Silent Films are Like Hard Liquor: A Guide to Silent Movies
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- Опубликовано: 30 июл 2024
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Silent films can be hard to get into when you're first starting. This video attempts to make the process a little easier by offering some tips in terms of what films to start with, as well as some dos and don'ts when watching silent movies. It's also a big celebration of silent cinema; a wonderful and exciting period in film history with some of the best movies ever made.
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Silent movies have a "vibe" that really draws me in. It's like every time you're watching one, you're getting a vision of a vanished world -- a strange, straggling survivor of an era where a substantial portion of its brethren are now forever lost to time. And then for it to be an entertaining thing of beauty on top of all of that mystique... mwah! (chef's kiss)
I think that's also what makes silent horror still so creepy. It feels all the more alien.
Perfect description
@@EyebrowCinemaagreed. Silent horror is often the scariest!
I was lucky enough to see 'Nosferatu' with a live organist performing the music. If any of you have the chance to see a silent that way, go for it.
I think this might have been the first silent feature I ever watched, and I saw it on a cheap VHS tape with no score and loved it immediately. I actually started planning to record a score for it using existing music and a cassette recorder, though I never finished that project.
(But, yes, of course, a theatrical screening with a good live music score is the absolute peak way to see a silent film. Fortunately, I live in a major city where there are frequent chances to do that. I mean, when a pandemic isn't happening.)
yohei72 it’s never too late!
@@blackswan4486 This is one of the biggest lies people keep telling us.
yohei72 how is it a lie?
I find Charlie Chaplin extremely easy to watch, because of how well it has aged. All the humour is still good, and still pretty fast paced
Yes - though Keaton's work has arguably aged even better, with its headlong action component. Either Chaplin or Keaton would be my first choice to introduce a neophyte to silent film.
Even my toddler loves Charlie. His minimal use of title cards, his physicality, and his emotional expression are such a draw. Plus, Chaplin composed his own soundtracks. Music makes or breaks a silent film.
it's so much about pacing. It actually goes to show that people have probably always had short attention spans but most media hasn't catered to that until recently with social media... Charlie chaplin being a success on tiktok is not far fetched lol
one word "GREED" how could you give Eric Von Strohiem the brush? Shame on you!
I actually saw Nosferatu at a silent movie theatre last weekend. The experience was legitimately magical
Coming from an oldster who has seen more than a thousand silent movies, I have to praise you for "getting" it about how to watch them. This is all on-point advice. One that I would add, is -- if it is humanly possible to do so -- see these films in a real theater projected from a real film print. The quality of the viewing experience, the immersion in the darkness, the reinforcement of having an audience around you picking up on subtle expressions and cueing laughter and other reactions really helps you zone in on what's going on.
Next time my small art-house cinema is having its monthly Silentfilm with small orchestration, I'll be there!
I remember Nosfuratu being played at a local theature with live music. I still regret not seeing it.
I disagree with his advice ab music, if u can find the right album/albums to go along with a movie it can still work for example, Kid A and OK Computer by Radiohead go along perfectly with Metropolis
I remember I got to see The General starring Buster Keaton at my little theater. The funniest part was I was ROTFL. It wasn't because of Buster's shenanigans. It was because halfway through the movie my friend's cell phone goes off and he picked up the phone and started talking! My other friend was mortified and shushed him! He did take his call out to the lobby. I found it funny because there were hardly any people in there. And you won't miss the dialog since it's a silent movie anyway! 😂
Towards the dawn of "talkies" some silent films were so sophisticated and well-made they made the early talkies look ridiculous. It's no wonder that some people thought that talkies were "just a fad."
This is on-point. The cinema's visual sophistication in 1927-1929 reached a peak of artistry that still can be argued to be the best ever.
@@OuterGalaxyLounge I watched Fritz Lang's "M" yesterday, and I marveled at the cinematography of it. It's a sound/talkie film, but it retained all of the visual mastery of Lang's best silent ones. I think the best early "talkies" in America were the ones by Ernst Lubitsch. He made some early musicals with Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald that are stunning.
Yes, the earliest talkies often seem older than the late silents, because they're so stiff and clunky, and the silents are so fluid and graceful.
It's instructive to compare the two versions of Hitchcock's "Blackmail," which was both his last silent and his first talkie. The more widely available sound version is a daring experiment, but often awkward and half-baked. The silent is remarkably powerful, visually and emotionally, and at once simple and graceful - one of my favorite silents. It was hard to see for generations, but fortunately, it's recently been released on a blu ray by Kino Lorber with both versions.
@@yohei72 I haven't seen the silent version of Blackmail so I'll have to look for it.
I love films by F.W. Murnau. It is such a shame that he died so young. He was so incredibly talented, and nearly all of his films were silent classics.
We can only wonder how film history may have been different had Murnau lived. You mentioned correctly how the early sound era was incredibly awkward, but based on his innovations in movies like Sunrise, I imagine he'd have been able to adapt to the tech more quickly than his peers. Shame we'll never have those works.
@@EyebrowCinema Ernst Lubitsch made some of the best "talkie" motion pictures for Paramount, so you know that he adapted very well.
An odd stragedy that I used was to start from the very beginning of cinema and move forward in time. The 1890s and 1900s are very short and easy to watch, especially the works of Georges Méliès. Then I eased my way through the 1910s with Chaplin films and feature lengths and by the time I got to the 1920s, it all just seemed natural.
Same
Hey, I thought I was the only one that did. :)
In fact I do the same for all films, year by year, month by month of release. I enjoy how the process evolves over time. I'll go from the very early to around 1990, then start over again with ones I've missed.
I did the same. Going chronologically helps you notice when the filmmakers discover new techniques.
I love the early shorts-it is amazing to realize that silent shorts were being made while Victoria was still on the throne. I seem to recall that there is film of her in her state carriage for her Diamond Jubilee. Her funeral was filmed-King Edward VII actually paused the funeral procession in order to allow the camera to get a good shot including himself and Kaiser Wilhelm, a scant few years before the outbreak of WWI. There is Pathe newsreel footage of a youngish Winston Churchill, while he was Home Secretary, during the Siege of Sydney Street.
@jaredjams4267I have a show where we do exactly this, and have playlists of highlights from each year! youtube.com/@oneweekoneyear9891
when Harold Lloyd runs through a door and is faced by guys holding guns he has a a shocked look on his face and turns and runs back Spielberg and Lucas used this gag in various version in the Indiana Jones movies
Ah, I hadn't thought of that, but that makes a lot of sense. Good catch.
John Landis even borrowed this gag twice in his movies: Eddie Murphy in trading places (1983), and Steve Martin in three amigos (1986).
Excellent video. I’ve spent this year getting into silent films. So much genius. Been recommending The Kid to everyone. Good point of entry.
They biffed it hard with that music in THE LODGER.
They certainly did. I still remember my jaw hitting the floor when the singing started.
The worst soundtrack ever was by far a Metropolis version with cheesy techno music in it.
@@gabrielegagliardi3956 fucking _y-i-k-e-s_
Devil's advocate moment: I often actually really appreciate silent movies mixed with modern soundtracks. You don't want them presented as the criterion, gold-standard, historically-accurate version to watch, but it's actually a brand new artistic creation, much like a mashup of two different songs into one remix creates a new work of art from elements that didn't originally go together. If someone wants to put together a "Nosferatu" with heavy metal soundtrack (which exists... I own it), or give D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance" a thoughtfully-curated Beatles soundtrack, I don't see anything wrong with that provided it's advertised as a sort of artistic experiment.
@@gabrielegagliardi3956 You must be talking of the Giorgio Moroder version from the '80s. It had electronic music by Moroder (one of the big songwriters and record producers of the decade) and a collection of original songs by major pop artists of the time. It wouldn't be my choice for how to present the movie, but I don't think it's that terrible. And it deserves some credit for bringing the film to a wider audience than would have ever seen it otherwise.
Funny, I started watching silent films in my early teens, and I never found them the slightest bit difficult. I loved them from the first shot.
I went right into Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari without easing myself into it. I'm glad I did though because I consider those two movies my favorite of all time. I do agree that silent films take some time to adjust when you're so used to the dialogue heavy releases of modern films. The pace is so different but once you become acclimated to it, you realize the cinematic significance of the medium.
Well put. Nosferatu and Caligari are fantastic entry points. No amount of time passing diminishes the horror imagery in those two masterpieces.
As a huge fan of silent cinema, this advice is all pretty spot on! The only one I have some minor qualms with is “don’t add your own soundtrack”. While I think it’s strange to add your own soundtrack to a piece with one built in, these films weren’t made with specified music accompaniments, and so technically any score you listen to alongside the film is ‘added’. The key is to find scores that fit the mood the film is trying to convey, I suppose.
some films were sent to theatres with attached sheet music-many filmmakers _did_ have specific sounds in mind.
Beautiful video. One thing that really helped me is to learn about the historic context of the films, these guys were really pioneers and we are lucky to be able to watch the birth of an art form. Read about the directors, influences , see the movies with the first use of certain techniques, etc.
I've been watching silent and B&W movies since I could sit up and watch the TV. Anyone who cant sit through a movie bc its one or the other simply doesn't love film.
And the Pre-Codes---their saucy use of double entendre is much wittier, IMO, than almost any unrestricted film of later eras. And some of the really early musicals were so bizarre, in a good, but quite compelling way lol.
The Man Who Laughs is a great intro to silent drama, too. Not only is it surprisingly modern in tone and pacing, but it's just a damn good, high-tension story.
Was also the main inspiration for a certain Batman character...!
That whole thing you said about people fast-forwarding movies still fucks with me. People literally gain nothing but a faster run-time doing that. The film-makers want you to experience that time in full. Make enough time for it, or pause it.
Needless to say I was stunned when homeboy told me he did that with most everything he watched.
The great silent comedies from Chaplin, Keaton, etc are timeless, they still totally work today!
I am definitely a huge fan of silent German films, particularly Fritz Lang, although ironically my introduction to silent films as a kid was not with European cinema, but American cinema, when I first saw the silent version of THE LOST WORLD (1925), which wasn't just the first full-length giant monster movie but also oddly enough was also the world's first inflight movie (for the German Air Service, ironically enough). I was in my pre-teens back in the mid-to-late 1990's and didn't have an understanding of cinema when I saw that film, so I was kinda thrown off and my dad had to explain the film's status, but as I learned more about the history of classic cinema going into my late teens and 20's and was growing up with watching classic films on VHS and Turner Classic Movies, and later taking film appreciation and filmmaking classes both in high school and college, I was utterly mind-blown, and it amazes me that the period from the 2000's to the 2020's is when so many silent landmarks were and are gradually becoming centennial films (I sure hope I live long enough to see certain favorite films from the 1940's, 50's and 60's at least turn centennial). Here in my hometown of Asheville, NC, we actually had several silent films made here, namely THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN (1921) which tragically have become lost, but I hope you check out our regional film historian Frank Thompson's work. His books are definitely the last word on the subject of silent regional filmmaking in the Southeast US.
I started watching silent films when I was four. I stumbled across The Gold Rush on TV by chance, and I was immediately enthralled by it. There was something uncanny and removed about what I was watching, but that's what I loved about it. I still view silent cinema in this way - - it's like peering into a mirror universe, almost.
It is interesting that I have such an adverse reaction when I hear people talk about how they fast forward through movies and then say they didn't enjoy them, blaming the film. As I know that for a very long time. Silent era films were shown regularly as sped up. So often that people just started to assume it was how they were meant to be seen.
All because before sound on the same filmstrip as the picture forced standardisation of the framerate to 24 fps (the slowest they could get "acceptable" sound from), films were produced in whatever speed the filmmakers felt like. So silent films were made in maybe 16 fps but a lazy or uninformed projectionist could just thread it up as a 24 fps film and it'd play at 1.5x speed. Comedies looked extra goofy so they were more often stuck with that sped up look. And this was standard practice for decades, colouring peoples expectations of what old silent films were. It's only quite recently that playback of the classics on home video and in cinemas has started to correct these speed issues.
Interestingly, the first time I watched silent films I really loved them. Same goes for drinking Hard Liquor.
I suppose if you start with the right film (or booze), that helps. Do you remember what you started with?
@@EyebrowCinema Rum? Jack Daniels?
And I've been watching silent movies since I was a kid.
@@SoleMan117 Toby, age 3, alcoholic
@@estebanacostaolivera3232 Now, now.
Back in the early 90's I went to the San Diego Symphony where they played the recently discovered original orchestra scores while showing 3 silent movies that had just been cleaned up and rehabbed, a Buster Keeton film, The Three Musketeers, and a Mary Pickford film... What an experience. That's the way to really appreciate the films.
I'd recommend King Vidor's THE CROWD for drama lovers out there. THE BIG PARADE, about the Great War, is also excellent.
I got a taste for silent film in my teens-before I ever had access to them (thank you TCM Silent Sundays!), I was devouring everything I could read about them-was obsessed with Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish (still am actually lol). Along with just loving them on their own merits, it is also fascinating to be able to watch-for the first time in history!-actual moving pictures of real live people from a time long before my birth, even at my advanced age. So many of the early silents were filmed on the cheap, with people and sets dressed pretty much as they really would have been at that time IRL. Even when it gets into the more sophisticated era, ie Greta Garbo, the Fairbanks extravaganzas, etc, the costume and set choices say so much about aesthetic taste of the day-I adore the Gloria Swanson/Cecil B DeMille over the top fashion statements, such as in "Why Change Your Wife". "The Adventures Of Prince Achmed" is the most charming animated film I've ever seen.
Re binge watching-are you kidding lol, as soon as silent film became readily available on VHS and then DVD, and now streaming, I ate it up like popcorn, couldn't get enough! The ready access was a miracle to me, and I was ready, after years of devouring every book and documentary I could access, about silent film! God Bless Kevin Brownlow!
Two excellent documentary series-both involving Kevin Brownlow and excellent musical scoring by the great Carl Davis-are first, Hollywood:A Celebration Of American Silent Film--perfectly narrated by James Mason---and second, Cinema Europe:The Other Hollywood.
Anyway, to each his own of course, but I never had to acquire a taste for silent film-the taste was developed for years while awaiting access-and I've been devouring with gusto ever since:)
I was 10 when I was shown the original, silent, "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" in school. I loved it, not just because I was a fan of the Incredible Hulk (Tv show AND comic), but just of how they told a story with no dialog outside the few cards.
I just saw my first silent film tonight. I watched the 2015 Cohen Film Collection version of Sherlock Jr. I was a little scared about watching my first silent film but your video really helped me. I learned a lot. Thank you so much.
Glad to hear! I actually caught a screening of Sherlock Jr. that was mostly populated by first year film students, most of which hadn't seen a silent film, and the auditorium was full of laughter. Warmed my heart.
@@EyebrowCinema I had watched a few silents (Chaplin, Lloyd, Caligari, Nosferatu, Griffith, a few Keaton's, Bunuel) before I watched Sherlock Jr alone at night on youtube. I'd argue that it propably is one of the best entrypoints for Silents. It's so inventive, charming, thoroughly engaging and thought-provoking in such a brief runtime. It's the first movie I recommend people when it comes to silent film.
@@nilsgloistein5706 Bunuel was, in fact, a huge fan of Sherlock Jr. and wrote about it.
6:36
i couldn't help myself throwing my fists up in the air shouting "YES"
I found that the best way to watch Silent Cinema is on a big screen with a audience - even if that's in a classroom. It makes it so much more enjoyable as you hear and experience other people's reactions.
I was working as a teaching assistant for a first year film class right before the pandemic hit and the last screening before everything shutdown was Sherlock Jr. Was such a delight to hear a room of undergrad students laugh to silent cinema.
I think Harold Loyd was an influence on the character of Clark Kent, who was originally written as a clumsy nebbishy disguise for Superman. In later years, they dropped that aspect of the character.
Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel (the creators) did use mr.lloyd as an influence.
Thank you for the wonderful introduction! This is going to become my new hobby, definitely.
Great video definitely some great tips, which really aren't readily available online for those getting into silent film. I definitely agree the comedies are best to start but I'd also add that once you finish those and are ready to branch out, start with Sunrise. Everything about it minus the lack of voices still holds up to more modern cinema so well. It has everything... Humor, romance, happiness, and even a little horror.
Thanks for posting the video on r/criterion!
Nice point, Joshua. The way Sunrise experiments with sound is also really bold and still holds up to modern filmmaking. And my pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it.
A far as Hollywood goes my faves are 1925's 'The Big Parade' with John Gilbert and Renée Adorée; Ramon Novarro in M-G-M's first blockbuster 'Ben-Hur' truly astonishing visuals and new technology such as the miniature tracking shot combining the real portion with a miniature to make a grand set even more grand plus allowing the camera to pan giving even more the illusion of realism. In 1926's 'Son of the Sheik' with Rudolph Valentino playing father and son there is a sequence (accomplished in the camera) which shows Rudolph as the father putting his arm around his Son, also Rudolph. These special effect feats in the Silent Era would not be accomplished again until early CGI. Mary Pickford used it in her 1921 film 'Little Lord Fauntleroy' in which she plays the boy, with long curls, and his mother as well and it is astonishing when they seem to touch one another using a single shot and not in back and forth cuts as in Disney's 1961 'The Parent Trap.' I also love the four stories of intolerance in 'Intolerance' 1916 and its use of parallel editing and intercutting between centuries which are not told in parallel fashion but cut back and forth increasing faster and faster until each century reaches its climax. This is my go to Griffith film and as the presenter here says also Griffith's 1912 one reeler 'The Musketeers of Pig Alley' is a good place to start after the comedies. Oh and it's considered by many the first gangster film. Douglas Fairbanks 1920 'The Mark of Zorro' is fast passed with brilliant acrobatics by Fairbanks. Joan Crawford's 1928 "Our Dancing Daughters" is a great lesson to late 20's college age kids and the dangers of alcohol, jealously, domestic abuse and much more. Anita Page's performance as the "bad" girl in 'Daughters' who gets too drunk during the climax gives a fantastic performance throughout the film before spectacularly falling downstairs to her death in the film's tragic climax. But don't worry all was handled in safety, Page lived until about 2009 which left Marceline Day as the oldest surviving adult star of the late silent period barring Diana Clary (Baby Peggy) who died fairly recently. Actualites started the twentieth century but quickly with Melies 1902 'A Trip to the Moon' painfully color stenciled frame by frame and the tinted, toned and stenciled 1903 'Great Train Robbery' began a true narrative form for film or if preferred, movies. Their one reel structure was the beginning of long film as earlier films in Edison's Kinetoscope, a peep show device, allowed for no more than sixty seconds of actualites made in his studio which limited the actors before his camera with a dark background. The French Lumiére Brothers succeeded in 1895 with the Cinematographe which not only could go outside and take movies anywhere it could be changed into a projector as well to shown them too much like a Camera "Transformer"! I also love 1927's 'Wing's with Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers. The film boasts some spectacular dogfights now on blu-ray with their tinting and Handschiegel color process requirements restored. A brilliant and touching film. I also love the German cinema mentioned, 'Caligari' 1919/20, 'Nosferatu, 1922' 'Metropolis, 1927' Hitchcock's 'The Lodger' 1927 with the brilliant actor Ivor Novello as the young suspect befriended a young lady. Also later Lillian Gish silents especially 'Way Down East' with a young Richard Barthelmess are a fave. Her 1928 'The Wind' with Swedish star Lars Hanson is a standout of late silent perfection of dramatic narrative. These films I mentioned here are brilliantly restored for blu-ray and can be seen as they were meant to be and for the most part the proper music for atmosphere and mood. Also, I agree my faves are Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, and Charlie Chase made some very funny two reelers in the mid twenties! The oldest surviving two-tone Technicolor feature 'Toll Of The Sea' with Anna May Wong, Asian American actress, always gets to my heart! Quite a bit is lost but enough remains to tell the story and show off Technicolor's early palette, although limited until 1932, still packs a punch when one can see a properly balanced version of it without the purplish skin tones seen on many RUclips offerings. I am so sorry guys, this is way too long. Let me know if I need to remove this post! I started too as a teenager and I loved the finding silent films I had not seen and I spin if they've been restored! I've so many books on their history it's pathetic! Anyway friends, happy watching whatever films you choose to start with. The guy here give very good advice on how to start. Doug!
Love all the films you've mentioned-have a soft spot for Crawford's silent flapper films, and always, always, anything with Lillian Gish or Mary Pickford-Pickford's real life story is amazing, especially her business acumen! She was outfoxing hardened businessmen while still a teen, becoming the highest paid actor in Hollywood, with autonomy over her films, before becoming one of the founding members of United Artists, along with Fairbanks, Chaplin, and DW Griffith-that's when the established producers said in horror "The lunatics have taken over the asylum" lol. I really really love Gloria Swanson's costume dramas with Cecil B DeMille-what young Hollywood considered to be the height of sophistication lol. Lillian Gish was still acting in her 90s, on stage and screen (she almost steals the movie "Night Of The Hunter" from Robert Mitchum).
One of my favorite European-French to be precise-silents is "Kean", about the English actor Edmund Kean. I love the dancing sequence-frenetic with rapid cutting-and the Russian actor in the title role-Ivan Mosjoukine-is so handsome and charismatic.
I'm sooo glad with the updated score for the Cameraman Blu Ray! The one on my DVD was horrendous, but I still loved owning this movie. So yeah now it's even better :D
Bro.. thanks for all these tips. You speak nothing but the truth. Love you personally and insight.. please keep doing more vids on 1920+ movies maybe a review of Frankenstein 1931.. keep them coming
Barely finished watching a gripping 1926 gangster/mystery Russian movie and _this_ gets recommended-excellent advice!
I'm often at a loss to offer suggestions to friends who have _never_ watched _any_ silent movies (“It's the Cambrian explosion of cinema! - Excuse me?”).
I shall try those, thank you. Your editing is very good.
This encourages me to watch more silent films. I've watched some, but I never got into it. Thanks for making this inspring video!
I voiced this one. You might like it.
ruclips.net/video/4Ot3dA_6dvU/видео.html
@@christopherangelbrannan5479 That sounds really good! I still haven't watched the original version, so I'll go for that first and then check out your recreation.
LOVE THIS. Thanks for making it.
My pleasure :)
Interesting that you note the speed thing. While doing 1.5x as a rule is a sin, I think misunderstanding the "Speed" of silent is a key reason why a lot of people dislike them. Depending on the time of release (later films obviously were more polished), silents ran at variable speeds, often coming with instruction manuals for hand-cranked projectors, and watching them projected at a set speed can suck the impact out of them. Most releases tend to fix this and adjust the display for the desired pace, but every now and again you'll find a crappy DVD or stream of a silent film running at a flat 16 fps and it just bloviates the whole thing
I think the more common problem is that "cheap" releases run them at 24 or 25 fps like they show sound movies, either because they do not know better oder just dont care or they do/did not have the technical means to scan it at 16 fps or even variable speed. The latter being mostly the problem for re-releases or TV releases before the computer age, it was not easy or even impossible to speed down the movie. Only theatres with a specially equipped projector could run prints at 16 fps. Therefore many people think the "funny" way people move in silent movies was "normal"
Great video, but I have to say I started with horror first. Love silent film and I totally agree with your comments re: The Gold Rush voice over and The Lodger soundtrack. You should have more subscribers. Another suggestion: if you get the opportunity to see a live musical accompaniment to silent movie, go for it!
I have seen live musical accompaniment for shorts, but I've yet to do so for a full feature. Loved the experience. My own entry point may have been comedy, but horror is probably the other great genre to start with, especially since the films lean so heavily on visuals and atmosphere.
My first silent film is nosferatu, and to this day i love the film, but i also wouldn’t recommend it to a newcomer, because i acknowledge that the only reason i liked it then is because i was already a fan of earlier movies, even if it was my first pure silent film
Don’t watch with a drunk crowd
The first silent film I saw was Nosteratu. It was part of a Halloween double feature - with Night of The Living Dead. Because of the sarcastic comments from the audience I was unable to appreciate the horror and terror of both films. When I saw them - properly - with a quiet appreciative audiences I realized what I had missed. Nosferatu scared the bejesus out of me
That goes with pretty much any film in my opinion. It may be fun to watch a classic you love with drunk friends or even strangers. But I don't think I have ever fallen in love with a movie in that setting.
@@jmalmsten Agreed, though it's a great way to see some "so bad it's good" cult movie. (For my money, watching "Plan 9 from Outer Space" at home by yourself is a bore.)
I’ve only just started to be interested in silent films, and it was definitely an unusual journey. My first silent (aside from watching a couple Chaplin shorts in history class for school) was a very bad English film about Queen Katheryn Howard (I was deep in my Tudor phase at the time) The pacing was horrendous, there was a lot of still images and awkward standing and I was ready to write off the entire genre. Then, by absolute chance (I was actually trying to get into more Golden Age stuff) I found the blog Moviessilently which is.... amazing. It gave me so much new info, examples, and debunkings of myths about silent film, that I decided I had to watch one. I did a pretty unusual path with them. I didn’t start with comedies, to start with. Instead I watched A Trip To the Moon, because I love the movie Hugo, and then I watched A Fool There Was, because I liked Theda Bara’s aesthetic. It’s interesting because moviessilently specifically described A Fool There Was as one that’s not for a first-timer, but despite the melodramatic story, I really liked it! (Maybe because it was only an hour long, and once again, Theda Bara killing dudes with her vampiric ways is very fun.)
Granted this may have been because the version I’d found (on RUclips) was scored VERY WELL but the videos’ creator and gave off a great atmosphere.
My first silent film was City Lights starring Charlie Chaplin. I was probably 8 when I saw it. I didn't watch Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd until I was an adult. The silent comedies are my favorite.
Great primer for beginners - except, perhaps, for a few unnecessary and poorly chosen explatives.
I might mention than many youtube silent movies do not include a music soundtrack which is very annoying. I just finished watching SAFETY LAST scored by Carl Davis which was quite good.
Id like to see a list of the finest silent movies on youtube that include appropriately scored soundtracks so I dont keep downloading silent SILENT movies...
Brilliant advice, thank you
I love "The Crowd" (1928) by King Vidor 👍
i love watching silent films and just imagining the crazy ways editors would create practical effects without computers or large budgets, or how actors would give some of the most incredible performances solely with their body language. those are elements that have mostly been lost from modern cinema, and while i still enjoy a lot of movies that come out today, it's rare to find films that mimic what made silent films special.
The Gold Rush is a great silent movie to start with
Musical accompaniment for silents. Done right, is magical. Saw and heard maestro Wurlitzer silent organist Gaylord Carter performing in his '80s. It added and embellished the experience.
That sounds wonderful.
First I learned how to watch old black and white talkies and only then I started to watch silent movies. Both were hard to watch for me at the very beginning, but then I proceeded just watching them. It’s that simple. The more you watch, the more adjusted you become. Of course it’s better to begin with the best silent movies. Metropolis and Nibelungs are just magnificent and I really enjoyed them, as well as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin movies. Very sad that many people nowadays wouldn’t watch even movies of 1980’s, not to mention silent films. They really miss so much. Lots of modern movies are crap and it’s really awesome to diversify them with silent movies when you have nothing to watch
I'd add Mabel Normand and Rosco Arbuckle to the list of recomendable silent comedy stars.
Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle made several shorts together. I'd prefer to them as "The Mabel and Fatty Series".
@@melissacooper8724 Oh yes, those are good! Everyone watch those.
sometimes modern sounding music helps, like Air's soundtrack for a trip to the moon, but it's also instrumental
Sometimes modern music ain't bad for silent films, sometimes is terrible, I remember a Metropolis version with some unknown techno "musician" in it. Terrible. Air have great gear and at least can play
It was still photos of the stars of silent cinema back in the 1980’s that got me interested in silent films, along with Kevin Brownlow’s documentary series Hollywood!
10:04 - this Harold Lloyd routine was recreated by the Three Stooges in "Three Smart Saps" (1942)...
Watch with your kids! They're surprisingly apt to get pulled in by a lack of talking--and if you think about it, a lot of cartoons out there had sparse dialogue and kept focused on the motion and atmosphere, which is what the medium excels at anyway. If your child loves the gags in Looney Tunes, they'll probably love the three men who inspired our favorite tropes. My toddler LOVES Charlie, and he always laughs when Charlie's put in the feeding machine.
Speaking of which, I actually really like the "dubbed" Gold Rush. I guess it feels like those classic Goofy shorts and it just fits so well.
This is great advice!
I'd watched The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari twice over the past 40 years, but it wasn't until re-discovering the brilliance of Buster Keaton in Sherlock Jr. that I realised silent gems should be a cultivated taste, and savoured appropriately.
To me, Keaton's work is pure genius, and withstands the test of time. As brilliant as Chaplin was, and as amazing is his life story, the humour of his comedies is somewhat dated, somewhat like reading Mark Twain in the 21st century, and not entirely relatable.
Thanks and kudos to you for codifying this list of suggestions for enjoying silent works of early cinema.
PS: Yes! Works from other countries and cultures should be sought, and enjoyed.
PPS: Very early silent work, such as Meet Me At The Fountain, also have their own special joys.
1:18 - I would also add the earliest films of Laurel & Hardy (1927-29) to that list...
VERY GOOD VIDEO, I LOVE SILENT MOVIES! thanks for the video
Hey, thanks Leonardo. This was fun to make!
3:12 - believe-it-or-else: that is UNCLE FESTER of the Addams Family!!
The only time I ever watched a film in a faster speed than it was was that I watched parts of Revenge of the Fallen faster bc I just wanted that movie to end (I was doing a project where I watched all the Transformers movies)
Just wanted to note that setting something to 1.5x speed doesn’t cut the time in half, it cuts it by 33%
If you watch the Brownlow documentary series, Hollywood, from 1980, with interviews from those involved in the silent film era, you get a lot of background understanding of how the films were made. With that, the art of watching becomes easier or understandable because you have a background on the films that assist in viewing them. The documentary is on RUclips.
Yes!! I'm not an expert on film by any means, but I am a HUGE history nerd, and I've loved silent films from the first one I saw (Chaplin's Dough And Dynamite). The comedies are definitely some of the best places to start, in my opinion, since they are so engaging, but ultimately I think silent films are underappreciated these days. Also, I think it would be interesting to see a modern director try to make a new version of a silent film (no dialogue except in title cards, but with a score built in instead of played by musicians at the theatre. I think it'd provide a fun opportunity for filmmakers to play with pure cinema).
I started with Metropolis as my introduction to silent cinema, which was a bad idea and only got through the first 30 minutes. Though a while later I saw The Gold Rush(not the 1942 version) which I absolutely loved. That film really got me into silent films. My favorites have to be City Lights and The Passion of Joan of Arc. I tried watching Metropolis a few years later and I loved it!
The most recent restoration of "Metropolis" does wonders for it. I feel like it's finally (again) the great film I always wanted it to be, but it never quite was before.
I understand that...Metropolis is a tough one to start with.
I’m watching metropolis rn and needed a break after 30 mins And now watching this video
I love silent films. I always recommend Broken Blossoms and Shen Nu…such beautiful acting!
One thing that I would personally recommend is to watch those movies in cinemas, when there's the chance. They get a whole other feeling when played to an audience that consists of more than one person and with a live band.
Seen almost 400 silent movies and I hate shorts =)
I would rather recommend starting with good quality well restored films that have digital Blu-ray versions, like the stuff you can find on Criterion. When you get used to it, you can freely watch and enjoy masterpieces like The Crowd, The Wind, other Sjostrom/Murnau films without good restoration.
And never forget to maximize "cinema experience". Dark room, no pauses, just sit or lie still for two hours.
this is a pretty good video, why does this only has 7570 views?
Agreed.
well done!!
Just discovered your channel. Good job man. Only a matter of time before it blows up. What Harold Loyd movie was that at 4:59 ? With all the colt single actions?
"Only a matter of time before it blows up"
Here's hoping! That shot is from Lloyd's 1920 short An Eastern Westerner. It's pretty awesome.
Eyebrow Cinema thanks
Fantastic video
Thank you!
Harold Lloyd blew part of one hand off working on special effects. He used gloves and prosthetics on the hand to hide the injury
Damn! Now that’s badass!
he was only injured, wears the glove through ‘Safety Last’, but for the life of me, the film is so good that i never could focus on his hands alone.
This is a beautiful comment section. Good job 🖤🖤
I started with Phantom of the Opera and quickly fell in love, I technically still count as a new comer, as I've only seen 2 (Phantom of the Opera and The General) I want to see Chaplin but I want to
Funny curiosity about your comment regarding watching movies in fast-forward: in the silent era, there was no fixed and consistent frame rate like we have today, and it was pretty common for theaters to speed up the movie a bit, so that they could show more movies!
This makes determining the right frame rate and speed to watch silent films often a pretty difficult task, a hot debate among film historians.
Your comment is still valid though. One should not watch movies on fast-forward.
Speaking of silent films, I remember reading about some well-respected silent film director who died unexpectedly. I don't think his movies won any Oscars (the first Oscars were awarded as the silent film era was rapidly ending), but contemporary film critics called him "the first of the immortals". They genuinely thought that a hundred years hence, film fans would be talking about this guy the way people did about Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.
They were wrong. It's not that his film dated badly, it's that they didn't survive. NONE of the reportedly great films this guy made survived. And were it not for Google, I would not even know the name of this man----George Loane Tucker.
I was initiated to silent movies with Charlie Chaplin, when I was child (the humour doesn't age) ^^
The next I have to see, are two remaining movies with Marie Doro (it was so complicated to order the DVD from USA to France).
I actually got into silent films when I first saw an chen andalou as a child, then most of conrad viedt’s movies, I’ve never liked comedies so if you don’t either, start with genres you do like!
Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters or William Haines in Brown of Harvard were good ones or Marion Davies in The Patsy.
Very nicely made. I t saddens me that Roscoe "Fatty Arbuckle" is not among the, Mount Rushmore of pioneer geniuses. Arbuckle was was amazing! an incredible, uniquely talented performer He grew with Chaplin and mentored Buster Keaton. Scandal buried him
It was a crime that he was thrown to the wolves by Hollywood PTB as a scapegoat, when the man was acquitted, unanimously if I recall correctly.
Silent movies are great with a great music score. See "Thief of Bagdad " and Douglas Fairbanks " The Black Pirate " I think or 3 musketeers
I have a question: where can these films be found? DVDs are not available for many of them
Is there a way too see them leagally online? With the right soundtrack and restored?
Where do film students watch them? Thank you very much, brilliant video by the way
Great question. Streaming services like Criterion Channel tend to be the best for classic cinema (they're even running a spotlight on German Expressionism right now) and Netflix can sometimes surprise you with what they have. If there's ever a specific movie you're looking for, you can always try RUclips. Yeah, it's a roll of the dice in terms of quality, but sometimes you can find proper restorations with the right score. Services like Kanopy or Hoopla (which are accessed through local libraries) are also worth a look.
Thanks for a great question and for your kind words.
Also, if you have an actual disc player, Netflix's mail delivery service still exists and has a vastly wider and deeper catalog than their streaming service, including quite a lot of silents.
I would also suggest finding an independent or art-house movie theater that shows silent movies. Seeing these films on the big screen adds so much to the experience compared to watching them on television....
Great point.
I have only been able to watch Buster Keaton films
excellent!☺
one thing about the digital versions of these film, they did not compensate the frame rate which should slow them down 25%
I'm totally "At Home" with a good beverage popcorn And a really Good silent Film.☺️
I really recommend the Fatty Arbuckle Comedies and the Mack Sennet Keystone comedies. I suppose I'm very lucky as when I was a kid we grew up on these on TV to me they were just like the cartoons I used to watch such as Tom and Jerry or the Looney toons.
I'd certainly like to see some Arbuckle. He's a figure I've read a lot about but seen precious little of.
@@EyebrowCinema I was lucky enough a few years ago to get his complete out put along side the Mack Sennet stuff. It's very difficult ( if not impossible) to get on Blu-ray, I've got remastered DVD collections. I think there should be a law forcing those who hold copyright on these early films or if they are in public domain that they should be re-released every few years on the latest format.
For anyone that likes FX driven specticals, check out Fritz Lang's Destiny. You won't want to blink for fear of missing a single frame.
I have watched the occasional film with soundtrack from other films by Herrmann, Rozsa or Barry. Probably because the film had an organ score or just a piano that did nothing whatsoever for the film and actual made it feel sterile. An organ score robs a film of depth and I'm sure it wasn't the intention of the film-makers but the budget of a small town exhibitor. Carl Davis' scores for the Photoplay restorations were great. You might also want to link or add to the video, two great TV documentaries series of the '80s, both by Kevin Brownlow; 'Hollywood' (1980) and 'Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood' (1995). You could even provide links and these are on youtube.
GMTA lol, I also recommended those before reading your post :) I rewatch those documentaries regularly, they are fantastic!
The actress in Joan of Arc is quite mesmerizing. What a face. Also, I agree that the narrated version of The Gold Rush is terrible. Chaplin ruins his own movie so only watch the original version.
Movie at 15:16? Also I've seen the wind orchestrated over by a band called Helictite and it's in my top 10 movies because it captures that isolation strange agoraphobia that must've niggled at anybody that moved to the frontier
If you mean the shot of the woman, that's Metropolis.
I agree with unadulterated initial viewings, but sometimes a contemporary soundtrack can create a worthwhile "extra credit" experience, as with pairing Dark Side of the Moon with Wizard of Oz. For example, Metropolis slays when set to Prince's Purple Rain soundtrack. Mashing up is its own art form.
I hear you, but that kind of soundtrack would ruin the immersiveness into the historical era which is part of the experience for me.
what's your opinion on pausing on title cards I love silent films and sometimes I get a long title card and I pause so I can read the whole thing (
I watch on original speed)
I have the Lodger put out by the criterion collection it does not have that audio my 1st time seeing a silent movie was on TCM 30yrs ago Victor Sjostroms The Outlaw and his Wife a beautiful film to watch and a wonderful story I was hooked Europe was far ahead of America in using a different style of acting for the camera then acting live on stage their movies were shown throughout America with English translations, if it had not been for WW1 I believe they would have continued to be ahead.I would like to add I think a good starting place for silent movies is try Mary Pickford she was very innovative in American cinema, I could go on and on but I leave here enjoy these films they are works of art and be treasures 😊😊😊
Completely off topic but @11:18 what song was that lol.
“3 hour hate crime” is the most accurate description of that film I’ve ever heard
Credit where it's due, I believe that line was inspired by Kyle Kallgren and his video on The Birth of a Nation.
@@EyebrowCinemaI’ll give it a watch
Wouldn't you need to have the speed at 2x in order to watch movies in half the time?