believes it sees, and how Keaton’s body keeps solving practical problems faster than his reputation can catch up.

Heads-up

A quick, non-exhaustive note Includes dangerous stunts, a near-drowning, fighting, animal peril, and racist caricature in the Chinatown sequence.
Momo's Note May contain spoilers Who is Momo? →
Open the note ↓ Close the note ↑

I love that the camera remembers what the institution ignores. Buster can fail in public all day, yet one strip of film quietly preserves the work nobody thought he had done.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Credits & versions

Version map

Criterion presentation69 min69 minutes is attached only to the named Criterion presentation. No unsupported cut, score, territory, frame rate, source element, or restoration detail is inferred.Source: The Criterion Collection — The CameramanRuntime reference · Checked 2026-08-21

Where to go next

Want a gentler, shorter, or stranger next film? Ask Momo for something like this →
Momo is on shift. Visit Momo Cinema →

Continue through the catalogue →