Silent Films - do we watch them?

IdleRich

IdleRich
In that other thread I noticed Craner said that he had watched all of the Hitchcock films except for the silent ones, I kinda baulked at Howard Hawks cos he had so many silent films... are they behind the time barrier thing or is it just prejudice or what? When I do watch the classics I enjoy them... what else should I watch?
nb I suppose I'm talking about silent films from the early 20th century rather than those which were made silent by affectation later - although maybe they're not irrelevant.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
I got "Sunrise" for Christmas (having asked for it). Haven't got around to watching it yet. I know what you mean, I worry they're too antiquated. But you can see in Hitchcock the importance of silent cinema forcing directors to communicate visually.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Certainly there are some amazing visual scenes in silent films...


The whole underwater sequence is great.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I do a bit of teaching on silent films - not much, like literally 30m and I think they're useful to highlight the visual aspects of cinema, the importance of performance and staging but I can't say I ever watch them myself. I like the idea but I can't ever see it happening. Might be worth trying to list the true greats of silent cinema and then work it out from there. Metropolis is an amazing film. I think you can pretty easily still get a sense of i's grandeur even now.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Have you seen The Mystery of the Leaping Fish in which Fairbanks (who is the star of Thief of Baghdad) plays a detective called Coke Enneday who shoots cocaine every five minutes and then (somewhat hypocritically) busts a Chinese opium ring? Real cinematic oddity of the period.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I think I'll go in on that then. Have been meaning to show some Buster Keaton or Harold Lloyd to the kids. I think they'd find it fun. That physical kinetic thing is something that silent film has to do I guess.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
ToB does have that in a sense, these very exaggerated jumps and stuff. There's something very satisfying in seeing it.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Louise Brooks and Anna May Wong are the first actors I think of in silent cinema I guess. Probably you needed really good hair to make an impression and they had it.
 

version

Well-known member
I find them off putting, but get into them as much as anything else once I actually give them a go. I love Keaton. There's a great clip of him on YouTube where someone's chopped together a bunch of his famous stunts with the man himself talking over the top.

 
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IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah it really is. I suppose that's the premise of Singing in the Rain isn't it? Silent star can't make it when the talkies come in so they have to dub over her with an unknown. I'm sure that is based on actuality, the game changed suddenly and not everyone could adapt to the new skill requirements.
But what you said above is exactly my feeling - I find them off-putting but when I actually watch them I enjoy them a lot. I suspect partly cos the ones that we tend to watch are the ones that have filtered down for close on a hundred years, they are the best of the crop. Absolutely the elite. How many people will be watching Joker in 2120? There must have been loads of silent stinkers (silent but violent if you like) that sank without trace and so we get a biased view of how good cinema was then.
 

version

Well-known member
Yeah, when I think of silent films, it''s all stuff like Keaton, Metropolis, Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari etc. The cream of the crop.
 
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