/film/ - FILM

This character always seemed a tad fruity to me since the play is often on Broadway. But this silent film was better than I expected. Excellent musical score and a nice colour surprise in the second act.

I guess this story originates the trope of the madman playing an organ? It's also used in Dr. Phibes, Bluebeard, and probably some others.

I want to watch Roald Amundsens Sydpolsferd (1910-1912) but it has no music track. its a Norwegian exploration adventure documentary

what can you suggest to listen as I watch?

>>6652

Maybe the audio from Great White Silence. I don't know what kind of music they used but it's a similar kind of movie.

Or how about Grieg? He was Norwegian and lived in the late 1800s... you can't beat that. His music makes a good soundtrack in general.

I'll post these here

a transforming effect that only works in black and white

>>4658

Keaton. Chaplin was great but he never made anything as good as The General or The Navigator.

I thought you guys would like this list

Top Ten Obscure Silent Films (that you really should see)

http://moviessilently.com/2015/11/28/movies-silentlys-top-ten-obscure-silent-films-that-you-really-should-see/

10. Beyond the Border (1925)

Even if westerns aren’t normally your cup of sarsaparilly, you may find a lot to like about this incredibly quirky film. Wild west veteran and John Wayne mentor Harry Carey plays a sheriff who agrees to take the identity of a criminal so that his little sister will not learn of his outlaw ways. Complications obviously ensue but what really put this film over are the oddball tangents. For example, Carey finds himself accidentally quarantined after a man with a strawberry allergy is misdiagnosed with smallpox.

9. The Power of the Press (1928)

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. is an ambitious cub reporter who tries to get a scoop by pinning a murder on Jobyna Ralston. She’s innocent, of course, and the duo form a team in an attempt to track down the real culprit. Director Frank Capra was really starting to show his stuff at this point. The plot moves along at a brisk clip and the characters are both tenacious and smart. Plus, we get a gander at the vintage newspaper printing equipment, which should be fun for history geeks. (And, let’s face it, a Venn diagram of silent movie fans and history geeks would be a perfect circle.)

8. His People (1925)

Occasionally, a movie comes along that is so beautiful and so human that it takes your breath away. Rudolph Schildkraut (father of Joseph) gives the performance of a lifetime as a Russian-Jewish scholar who must make his living as a peddler when his family comes to America. As his two sons grow up, he must learn to deal with their American ways (there is a nod to Jacob and Esau) and his own attachment to the past. This is an exquisite character study with humor, empathy and some of the best acting of the silent era.

7. Eve’s Leaves (1926)

This eccentric action-comedy features one of the most independent heroines of the silent era and it’s a lot of fun too! Leatrice Joy is charming as a sailor who really, really would like to find a fella when she goes ashore in China. Consulting some love almanacs, she applies the romance test to William “Hopalong Cassidy” Boyd and decides he is the man for her. He thinks she’s nuts and so she shanghais him. The rest of the film revolves around Joy’s attempts to romance Boyd. Joy is delightful and Boyd is a good sport as the dude-in-distress. (Alas, the Chinese setting does mean that ethnic cliches are employed liberally in the film. Viewers are duly cautioned.)

6. Chicago (1927)

Before Renee Zellweger, before Ginger Rogers, the first onscreen Roxie Hart was played by Phyllis Haver, the delightful Sennett comedienne. This sassy, saucy film doesn’t need to fake the 1920s, it IS the 1920s. The satire is sharp, the wit is deadly and everyone seems to be having a great time in this spoof of murder and publicity. Cecil B. DeMille is the uncredited director (he didn’t want his name on a scandalous film while King of Kings was still in theaters) and if you only know him through his religious epics, be prepared for a revelation.

What do you guys think about the phenomenon of early female filmmakers? There's a lot of moaning about the lack of female directors now. But a century ago, when people were just starting to make narrative films, a lot of those people were women.

For some reason that changed abruptly. Women stopped directing, but why? I've read feminist explanations that sound like they're retroactively projecting ("Men couldn't handle strong liberated women so they shut them out!"). I've also read that silent films made by women were often preachy "social issue" stories. Audiences soon got tired of that.

Either way I think it's interesting. Female directors usually have a slightly different perspective, which I like.

>>10549

There are some neat little films made by women during the silent era.

I don't know what caused the change you're talking about, but I doubt it was the fact that the films talked about social issues, I mean it's not like a lot of silent films and pre-code films shied away from this type of themes.

I'd love to read where you got this information, since I really don't have an answer.

>>10550

OK I found the site. This page is a biography of Lois Weber who seems to be the biggest female director of the silent era

https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-lois-weber/

Here's the bit about social issue films

>Weber’s focus on urban social problems, rather than amusement, and on the complexities of marriage, rather than romantic courtship, was increasingly perceived as outdated, overly didactic, and dower. “Why does Miss Weber dedicate herself, her time and her equipment to the construction of simple sermons?” one reviewer complained in 1921 (“The Screen”).

Another interesting element of her career is how her output declined after she divorced her creative partner

Waxworks was less than stellar.

>>11166

Have you seen Emil Jennings in The Last Command? It's pretty damn good.

Hey cool the silent film thread got bumped

How about Lev Kuleshov ... he pioneered Soviet montage and helped start one of the first film schools. I found his first film "Engineer Prite's Project" on youtube (you'd be happier with a a better version ofc).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRINiidSHrc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lev_Kuleshov

>>11343

were you watching Unseen Cinema?

>>11373

Yeah, it's a long list, but here's what's in the Unseen Cinema set

Disc 1 - THE MECHANIZED EYE: Experiments in Technique and Form - 18 FILMS

5 Paris Exposition Films (1900)—James White

Eiffel Tower from Trocadero Palace (1900)

Palace of Electricity (1900)

Champs de Mars (1900)

Panorama of Eiffel Tower (1900)

Scene from Elevator Ascending Eiffel Tower (1900)

Captain Nissen Going through Whirpool Rapids, Niagra Falls (1901)—creators unknown

Down the Hudson (1903)—Frederick Armitage & A.E. Weed

The Ghost Train (1903)—creators unknown

Westinghouse Works, Panorama View Street Car Motor Room (1904)—G.W. "Billy" Bitzer

In Youth, Beside the Lonely Sea (c. 1924-25)—creators unknown

Melody on Parade (c. 1936)—creators unknown

La Cartomancienne (The Fortune Teller) (1932)—Jerome Hill

Pie in the Sky (1934-35)—Nykino: Elia Kazan, Ralph Steiner & Irving Lerner

Travel Notes (1932)—Walker Evans

Oil: A Symphony in Motion (1930-33)—Artkino: M.G. MacPherson & Jean Michelson

Poem 8 (1932-33)—Emlen Etting

Storm (1941-43)—Paul Burnford

Portrait of a Young Man (1925-31)—Henwar Rodakiewicz

Disc 2 - THE DEVIL’S PLAYTHING: American Surrealism - 17 FILMS

Jack and the Beanstalk (1902)—Edwin S. Porter

Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)—Edwin S. Porter

The Thieving Hand (1907)—creator unknown, Vitagraph

Impossible Convicts (1905)—G.W. "Billy" Bitzer

When the Clouds Roll By (1919)—Douglas Fairbanks & Victor Fleming (excerpt)

Beggar on Horseback (1925)—James Cruze (excerpt)

The Fall of the House of Usher (1926-27)—J.S. Watson, Jr. & Melville Webber

The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra (1927)— Robert Florey & Slavko Vorkapich

The Love of Zero (1928)—Robert Florey & William Cameron Menzies

The Telltale Heart (1928)—Charles Klein

Tomatos Another Day (1930/1933)—J.S. Watson, Jr. & Alec Wilder

The Hearts of Age (1934)— William Vance & Orson Welles

Unreal News Reels (c. 1926)—Weiss Artclass Comedies (excerpt)

The Children’s Jury (c. 1938)—attributed Joseph Cornell

Thimble Theater (c. 1938)—Joseph Cornell

Carousel: Animal Opera (c. 1938)—Joseph Cornell

Jack’s Dream (c. 1938)—Joseph Cornell

Disc 3 - LIGHT RHYTHMS: Music and Abstraction - 29 FILMS:

Le Retour à la raison (1923)—Man Ray

Ballet mécanique (1923-24)—Fernand Léger & Dudley Murphy

Anémic cinéma (1924-26)—Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp)

Looney Lens: Anamorphic People (1927)—Al Brick

Out of the Melting Pot (1927)—W.J. Ganz Studio

H20 (1929)—Ralph Steiner

Surf and Seaweed (1929-30)—Ralph Steiner

7 Vorkapich Montage Sequences (1928-37)—Slavko Vorkapich

The Furies (1934)

Skyline Dance (1928)

Money Machine (1929)

Prohibition (1929)

The Firefly— Vorkapich edit (1937)

The Firefly—MGM release version (1937)

Maytime (1937)

So This Is Paris (1926)—Ernst Lubitsch (excerpt)

Light Rhythms (1930)—Francis Bruguière & Oswell Blakeston

Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain) (1934)—Alexandre Alexeieff & Claire Parker

Rhythm in Light (1934)—Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Melville Webber

Synchromy No. 2 (1936)—Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth

Parabola (1937)—Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth

Footlight Parade - "By a Waterfall" (1933)—Busby Berkeley

Glen Falls Sequence (1937-46)—Douglass Crockwell

Simple Destiny Abstractions (1937-40)—Douglass Crockwell

Abstract Movies (1937-47)—George L.K. Morris

Scherzo (1939)—Norman McLaren

Themis (1940)—Dwinell Grant

Contrathemis (1941)—Dwinell Grant

1941 (1941)—Francis Lee

Moods of the Sea (1940-42)—Slavko Vorkapich & John Hoffman

>>11374

Disc 4 - INVERTED NARRATIVES: New Directions in Story-Telling - 12 FILMS

The House with Closed Shutters (1910)—D.W. Griffith & G.W. "Billy" Bitzer

Suspense (1913)—Lois Weber & Philips Smalley

Moonland (c. 1926)—Neil McQuire & William A. O’Connor

Lullaby (1929)—Boris Deutsch

The Bridge (1929-30)—Charles Vidor

Little Geezer (1932)—Theodore Huff

Black Dawn (1933)—Josef Berne & Seymour Stern

Native Land (1937-41)—Frontier Films: Leo Hurwitz & Paul Strand (excerpt)

Black Legion (1936-7)—Nykino: Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke

Even As You and I (1937)—Roger Barlow, Harry Hay & Le Roy Robbins

Object Lesson (1941)—Christoher Young

"Sredni Vashtar" by Saki (1940-43)—David Bradley

Disc 5 - PICTURING A METROPOLIS: New York City Unveiled - 26 FILMS

The Blizzard (1899)—creators unknown

Lower Broadway (1902)—Robert K. Bonine

Beginning of a Skyscraper (1902)—Robert K. Bonine

Panorama from Times Building, New York (1905)—Wallace McCutcheon

Skyscrapers of NYC from North River (1903)—J.B. Smith

Panorama from Tower of the Brooklyn Bridge (1903)—G.W. "Billy" Bitzer

Building Up and Demolishing the Star Theatre (1902)—Frederick Armitage

Coney Island at Night (1905)—Edwin S. Porter

Interior New York Subway 14th Street to 42nd Street (1905)—G.W. "Billy" Bitzer

Seeing New York by Yacht (1902)—Frederick Armitage & A.E. Weed

2 Looney Lens: Split Skyscrapers (1924) and Tenth Avenue, NYC (1924)—Al Brick

4 Scenes from Ford Educational Weekly (1916-24)—creators unknown

Manhatta (1921)—Charles Sheeler & Paul Strand

Twentyfour-Dollar Island (c. 1926)—Robert Flaherty

Skyscraper Symphony (1929)—Robert Florey

Manhattan Medley (1931)—Bonney Powell

A Bronx Morning (1931)—Jay Leyda

Footnote to Fact (1933)—Lewis Jacobs

Seeing the World (1937)—Rudy Burckhardt

Pursuit of Hapiness (1940)—Rudy Burckhardt

Gold Diggers of 1935 — "Lullaby of Broadway" (1935)—Busby Berkeley (excerpt)

Autumn Fire (1930-33)—Herman Weinberg

Disc 6 - THE AMATEUR AS AUTEUR: Discovering Paradise in Pictures - 20 FILMS

7 Case Sound Tests (c. 1924-25)—Theodore Case & Earl Sponable

Windy Ledge Farm (c. 1929-34)—Elizabeth Woodman Wright

A Day in Santa Fe (1931)—Lynn Riggs & James Hughes

4 Stewart Family Home Movies (c. 1935-39)—Archie Stewart

Children’s Party (c. 1938)—Joseph Cornell

Cotillion (c. 1938)—Joseph Cornell

The Midnight Party (c. 1938)—Joseph Cornell

Haiti (1938)—Rudy Burckhardt

Tree Trunk to Head (1938)—Lewis Jacobs

Bicycle Polo at San Mateo (1940-42)—Frank Stauffacher

1126 Dewey Avenue, Apt. 207 (1939)—John C. Hecker

Disc 7 - VIVA LA DANCE: The Beginnings of Ciné-Dance - 33 FILMS

7 Annabelle Dances and Dances (1894-1897)—W.K.L. Dickson, William Heise & James White

Davy Jones' Locker (1900)—Frederick Armitage

Neptune’s Daughters (1900)—Frederick Armitage

A Nymph of the Waves (1900)—Frederick Armitage

Diana the Huntress (1916)—Charles Allen & Francis Trevelyan Miller (excerpt)

The Soul of the Cypress (1920)—Dudley Murphy

Looney Lens: Pas de deux (1924)—Al Brick

Hände: Das Leben und die Liebe eines Zärtlichen Geschlechts (Hands: The Life and Loves of the Gentler Sex) (1928)—Stella Simon & Miklos Bandy

Mechanical Principles (1930)—Ralph Steiner

Tilly Losch in Her Dance of the Hands (c. 1930-33)—Norman Bel Geddes

2 Eisenstein’s Mexican Footage (1931)—Sergei Eisenstein (excerpts)

Oramunde (1933)—Emlen Etting

Hands (1934)—Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke

Joie de vivre (1934)—Anthony Gross & Hector Hoppin

Wonder Bar: "Don’t Say Goodnight" (1934)—Busby Berkeley (excerpt)

Dada (1936)—Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth

Escape (1938)—Mary Ellen Bute & Ted Nemeth

An Optical Poem (1938)—Oskar Fischinger

Abstract Experiment in Kodachrome (c. 1940s)—Slavko Vorpapich

NBC Valentine Greeting (1939-40)—Norman McLaren

Stars and Stripes (1940)—Norman McLaren

Tarantella (1940)—Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Norman McLaren

Spook Sport (1940)—Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth & Norman McLaren

Danse Macabre (1922)—Dudley Murphy

Peer Gynt (1941)—David Bradley, starring Charlton Heston (excerpt)

Introspection (1941/46)—Sara Kathryn Arledge

A nice article on silent film music, past and present

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/keeping-art-silent-film-music-alive-organ-cinema-comedy

I notice every woman in this picture is wearing a large hat blocking the screen for people behind them

Here is a new Film Comment interview with Kevin Brownlow, who recently turned 80 years old. They discuss his narrative films, the difference between making a documentary about an individual and a time period, and finally Brownlow's relationship with with Stanley Kubrick.

https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/interview-kevin-brownlow/

This exchange stood out to me. Brownlow observes that Nazis are always portrayed in films as an over-the-top caricature. That's not historically accurate or informative to the viewer.

<You also did a D.W. Griffith documentary, and now Twilight Time has released a Blu-ray of the Photoplay restoration of The Birth of a Nation, which contains a piece by Patrick Stanbury on the restoration and your plea that we never censor the past. You ran into censorship yourself with It Happened Here, when you recorded the words of contemporary National Socialists in Britain. Distributors and some Jewish groups thought the film could be promoting anti-Semitism.

<Andrew and I felt very strongly that it’s a great mistake to suppress people. The forbidden becomes exciting and very attractive to nutcases. The Nazis certainly revealed themselves to be mental cases and quite terrifying. We couldn’t put the worst of it in. What we did was to try and tell people what National Socialism was. To my knowledge, there isn’t a single feature film made since the War, since the Nazis stopped making propaganda films themselves, that actually tells you what they planned, how they intended to treat people, all those sort of things. That has been taken over by actors frothing at the mouth and screaming against Jews. You see that and you’re supposed to think, “That’s a Nazi for you.” Pure melodrama.

>>10549

The Dumb Girl of Portici was restored and screened last year to much acclaim at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival. Some of its praise is overblown, but the film is worth watching regardless. As time passes there are fewer and fewer new silent film discoveries, so this one is unquestionably significant.

Based on an opera, this major production includes large sets, period costumes, scores of extras, and plenty of action in the final forty minutes. The lead actress is famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova in her only film role. She makes a striking impression with her wild hair and spastic gestures, but ultimately she does not have enough charisma to propel this film to the next level. Granted none of the acting in this film is particularly endearing.

TDGoP was the biggest film directed by a woman at the time -- and for quite a while afterwards -- but I did not detect anything distinctly feminine about Weber's directing choices. So, I don't think "gender identity" is relevant to the substance of this film. If I didn't know the sex of the director I'd assume it was made by a man.

New Laurel and Hardy movie

Jean Epstein is the first silent director I noticed that takes special care to properly light characters' eyes. It is a small detail but it adds a lot of vitality to the images. Sometimes the images almost pass for modern photography.

Was this inevitable? The Lilian Gish purge is underway.

Faust was Murnau's last German film

https://youtu.be/jyNOwz90E_4

I am absolutely floored not one of you has mentioned Georges Méliès in this thread yet. If you know anything about the art of film, his groundbreaking contributions to cinema as we know it need no introduction.

>>15202

Yeah it's weird Melies never came up before. And how about the lesser-known Spaniard Segundo de Chomón who had a very similar style to Melies. He went so far as to copy A Trip to the Moon nearly shot for shot.

https://invidio.us/watch?v=nqNcaQYFqSs

Segundo de Chomón made almost 230 short films between 1901 and 1913

>>15373