Search results
reddit.com
- Silent films can be hard to get into when you're first starting. They are just so different than the typical Hollywood movies we're used to, but they're amazing places to get ideas for set pieces to modernize and stories to tell. They're also lost artifacts of a time gone by, ones that open our eyes to the soul of the past.
nofilmschool.com/silent-films
People also ask
Are silent films still popular today?
Why is silent film so important today?
Are silent movies 'too artistic'?
Why did silent films end?
Mar 28, 2022 · Indeed, the silent film era gave us some of the finest movies ever produced, many of which are worth watching today. Keep reading for our picks of the best classic silent movies that are worthy of their reputation and still hold up today.
May 31, 2024 · A silent film is a motion picture that does not include synchronized recorded sound or spoken dialogue. These films convey narrative and emotions visually, through: Visual storytelling: Actors rely on exaggerated expressions, gestures, and body language to communicate their emotions and intentions.
- The OGS
- The Great Train Robbery
- Drama
- Romance
- Action/Adventure, Science Fiction, and Fantasy
- Horror and Suspense
- The Lodger: A Story of The London Fog
- Comedy
- Documentary
- Animation
For a decent, free online overview of the origins of film, check out Tim Dirks’ Filmsite. Here’s the even shorter version: In the late 19th century, Edison Manufacturing Company employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson developed the Kinetograph, the first motion picture camera prototype, producing his first test film in either 1889 or 1890. In 1891,...
a.k.a. the one where the guy shoots a gun at your face Dir. Edwin S. Porter, 12 min., 1903 In this hugely popular proto-Western, a group of bandits stop and rob a train, are pursued by a posse, which ends in a shoot-out. The bandits are outnumbered and lose. The stolen loot is then recovered. Ironically, the shot for which the film is far and away ...
The Birth of a Nation
a.k.a. the Hollywood-defining KKK promo Dir. D. W. Griffith, 193 min., 1915 If you’re looking for someone to wax poetic about Griffith, you’ve come to the wrong place. Don’t worry, if you pick up like 90% of introductory film history textbooks, you’ll find the effusive content you are looking for. However, I am of the opinion that if David Wark Griffith had, for example, died of a fever in childhood, both the filmmaking industry and Hollywood would have still grown and developed just fine, an...
Earth
a.k.a. silent Tarkovsky Dir. Alexander Dovzhenko, 76 min., 1930 Dovzhenko’s philosophical meditation on collectivization and the soul of Ukraine (and, perhaps, the world) is often listed among the best films ever made. Telling the story of a rural community that receives its first tractor, it’s perhaps best described as visual poetry. In pacing and style, it can very much be seen as a precursor to the works of Andrei Tarkovsky. There is something decidedly languid about it. And lulling. (I’m...
The Passion of Joan of Arc
a.k.a. the one with all the close-ups (and no make-up) Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer, 82 min., 1928 Dreyer once wrote, “Nothing in the world can be compared to the human face. It is a land one can never tire of exploring. There is no greater experience in a studio than to witness the expression of a sensitive face under the mysterious power of inspiration. To see it animated from inside and turning into poetry.” And that’s basically The Passion of Joan of Arc. Note that the intertitle dialogue in...
It
a.k.a. the exact opposite of the IT you’re thinking of Dir. Clarence Badger, 1927, 72 min. If you want to examine the Zeitgeist of Roaring Twenties USA in serious book form, read The Great Gatsby. If you want to do the same but in a lighthearted film, watch It. This silent rom-com about a plucky shopgirl — Clara Bow, in her star-making performance — with a crush on her very rich and handsome employer could hardly be more emblematic of the decade if it tried. It was a huge commercial success,...
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
a.k.a. the pretty one Dir. F. W. Murnau, 94 min., 1927 “Arguably, the finest film of the silent era, but quite certainly, the most beautiful pictorially,” according to William K. Everson in American Silent Film. The plot is incredibly simple — a married country farmer is seduced by a city vamp into agreeing to murder his wife (virtuous, angelic, mother of his child), things snowball from there — but the visuals are sumptuously rich. Murnau was one of the greats of the silent era, and his unti...
Sir Arne’s Treasure
a.k.a. everything was beautiful and everything hurt Dir. Mauritz Stiller, 1919, 106 min. Three desperate mercenaries rob and kill a nobleman and his family, leaving daughter Elsalill the lone survivor. Fast forward, and Elsalill and one of the mercenaries end up falling in love without realizing their pre-existing connection. The truth, of course, comes to light, and angst ensues. It’s beautiful, it’s tragic, and it’s a reminder that in terms of artistry, Scandinavian cinema was a force to be...
Metropolis
a.k.a. the one with the robot lady Dir. Fritz Lang, 148 min., 1927 Featuring thousands of extras, 310 shooting days (and 60 shooting nights), and featuring visual effects and cinematic techniques that are still intriguing and impressive to the modern viewer, Metropolis is epic in every sense of the word. It’s got everything. Action. Romance. Robots. Social commentary. Mad scientists. Is it heavy-handed at times? Absolutely, the ending especially — Thea von Harbou, the screenwriter and Lang’s...
Suspense
a.k.a that one time a woman was the “highest salaried” film director in Hollywood Dir. Lois Weber (and Phillips Smalley), 10 min., 1913 In the early 1910s, Weber was one of the biggest working directors in the U.S. Known for the heavy-handed “social issue” messaging in her films, Weber and her work were important in helping cinema establish itself as a respectable, mainstream form of entertainment. For a modern viewer, various implications of her “moral” statements are decidedly problematic,...
a.k.a. the Hitchcock one Dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 91 min., 1927 A landlady suspects her new lodger is a serial killer. The same Hitchcock you know and love, only silent.
The Gold Rush
a.k.a. the comedy inspired by cannibalism Dir. Charlie Chaplin, 96 min., 1925 Chaplin claimed that The Gold Rush is the film he would most like to be remembered for, so we’re going to honor his wishes. And it’s not exactly hard to do, because it’s one of his greatest works. The Tramp goes prospecting during the Klondike Gold Rush, and there are, as one would expect, disasters at every turn. Chaplin also took inspiration from the story of the infamous Donner party—a group of pioneers who resor...
The Oyster Princess
a.k.a. the one with the “Lubitsch touch” Dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 60 min., 1919 Most everybody agrees that Ernst Lubitsch was something special. His films quite often didn’t display the most groundbreaking ideas — his second American film, The Marriage Circle, has for example been called a “facsimile” of Charlie Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris — but all of his films have that delightful “Lubitsch touch.” Most people agree that it’s there, but no one seems to be able to define it in any more satisfacto...
Sherlock, Jr.
a.k.a. meta back before everyone was doing it Dir. Buster Keaton, 49 min., 1924 How could you not pick The General?! At least one person is shouting at this screen right now. While The General is good, I personally think Sherlock, Jr. is not just better, but way more interesting and innovative. While Keaton has been quoted saying The General is the film he was most proud of, Sherlock, Jr. took Keaton twice as long as his typical films due to the incredibly intricate and complicated nature of...
The Birth of a Flower
a.k.a. the original plant time-lapse film F. Percy Smith, 8 min., 1910 Time-lapse photography of plant life growing is a pretty well-established technique at this point — a staple of nature documentaries and hardly unknown in fictional film either (see: Days of Heaven) — and this is where it started.
Nanook of the North
a.k.a. the Doc-father Dir. Robert J. Flaherty, 79 min., 1922 One of the first feature-length documentaries, modern viewers will likely cringe at several highly staged scenes and Flaherty’s obvious love of the “noble savage” trope. But as much as Flaherty might have been taking his own agenda and pre-conceived notions with him to the Canadian Arctic, but he also brought a camera, and the fact of the matter is that the footage he captured is pretty much all the videographic record of Inuit life...
Man with a Movie Camera
a.k.a. the city symphony Dir. Dziga Vertov, 68 min., 1929 Documenting a day in the life of a city, Man with a Movie Camera has no intertitles, no overarching narrative, and no professional actors. This experimental documentary—one of the most lauded entries in the “city symphony” genre—explores everywhere from a hospital to busy street corners, subverting expectations and traditional narrative structures at every turn. The incredibly innovative and playful editing is the real star of the show.
The Cameraman’s Revenge
a.k.a. the one with the bugs Dir. Ladislas Starewicz, 13 mins., 1912 Questions still remain regarding the exact method by which Starewicz manipulated and posed the dead bugs he used in his stop-motion “flea circus” films (ironically, no fleas), but the end result is undeniable: eerie, intriguing, and oddly charming. This cynical tale of an unhappy beetle marriage is genuinely one of my favorite things in the world. With intertitles like “Mr. Beetle should have guessed that the aggressive gras...
The Adventures of Prince Achmed
a.k.a. #NotDisney Dir. Lotte Reiniger, 65 min., 1926 Though Walt Disney was already making movies by this time, the first feature-length animated film was not a Disney production (though it is hard to argue that following the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarveshe came to dominate the animated world). That title technically doesn’t go to Reiniger’s film either — currently, the oldest animated feature film is believed to be The Apostle (El Apóstol) by pioneering Argentinian animator and...
- 8 min
Silent movies should never have disappeared, but they did. The introduction of sound to motion pictures was inevitable and without question a good thing. But silent films can be evocative...
Sep 8, 2024 · A silent film is a film with no audible dialogue. They tell stories using emotion visually. Dialogue and beats can also be conveyed using title cards to signify important events or pieces of information.
Feb 11, 2024 · A silent film is a type of motion picture that does not include synchronized recorded sound or spoken dialogue.
Oct 3, 2023 · The silent film era ran from the 1890s to the late 1920s, and today we’ll be taking a look at the best silent films of the era to help get you started (or just simply for your enjoyment). If you’re a fan of Old Hollywood as a whole, check out our articles on 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, culture and fashion.
