Silent Film

[stonemonkts]

I figured I'd start a thread regarding one of my mini passions. I've been watching silent movies since a wee lad, having a father who grew up during the latter stages of the era. He was an autograph hound as a kid (his autograph books have some true rarities).

Anyway, what prompted me to start this thread was seeing TCM is going to air one of the very best tonight at 8:30 eastern time: "City of Lights". This film was written, produced, directed by its leading man, Charlie Chaplin. Many Chaplin fans consider this to be his finest film. It was finished after talkies became the rage. He decided to release it as is. Good for him, and good for us.

A few other silent films worth mentioning:

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Directed by Carl Theodor Dryer - Absolutely amazing cinematography.

Battleship Potemkim (1925) - Sergei Eisenstein - The Russian great's classic film of the Odessa uprising. There are sequences in this film that would take your breath away. This is my personal favorite.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) - Robert Weine. A truly surreal experience.

Nosferatu (1922) - F.W. Murnau - This is THE Dracula film to see. Max Shreck will scare the crap out of you. Or at the very least, his performance will have your attention riveted. I love this film.

Metropolis (1927) - Fritz Lang - Lang's vision of the future. This was a big budget epic with a cast of thousands. Some see it as overly grandiose, both in its sweep and the acting styles employed, but it has always been a visual feast for fans of cinematography and set design.

Modern Times (1936) - Charlie Chaplin - Another post-talkie silent classic by Chaplin. The images in this film had a deep effect on my pre-adolescent brain. Nothing before or since so brilliantly depicts the drudgery and monotony of assembly line labor as this film did.

The General (1927) - Clyde Bruckman - Buster Keaton's finest film, imo. If you've enjoyed seeing those classic comic short films of Keaton, this is the film for you. Keaton's performance in this film is astonishing. The movie is very funny too.

Those are a few of my favorites. I'm hoping there are other silent film fans out there as well. I'm sure there are dozens of gems I have yet to see. Mention some of yours!

[Monte Smith]

I love silent movies, too. An old boss got me into it with the silent film evenings he'd host. THE GENERAL is one of my faves. Also THE LAST LAUGH and Fritz Lang's DIE NIBELUNG series.

[Underhound]

TCM has been devoting every Wednesday night this month to Chaplin. He is one of my heroes.

I saw "The Kid" for the first time and a few other shorts, "Pay Day", "A Dog's Life", "Soldier Arms".

Last week they played "The Gold Rush" which I had seen before but was disappointed to hear that it had a narration track which I believe had been dubbed on later by Chaplin himself.

Before each film they show episodes of The Unknown Chaplin documentaries with great background info on the films they're about to show.

Tonight after "City Lights" they'll be showing "The Circus" which I'll be taping.

[walto]

Wedekind's "The Golem" & Dreyer's "Vampyr"!!!

[Root Doctor]

Along with music, silent film comedy was part of my son's cultural indoctrination: Chaplin, Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Harold Lloyd, etc. He's now 8 and a big fan of Charley Chase.

[Jason Bivins]

Stone, "Nosferatu" is one of my all-time faves. An old trio of mine - from grad school, circa the mid-1990s - wrote a score which we performed annually for about 5 years running. The cinematography, acting, and overall vibe of the film are just amazing.

Other faves include "Der Golem" and "Metropolis."

[Douglas]

Two of my favourites:

Wings (1927) – W. Wellman – a long, sumptuous flm. And since I’ve just ordered the DVD I’ll be watching it again soon.

Chess Fever (1925) -. V. Pudovkin - is a delightful short comedy. The real-life chess world champion Capablanca makes an appearance, putting derailed love back on track.

[jaka]

It seems I have to see The General. Hope it's played somewhere in Paris.
I'm glad you wrote about "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" which is one of my favorites.

Recently, I enjoyed the short films of Maya Deren (available on DVD!!!). Some really good stuff, part of them with music only, the rest silent. "At Land" and "Meshes of the Afternoon" are gems.

Other silent movies I enjoyed over the years are:
- Victor Seastrom's The Wind, with Lilian Gish
- G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, with Louise Brooks
- The Felix the Cat cartoons

[Sergio Zamora]

Some of my favorites have already been mentioned. i'm a big fan of Dziga-Vertov's work and Murnau's 'The Last Laugh' is one of my favorite films. Actually, Murnau is one of my favorite silent era filmmakers.

[clinthopson]

The General is by far my favorite silent flick.

I like Mel Brook's effort too.

[mjb]

I find the commentary by Lokke Heiss on the Nosferatu DVD very helpful in appreciating the film even more and indeed of film generally.

[stonemonkts]

Lots of great movies mentioned. Several I haven't seen yet so this thread is working out so far.

By the way, at least for those of us here in the U.S., there is a wonderful rent-by-mail service which I'd like to recommend which used to be called "Home Film Festival". They have since merged with another company. Here is the link

They have a vast collection of hard-to-find foreign and domestic films, silent and otherwise. I have no other resource where I live, so to me they are essential.

[Nate Dorward]

Yeah silents are great--& old comedies are especially good I've found for small kids (we have a 6-year-old daughter). Yes the copy I found of The Gold Rush has Chaplin's rather pompous narration--it's OK, but I'd rather see the silent version.

One thing I've found is that you have to be rather careful to get version with decent soundtracks. The copy of THe General I dug out of the library was great, but I had to turn down the volume because the soundtrack was a completely unsynchronized & inappropriate collection of greatest-classical-hits, as if they were playing one of those light-classics records advertised on TV.... On the other hand a videotape compiling Our Hospitality & Sherlock Jr was great: carefully chosen classical & ragtime tunes synchronized to the first, & the second was an original soundtrack by the Club Foot Orchestra (people like Myles Boisen, Elliott Kavee, Kenny Wolleson).

[HenryMc]

Love silent movies and old B and W movies. Some of the things they did with film from a technical point of view , with the limitations of the time, was remarkable. The 'odessa steps' sequence from Potemkin is acknowledged as a classic and has been used /copies/parodied so often.

I also love that some of those movies reflect the artistic pretentions of the day ie the abstractism of Dr Caligari and much of the european symbolism present on the continent.