Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film

[Warped9]

I have never been a big fan of silent film, but then I grew up in a completely different time. There are films from the silent era that I am impressed with for technical reasons, but I admit to find it challenging to sit through entire silent films. In some cases I have had to take a break during the films I've watched and come back to finish it later.

But recently I came across a documentary series on Youtube, Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film, by accident and I found it fascinating. It explored the era in a way I had never seen before.

It was also a shock to learn this series dates from 1980(!) and that it is unavailable on DVD.

Like many others I, too, held misconceptions of the period. For me silent films were jerky, flickering and moved too fast, all a result of seeing them replayed badly on television of the 1960s and '70. How fascinating to see them as they were seen originally at their proper speed and with better resolution.

And to see how elaborate they became and how many familiar visual tropes and ekements were born on the silent screen.

How interesting to learn that the term "movies" did not originally refer to the moving pictures themselves but to the people involved in the then blossoming industry.

The behind-the-scenes stories of the growing industry itself is as fascinating as the spectacles the industry produced.


This series really should be remastered and released on DVD and Blu-Ray for us and succeeding generations to enjoy properly.

Ep. 1:

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Ep. 2:

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Ep. 6: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fVqgx20CPVs

Ep. 7: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nCjrS7v78vA

Ep. 8: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qwfA7suKAng

Ep. 9: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MLuigo4yqjw

Ep. 10: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vfE8gm0f7vU

Ep. 11: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pJyND6k3Z1M

Ep. 13: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d75t8dy-pd4


For some reason I cannot find Episode 12.

 

[Dick Whitman]

Silent films being shown at the wrong speed still persists to this day in places that should know better.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis was one the first DVDs I ever bought. I always had a fascination with it and it was a cheap release. That was probably 16 years ago. Shortly after that there was one of many restorations with newly found footage that was thought to be lost. I saw it with my parents at a local revival theater. I remember people laughing at certain spots because of odd speed up movements. Particularly in a scene of the main woman dancing. Later I learned this was because the restoration was presented at the wrong speed!

About 6 years ago a further restoration with even more discovered scenes was released. This time at the correct speed. The people actually move naturally. Which makes it feels like you truly are looking back into the past. That even without sound the characters feel alive. Not live some odd simulation of movement, closet I can think of is bad cgi of people. So it totally changes the experience to see a silent film the correct way.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I didn't start seeing silent films until I was in an exploration phase and predisposed to judge them without modern expectations. One thing that jumps out at me is the simplicity of storytelling and emotional straightforwardness. Their technological limitations forced efficient visual expressiveness in ways you don't see anymore.

My criticism of films from that era, silent or not (Through the 50s) is that the moral messages are very pat and pithy. With a few notable exceptions. Before 60s new wave filmmakers had to fight harder to have film treated as art and be allowed not to have straightforwardly lovable culturally normative protagonists.

 

[Warped9]

One of the advantages of the time was the films' universality. There were no language barriers to overcome and thus the films were accessible to anyone and anywhere around the world. At best you might swap out some title cards.

They were a form of pantomime and something between stage plays and sound films that came later.

Indeed the first talkies were a struggle for many in the industry almost as if they had to relearn their craft. The first talkies could be dull because of the over reliance on the new sound available. They seemed to forget about action and spectacle for a (brief) time. Actors able to make the transition also might struggle as they learned how to relax and speak more naturally and not so affected.

Another fascinating aspect is how graphic and violent the films could be (even by today's standards) until the censorship of the early '30s until the 1960s.

 

[Lance]

For those who are interested in silent cinema, I'd recommend "Wings" from 1927 (available on Blu Ray.) It was one of the last silent features -- indeed, it was the first winner of Best Picture at the academy awards, and the only silent movie to ever do so.

I'm actually hooked on silent movies. The key to getting the most enjoyment out of them is to leave your preconceptions at the door.... in a way, you do have to learn a new language, a visual language, to understand the stories, but once you're able to 'untrain' your brain to think only in terms of stories being told through dialogue it can be extremely rewarding watching a silent film and realizing that you not only can you actually understand the story, but also appreciate the complexity with which they were telling it without the help of dialogue.

 

[Warped9]

The silent films I have seen in entirety over the years:

Nosferatu (1922)
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1923)
The Phantom Of The Opera (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
Frau im Mond (Woman In The Moon) (1929)
The Mark Of Zorro (1920)

 

[Warped9]

I thought this one was interesting as well. Sexuality and censorship in early cinema:

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[Tosk]

The silent films I have seen in entirety over the years:

Nosferatu (1922)
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1923)
The Phantom Of The Opera (1925)
Metropolis (1927)
Frau im Mond (Woman In The Moon) (1929)
The Mark Of Zorro (1920)

You should try some of the comedies too. Buster Keaton is a personal fave.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

For those who are interested in silent cinema, I'd recommend "Wings" from 1927 (available on Blu Ray.) It was one of the last silent features -- indeed, it was the first winner of Best Picture at the academy awards, and the only silent movie to ever do so.

I'm actually hooked on silent movies. The key to getting the most enjoyment out of them is to leave your preconceptions at the door.... in a way, you do have to learn a new language, a visual language, to understand the stories, but once you're able to 'untrain' your brain to think only in terms of stories being told through dialogue it can be extremely rewarding watching a silent film and realizing that you not only can you actually understand the story, but also appreciate the complexity with which they were telling it without the help of dialogue.

Didn't Sunrise win the first best picture award?

Edit: Looks like it won "Best original picture of artistic nature" award. Some cinephiles I guess equate this with best picture. Maybe they should bring that award back so they can stop just giving best picture to preachy biopics that please nobody. That way instead of trying to please both mainstream viewers and cinephiles with best picture they could give 'Best Picture' to a populist film and 'Best original picture of artistic nature' to a real art film. Make everyone happy.

(Sunrise... greatest silent film IMO)

My other favorite silent films:
Passion of Joan of Arc
The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari
City Lights
Napoleon
Pandora's Box
He Who Gets Slapped

I'm actually not the biggest Keaton fan. I find The General offputting. Comedy wise it's like live action Bugs Bunny which is okay, but it has these revisionist and militarist cultural messages that are hard to stomach. And I could even get past that if it didn't force the underdog tropes so damned hard.

 

[Lance]

It can be remarkable to see what they used to get away with in some of these. Before the Hays Code came in. There is some astonishingly saucy stuff in some of them.

I've watched a few of Harold Lloyd's recently and while I'm not that big of a fan of "The Freshman", I though that "Speedy" was a work of genius.

 

[Warped9]

Whether silent or talkie pre-code (about 1934) they got away with some gratuitous stuff whether sexual or violence oriented. It can be eye opening considering we like to think it all started in the 1960s and '70s.

Indeed as is referred to in one of the episodes the sexual revolution most everyone accepts to have started in the 1960s actually happened in the 1920s only society seemed to try and repress that after WW2.

 

[ihno]

What a wonderful series, thank you very much. ... okay I'll see how wonderful it will be. Just recently I watched the first Dracula with Lugosi

As for sexuality and Hollywood I still love the "Celluloid Closet" from 1996 (or so), which is about homosexuality in film. It's a very good one, very informative and very well written.

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[Warped9]

Delving into this history I'm struck by the notion of what it would be like to time travel. To go back into the past to see some of these films when they were introduced and to see the audience reactions to them.

To see the world and everyday life as it was then, particularly knowing what lies ahead and seeing how different it is from everyday life today.

How surprising could it be having to do without so many things we now take for granted without thought?

 

[Nomad]

I didn't know about this series. I'll have to check it out. I've really gotten interested in silent films the past few years. Below are the ones I've collected so far:

A Story of Floating Weeds (1934, from Japan)
A Page of Madness (1926, also from Japan)
Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Battling Butler (1926, Buster Keaton)
Ben Hur (1926, partly in color)
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Cabriria (1914, Italian epic)
College (1927, Keaton)
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929, Louise Brooks)
Go West (1925, Keaton)
Intolerance (1916, D.W. Griffith)
It (1927, made Clara Bow a star)
La Passion de Jeanne D' Arc (1928)
Lonesome (1928)
Metropolis (1927, probably my favorite of all the silents)
Noah's Ark (1928, partly the story of the Flood, partly set during WWI)
Nosferatu (1922)
Our Hospitality (1923, Keaton)
Pandora's Box (1929, Louise Brooks)
Phantom of the Opera (1929 cut, with color tinting added)
Safety Last (1923, Harold Lloyd)
Seven Chances (1925, Keaton)
Sherlock Holmes (1922, John Barrymore as Holmes)
Sherlock, Jr. (1924, Keaton)
Spite Marriage (1929, Keaton)
Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928, Keaton)
Street Angel (1928)
Sunrise (1927)
The Big Parade (1925)
The Cameraman (1928, Keaton)
The General (1926, Keaton)
The Gold Rush (1925, Charlie Chaplin)
The Kid (1921, Chaplin)
The King of Kings, (1927, DeMille epic)
The Navigator (1924, Keaton)
The Ten Commandments (1923, DeMille's first version, partly set in modern times)
The Wind (1928)
Three Ages (1923, Keaton)
Wings (1928)

As you can tell, I'm a big fan of Buster Keaton. My favorite of his is probably The General. I recently saw the Kino edition of it, and it was so crisp and sharp it looked like it could have been made last year. That might have been his best movie, but I don't think it's his funniest. Our Hospitality actually has more laughs, in my opinion. And Seven Chances has possibly the best chase sequence of all time.

Just my two cents: I believe that all of these movies have to be judged based on the times they were made. That applies to both technical and social standards. That's generally the way I approach every film (or book or TV episode). Otherwise, it would be difficult to enjoy anything not of recent vintage.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Technical standards, social standards, but not storytelling standards. If they forced the story to be overly simplistic, reductionist and childish because they thought films weren't supposed to be art, that's a creative choice that lessened its artistic value. If Fritz Lang, Orson Welles and Jean Renoir can tell intelligent stories in the 1930s, so can other directors.

 

[Warped9]

Fascinating to learn how many women were active behind the scenes as producers, directors and writers and not just actresses.

 

[Random_Spock]

Whether silent or talkie pre-code (about 1934) they got away with some gratuitous stuff whether sexual or violence oriented. It can be eye opening considering we like to think it all started in the 1960s and '70s.

Indeed as is referred to in one of the episodes the sexual revolution most everyone accepts to have started in the 1960s actually happened in the 1920s only society seemed to try and repress that after WW2.

Exactly. It happened twice in the 20th century.

Any Laurel and Hardy fans here? I love a lot of their work, silent films included. I'm also a fan of Buster Keaton's work.

 

[ihno]

Thanks again for the series.

no. 12 has been blocked worldwide by the BBC as I've seen. No. 4 is blocked in Germany, so no I had to skip that too.

There were some things that really captivated me: Like Bronco Billy Anderson (or is it Justus D. Barnes? -just googled that again and am confused now)

I knew the face from childhood (in the 70s) - there were different shows with compilations from silent movies and one of them had Bronco Billy at the beginning. It took some days to remember the name of the show. ... It's a forgettable show anyway, those compilations were terrible and didn't do any honour to the original silent movies. Just like the german tv did with TOS they put some really silly music, noises and comments over those.

I hated them but - as a child of 5 or 6 - I watched them anyway.

Another thing I've heard of but haven't really watched is the "blackface" like you see it in "The Jazz singer". I did some more youtubing and also found "Mickey Mouse in blackface". Warner Brothers have put a disclaimer about that before the cartoons where Bugs Bunny put on a blackface.

All in all I find many of the silent movies very captivating and they surely were more than just movies without sound.

 

[Lance]

Thanks again for the series.

no. 12 has been blocked worldwide by the BBC as I've seen. No. 4 is blocked in Germany, so no I had to skip that too.

There were some things that really captivated me: Like Bronco Billy Anderson (or is it Justus D. Barnes? -just googled that again and am confused now)

I knew the face from childhood (in the 70s) - there were different shows with compilations from silent movies and one of them had Bronco Billy at the beginning. It took some days to remember the name of the show. ... It's a forgettable show anyway, those compilations were terrible and didn't do any honour to the original silent movies. Just like the german tv did with TOS they put some really silly music, noises and comments over those.

I hated them but - as a child of 5 or 6 - I watched them anyway.

Another thing I've heard of but haven't really watched is the "blackface" like you see it in "The Jazz singer". I did some more youtubing and also found "Mickey Mouse in blackface". Warner Brothers have put a disclaimer about that before the cartoons where Bugs Bunny put on a blackface.

All in all I find many of the silent movies very captivating and they surely were more than just movies without sound.

Sadly "blackface" was a product of the times. It kind of elicits a reaction now, but it's one of those artefacts of a past time that one kind of has to put aside while watching movies of the period. There was a Harold Lloyd short I watched a while back where a "black" maid character was very obviously a white woman in blackface, and it did make me squirm uncomfortably in my seat. But I didn't let it completely ruin my enjoyment of the movie as a whole. I have seen other movies of the period that did use genuine black actors in such roles, so I guess my only query would be about why the director decided to do what they did casting it the way he did. Maybe it was 'casual' racism. Different standards about what was accepted back then.

 

[publiusr]

One of the more recnt ones is this: http://www.cthulhulives.org/cocmovie/

I also liked The Artist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Artist_(film)
http://www.notcoming.com/features/silenceaftersound/

You can still shoot your own. The super-8 is back: http://www.kodak.com/consumer/products/super8/default.htm