My project started 5 years ago and in Chronological order. What this meant is that it started in 1902 with the first story put on film. However other than the well-known historical significance of the first two films in the book (A trip to the moon and the great train robbery), there is really nothing much to say about these two films. We can all try and imagine the wonder of audiences at the time after seeing these films for the first time, but OK, next….
The rest of the silent Era period of the book is from 1915 – 1929 with a few films made in the 30s and includes 42 titles. Quite a bit. The titles include, epic, horror, comedy, War, Drama, a documentary and, political propaganda. On two of them I will write a separate post, but will attempt to give some insightful thoughts on a large post that includes this period in its entirety. One of the only criticisms that I find myself giving the book is that it tends to give too much of an emphasis on Hollywood to the detriment of other world cinemas that existed throughout history. The only period this is not the case is the Silent Era period. During this golden age of film making, language was never a barrier. There was no need for subtitles and every film could easily and cheaply be shown in any country with each country’s language spliced into the films. This period brought us masterpieces not only from Hollywood, but from France, Germany, Holland, Russia, India, China, as well as others. In addition, the silent period was a period without a lot of censorship and the true feelings and thoughts of the societies of the time came through. In the United States I would advise all social intellects and people of striving to understand equality to rather then read history books on how the Americans treated African Americans in the not too distant past, to watch old films and silent films in particular. The first film in the book from this era was a 190 minute historical epic called “The Birth of a Nation”. Here we have a sweeping film from 1915 that shows an historical view of a period through the eyes of two families. The view is shown through their eyes and also through the eyes of the white American society of the time. The Klu Klux Klan are heroes of this movie and Black Americans are sex starved rapists and butchers. During the early period of talking pictures, Black Americans are shown to be gentle kind subservient idiots but during the beginning of the century we see them as the whites really saw them. Monsters to be feared. This blatant racism is stirring in its repugnancy. It is hard to watch. Take a look at the scene where the Black gangs are trying to breakdown the farmhouse full of innocent white women and then think about Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead”. The similarity is disturbing. When trying to make sense of the political protests happening today, one needs to understand the history. The horrible and disturbing history of the American Nation. For this reason, “Birth of a Nation” does a great service to all who want to know the truth on racism. It is ugly and at the beginning of the last century it was considered Pop Art.
The director of that film, D.W. Griffith also directed 3 of the next 4 films in the book. In trying to prove that he was an artist and not a hate monger. His films were epic in scope as in, “Intolerance”, or liberal in its sensitivity as in, “Broken Blossoms”. Almost as if he was trying to apologize for ‘Birth of a Nation”. In order to get his audience to sit through three hours of silent movies, Griffith spared no expense. He built London from scratch, Biblical Babylonia and used up thousands of extras and hundreds of animals so that what our first movie goers saw was as close to realism as possible. James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and other of today’s epic film makers owe him a great debt. Also during this early period of the teens of the past century, the Germans, across the ocean and before they started the two wars that would nearly destroy the world, were experimenting with shapes and images in film and making stories about monsters that would leave images and impressions that would inspire horror film makers up until today (“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”). That film combined murder sex and death in a story seemingly coming from another planet when in truth it was a window into the world spinning out of control in Germany at the time. The zombie of that movie and the magician in the story would become the 2nd and 3rd Reich. Back to Griffith, we see a filmmaker who was interested now in showing not epic but individual suffering and would emphasize the total lack of protection and rights that women had at the time. Broken Blossoms and Way Down East showed heroines who would suffer greatly before meeting tragic ends and gave the audience a reason to shed a tear.
Do you remember the old movie serials of the 30s 40s and 50s. The French started it all with their suspenseful silent movie serial from 1915 (Les Vampires). This is 10 separate episodes shown at different times. Each episode ends on a cliffhanger making you want to see the ensuing story. The next time you see your favorite TV serial such as, “game of thrones”, or, “breaking bad”, remember that it all started here with this French trend setter. These remarkable films are also famous for showing the Paris roof tops in their romantic glory. Those rooftops would reappear throughout movie history and it all started with this French masterpiece. The clips on this movie series showed a depth in photography needed to tell their intricate stories with hiding places and unknown shadows. Effects that would later be copies by movie giants such as Orsen Wells.
Of interest in the next decade of the 20’s, which was the golden age of silent cinema was the many masterpieces that taught our current artists how and where to work.
We see hidden messages in a cynical story from a brave African American director (“within our gates”). Photographic trickery that allowed the filming of ghosts which gave Gothic cinema its start (“The phantom Carriage”). Historical drama that would give the viewpoint of the French Revolution through the eyes of innocent by-standards (“Orphans of the Storm”, again by Griffith who did to film what, “a tale of two cities”, did to literature). Feminism and women’s rights from the old French works (“The smiling Madame Beudet”). Complex political thriller that was the grandfather of all political thrillers today (“Dr. Mabuse”, again from pre-Nazi Germany that showed the horror that was to come). The first documentary about Eskimos which not only gave rise to the documentary film but also to the staged documentary such as the reality shows of today (“Nanook of the North”). Another documentary that opened a window to the unknown Arctic (“The great white silence “). We had Fictional documentary on witchcraft which was the original horror docudrama that, “Blair witch”, claims for itself today (The Swedish film, “Haxan”).
The silent Era was full of comedy and joy and not just serious drama and horror. Three great comedic Geniuses came out of this period.
Buster Keaton
Is it possible today to see physical comedy without giving thanks to Buster Keaton? Not likely. When watching a Buster Keaton film, we see a noble meek character who wants to get the girl and knock the bad guy out. To do this he has to go through turmoil and danger. In the 1920’s this was given a very real look as all stunts in Keaton’s films were done directly by himself from rolling boulders’ to jumping off of trains, riding huge misshapen bicycles and doing tricks on horses. Keaton did it all himself and made us laugh while doing it. It is not possible to enjoy Benny Hill, Jacky Chan or early Eddie Murphy without paying homage to Keaton. The book agrees and mentions his best films from “Our Hospitality, Sherlock, Jr., Seven Chances and the General.
Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd is a genius comedian and is represented by one film in the book (The Kid Brother). Check out the fight scene on this movie and then look at the Rocky films. While this was done for comedy it was the teacher for Stallone and other boxing movies such as raging bull. Lloyd was an expert on timing with props and he used this unique talent of timing to give the fighting scene such a real effect.
Charlie Chaplin
Of course Chaplin. The Tramp. The hilarious genius of the tramp. We understand imagination in horrible circumstances and the humor of the horror (The Gold Rush). The Tramp would escape from physical pain while running into emotional pain and we laughed at his pathos. To this day in cinema the most popular comedic hero is a version of the Tramp. The poor schmoe who has nothing (not even looks), but through unintentional fate gets everything. Chaplain took the Greek meaning of Comedy to its literal effect giving us low life turning into high life in the Gold Rush. During the talking period, Chaplain retained silent cinema and but used sound to give his tramp depth and pathos letting him suffer in the end yet giving him an emotional conclusion that made him better than he was in the beginning. Keeping his stories well within the comedic world.
The silent era continued with strong visual epics that had small personnel stories such as “The Wheel”. The nearly five hour tragedy from France. Boy did the early movie audience have an appreciation and patience for art!
There was also a lot of pulp entertainment for the masses and some of it was fun and exciting such as “The thief of Baghdad” which was as fast exciting fun and light as Spielberg’s best adventures, as well as Valentino’s other important work that contained the first truly stunning tracking shot (The Eagle).
Political propaganda from the beginning of the Iron Curtain (Strike and Oktober) showed us how film could serve dictatorship. The Nazis would learn from Eisenstein and use it to terrifying consequences in the following decade.
The Missing Masterpiece
Eric Von Stroheim is represented in the book as both a director and actor but is best served in his lost creation called Greed. The original film was four hours long and the studio would have nothing of it, and took it upon themselves to cut it down to two a half hours. The missing pieces were never found but stills and the original screen play were. A four hour version using the stills to replace the missing scenes was created and this was the version of the film that I watched. While it was difficult to see at some points, it is also essential to see these scenes or character developments in order to understand the story. A story about greed from an unlikable antihero. This was the beginning of film noir.
When you watch a horror movie today it is obvious that the modern horror director keeps looking for the ultimate shock scene. Well this all started in 1925 with the silent horror classic “The Phantom of the Opera”. The face and makeup of the Phantom is hidden from the audience until that exact minute that the heroine sees it first. She gasps and screams as does the viewing audience as we all see it for the first time. We experience what she experiences and the magic of horror cinema was born. Superb!
In 1925 a great director called King Vidor made a very different war movie titled the Big Parade. It was about WWI and was filmed less than 10 years after the end of the war. The film was divided into two parts. Part one was a delightful comedic romantic drama about the love of a soldier and a French peasant girl. The 2nd part was the actual war. Gritty, grim realistic war scenes that came a few years before “All quiet on the Western Front” was filmed and showed no less realistic war scenes, including the famous trench scene where enemies share a moment of humanity before death. This film was the influence to great dramas cut in the time of war such as “the Deer Hunter” It is riveting and soulful from beginning to end and bites hard at the end as well.
Science Fiction and ART
In the 1980’s I attended a cinema screening of a silent film that had a modern score added to it. The film was, “Metropolis”, and it left me stunned. It was a German film by the great Fritz Lang before he escaped Nazism for America. Look at this film. It’s Robots. Its bleak futuristic outlook. Its crowded cold technological look. This was made in 1925! Today one can’t enjoy Star Wars, Blade Runner, The Terminator etc… without paying homage to this silent masterpiece. Watching it with a modern soundtrack adds to the feeling on how beyond its time this film was.
Only in the silent era could a film take a simple story of fidelity and love and turn it into art. This was the case in F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise. Murnau was always interested in the fate of the simple man (“The last laugh”) but in Sunrise he used great acting and photographic beauty to show how one man can transform himself from being a self-interested cold and indifferent person to a person who loves and cares and sacrifices. Stunning and beautiful.
The lack of special effects in the 20s demanded difficult stunts for actors (such as Keaton in his films) and in the horror classic “The Unknown” Lon Chaney played an armless man and in order to make this look real he played it exactly the way it was written. Chaney taught himself to eat, smoke and do everything with his feel and the film showed us his character as it was written. Completely believable. This is what allowed the film to give it the horror that made it a classic.
Epics continued to be a large and important part of the silent era. The French genius Able Gance, made the first part of his historical documentation of “Napoleon” Here the singing of the French Anthem is done with music and silence. It is a stunt repeated many times later in film (Kubrick’s Paths of Glory). Spectacular war scenes fill the screen in this four hour masterpiece. “A throw of dice” is an epic period price with a cast of thousands and magnificent sets, made in India with the help of the British.
The silent era gave us one of the greatest feats of female acting every in Carl Theodor Drekyer’s “The Passion of Joan of Arc”. This is a filmed version of the trial of Joan of Arc and the camera deals in close ups of our heroine in her fear, anger sadness and pain. Surely Sergio Leone watched this many times in developing his style. Another great female performance came from China with Ryan Lingyu in the artful melodrama, “The Goddess” from 1934.
Crazy experimental surreal film experimentation grew during this period with Luis Bunel and his Andalusian Dog. Another surreal beautiful movie is the Brazilian film “Limite” with its dreamlike choreographed images.
The first animated feature (The adventures of Prince Achmed) is a surrealistic artistic wonder and beautifully mixes sound and animation years before Fantasia.
Heavy handed drama that rivets the viewer with their visual power can be found in “The Crowd and “The Docks of New York”.
The documentary of the lone camera man is made famous in the Russian film “The Man with the movie Camera”.
Sex as would never be allowed in later censored periods was profound and alluring in the two great sexy films. Both of them German “Pandora’s box” and “The Blue Angel ” Both gave us a sneak preview into the German/Nazi mind set. Both had hard aggressive heroines who took control over their men.
This silent period of the book also includes two movies that I will write separate Posts about. My two favorite silent films. ” Nusferatu” and “The Battleship Potemkin”.
The last silent movie of this period is the soviet propaganda film “Earth” which while ridiculous in its message is powerful in its images. It was a silent movie. Was it not.
1001 Movies before you die 