Silent movies. Throughout the last couple of weeks I have had to pleasure and pain of watching quite a few. The thing is, before talkies came into the picture (ha double entendre) silent films had become an art form of their own. Back in the day, they were called silent dramas to differentiate between live dramas which were on stages.
The acting was pretty bad in the beginning. It was too much. D.W. Griffith was one of the first film makers that had his cast tone it down. Georges Melies was definitely the man with the ideas. He came up with ways to do many special fx. Edwin S. Porter has been dubbed the "Father of the Narrative Story". Back to D.W. Griffith the "Father of Film Grammar". The shot which was the same as the scene has now become a singular thing within a whole scene.
Silent films went from 10 second shots like The Kiss from Edison's studio and Lumiere brothers getting a train pulling into a station to feature length films; the first in America shown in its entirety was Oliver Twist in 1912 and was five reels long. Silent films even sometimes had color in them. The way that happened would be if someone colored in with paint a dress still by still or dyed the whole reel to give it a blue (or whatever color) tone.
Many genres existed in the silent film era. Gangster movies, comedies (come on Chaplin and Keaton!), suspense (did you know Alfred Hitchcock made silent films?!?), horror (some even with the "oh wait you are crazy twist a la Shutter Island"), westerns and much more.
Intertitles are another thing you just need to know about before going into a silent film. These are the little "diddies" that keep you knowing what's up exactly and let me tell you the language in them is hilarious and just sometimes a little scandalous. Like films (vidoes whatever) these days the audience can tell a good film by how little exposition is needed to keep the film going. So less exposition in speaking and intertitles are usually a good thing as long as one keeps up with the story. Also these intertitles were easy to translate so before sound movies were much more international.
Of course this art died or moved forward depending on one's opinion with The Jazz Singer (1927) the first talkie. There are still some hold backs and some films that look to the past. This past year The Artist came out. A silent movie about the struggles of the change from silent movies to talkies. Maybe we all need a little more silence in our lives.
Silent movies I've seen/suggest:
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Terrible Turkish Executioner (1904)
The Man With the Rubber Head (1901) -this amazed me fx wise!
*all of these are by Melies and show great fx
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
*Edwin S. Porter and one of the first narratives. It's good!
Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
*D.W. Griffith was the film maker here. This movie had dramatergy, toned down acting, the alleyway shots created depth. One shot when the Snapper Kid and two others are creeping agains the wall these are all just new types of shots that hadn't been done before. It was credited as the first gangster movie (swoon) I love gangster movies and all around it's just really good!
The Tramp (1915)
The Immigrant (1917)
*Charlie Chaplin did these and the tramp was his persona in a lot of movies up until the 1930s. The tramp was his most famous of personas. Here is some great satire and slap stick comedy!
Cops (1922)
Sherlock JR. (1924)
*"Buster"Keaton also known as The Great Stoneface did these films and let me tell you he did his own stunts AND definitely has intertitles that were making me laugh. Also, look how many pages Keaton took out of Melies book of fx! It's really quite amazing.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
*I must admit I did not pay amazing attention when watching this movie. Not because it wasn't good, but because I was busy with other things (fail on me), but this one is a suspenseful horror movie so check it! I plan on going back to it too!
The Lodger (1927)
*Yes Hitchcock made silent films. I seriously was so shocked by this. But it's good and it still has Hitchcock-ian moments. Seriously, it's good.
Metropolis (1927)
*I have not seen it. I want to. It's all sci-fy-ey.
Anyway, if you are interested in going back to see some of the roots of movies a lot of these are all over the internet. Youtube even some on Netflix and probably more illegal means if you must. The one thing to keep in mind: The stories do move fast in the later years of silent films and intertitles can only get you so far (and if you look away and miss one? Well good luck!) So if you plan on going into a silent movie, do not try and do anything else while watching said movie. But please do.
Kimberly
Note: All of them through "Buster" Keaton are only about 10 to 30 min and the rest are feature length or nearing that. And here is a youtube video of The Man With The Rubber Head for your great pleasure!
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