Silent Films

I've recently become quite interested in hitchcock, though I've yet to see any of his films, only his tv series. However, "the lodger" is also on my list to watch. I'd like to see it first and then see how he progressed into takies.

If you're watching The Lodger for that reason, then you should try and watch Blackmail afterwards.

I don't think you'll fully be able to appreciate Hitchcock by watching his movies in some kind of chronological order unless you're taking a film class and/or are watching other movies which were made concurrently with Hitch's earlier films. You will be going through a lot of primitive cinema, which while interesting and worthwhile, will only have full meaning and enjoyment in the context of Hitch's later, better films. If I was going to start with an "early" Hitch film, I'd choose The 39 Steps (1935) or The Lady Vanishes (1938).

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if you've never seen a silent film then how can you prefer audio? you've never experienced silent films so you cant compare them.

Le Voyage dans la Lune [Voyage To The Moon]



So goooood. The imagination it took to make this film is amazing for such an early piece.

Napoleon



Impressive in terms of editing techniques.

Nanook of the North



A little staged but still an interesting look at eskimos from a western perspective.

The Unknown



Featuring a young Joan Crawford and a top performance from the king of silent horror, Lon Chaney.

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I second Voyage to the Moon, amazing feat considering how primitive film was back then.

There are so many exciting and intriguing silent films that I've tried to lie low, but I'll add a few more. I don't think you realize meaty that all silents come nowadays either with the original scores composed for their runs in the theatres or completely new scores. Silent movies are being restored and scored at a very fast rate. I'd recommend these to anybody.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)


Robin Hood (1922)


Cyrano de Bergerac (1925)


The Beloved Rogue (1927)

I need to see Napoleon and The Adventures of Prince Achmed.

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Yes, Napoleon is about four hours long, but Abel Gance basically invented Cinerama about 25 years before Cinerama did. It has numerous dazzling sequences. Prince Achmed is a film periodically shown on TCM which seems better with each viewing if you just abandon yourself to its exotic, unique qualities.

I know about Napoleon's length, and as for watching Achmed on TCM that isn't going to happen as I gave up cable a year or so ago. I'll check the library right now, they're pretty stocked in the film department.

edit: they have two copies on VHS but that's it, too bad.

I've been watching some VHS lately. Do you still have a VCR?

No VCR, I bet I could find one in a pawn shop for like ten bucks. I'm sure the library will get a copy of it on DVD someday.

Maybe the library will loan you a VCR. I still have VCRs because I have so many VHS tapes that I always buy a combo DVD-VCR player since they don't cost any more than a non-VCR version.

Actually now that I think of it I bet my Dad has a VCR kicking around. I'll ask him tomorrow.

Rufnek, I love this story.

I guess I'll bump this thread -- Chris wrote about this thread in his newsletter, and I hadn't seen it before. With a name like "tramp," I wanted to put in my two cents here about my favorite film character of all time (slightly ahead of Captain Jack Sparrow, lol.)

I've seen a few of the silent films on this thread, but that was years ago when I was a film student. To be honest, I don't really have much of a desire to see Griffith again, or Eisenstein, or the German films, but cinephiles should probably see them. But Chaplin I never tire of and I teach him in my media class as one of six directors that impacted film history. My 8th graders fall in love with him.

As Yoda stated, it is that silent comedy that holds up nearly 90 years later. We still laugh. And with Chaplin, we still cry.

I love Chaplin so much. All I have to do is look at a picture of him and I feel a ton of emotions. He was able to communicate amazing pathos is just a look or a gesture and even just a walk.

Carl Jung talked about a collective unconscious, that we’re all bound to the same mythology, no matter our experiences, that each of us holds the same memories, thoughts and feelings as everyone else. This is often the explanation for why we love great art and great literature – certain artists and writers tap into the hidden world inside our brains that we all share.

It isn’t hard to conclude that Chaplin was a great writer and artist. No matter how cynical we become, no matter how sophisticated we think we are, the journey of the Tramp, his need for love and acceptance will always be with us.

My top two favorite Chaplin films:

1. City Lights



This seems to be to be Chaplin's most romantic film and the last few moments are simply sublime. When the end of this film is played in my classroom, there is total silence and the students seem a bit stunned. I love standing in the back of the room and waiting for the movement of the students to begin again as the film ends. It's like they've become frozen and then the uncomfortable shifting starts as I turn on the lights. Of course, by that point, I'm a tad teary-eyed and need to regain my wits. The moment when she touches his hand and recognizes him chokes you -- it is executed perfectly.

At the same time, this film is hysterical in so many ways -- the boxing match is unmatched for sheer slapstick humor. Sound had been invented by then, and as Chaplin had stated that the Tramp would never speak, his whistling in a particular party scene was also rather funny.

Chaplin's greatest gift, though, was a poor childhood that allowed him to explore the social classes in his films. The Tramp's drunken "friend" storyline is especially heart-breaking when you realize that the man could only befriend the Tramp when drunk. Chaplin is one of those filmmakers who could make a social statement and it never feels forced or untrue. His childhood colors everything he did and it is the very reason we still watch him today. Without it, the Tramp wouldn't have existed.

2. Modern Times



The film tells the story of the Tramp trying to survive during the Great Depression. He works at a factory, suffers a nervous breakdown, is mistaken for a communist (a case of art imitating life, as J. Edgar Hoover hounded Chaplin for years), and is put in jail. He meets a gamin, played by Paulette Goddard, (Chaplin’s wife at the time) who becomes an orphan forced to wander the streets looking for food. Through a series of misadventures, the two are victims of circumstance and misunderstandings as they simply try to survive. Charlie’s last Tramp film is an obviously satirical look at a world often in conflict with man’s desire to survive. Modern Times is often lauded, as well, as the film that takes a shot at industrial “progress” in one simple image: the Tramp caught in the wheels of a machine.

Charlie knew the magic of the Tramp would be lost with dialogue. So, the one time we hear the Tramp speak, he sings an entertaining song of gibberish at the end, a song completely understood because of Chaplin’s talent (use of hand gestures and tone tell the story of the song). Charlie wasn’t about to make an ordinary talkie here -- we were able to deduce that most of the sounds heard were those of mechanical or technological devices. Besides the mechanical sounds, one of the other few moments sound was used is when we are treated to the joy of listening to gurgling noises as the Tramp sipped on tea. In Charlie’s mind, sound equaled gas.

Modern Times is one of Chaplin’s most socially pointed films, railing against technology, working conditions, the threat of communism, talkies, and a lack of food. Chaplin was anticipating George Orwell’s 1984 by thirteen years when he had a “big brother”-type boss on a screen hounding Charlie in the bathroom.

The world of Charlie Chaplin was full of unfair and cruel characters, misrepresentations, and situations which always tested the Tramp’s kind inner soul. No matter how unfair it was – in this case, the gamin being sought by authorities for vagrancy – Charlie’s Little Tramp never lost his will to go on. One of the last images of the Tramp was a smile and then his final words, “Buck up - never say die. We'll get along.” In the end, when the Tramp disappears into the sunset as he always did, he was not walking alone this time. Now he had a woman by his side. How fitting that the Little Tramp, someone we loved, would exit the world being loved by another.

The rest:

The Kid -- I don't think this film is as perfect as the two above; there is a silly dream sequence at the end of the film that doesn't seem to fit. But the moments between Chaplin and the kid are priceless. He captures the smallest moments between "father" and "son" -- making pancakes, creating a diaper -- and turns them into dissertations on love. And I defy anyone not to cry when the Tramp runs after the kid as he's being taken away. And that early sequence when he tries to get rid of the kid is the sequence that turned my teenage son into a Chaplin fan. I'm not sure I had ever heard him laugh so hard.

The Gold Rush -- My son's favorite and a favorite of my students, yet I'm not much of a fan of this film. There are great gags here -- the falling house, the chicken, the shoe -- that are just brilliant, but as a whole, the film doesn't touch me the way the other films do. Of course, being Chaplin, it's still a great film.


I think it's extremely cool that the Tramp is still recognized today and even my students -- many of whom know nothing of film history -- find Chaplin to be wonderful entertainment. I think that is testimony to the fact that a character doesn't have to speak for us to understand him.

Thanks for letting me share.

I've not seen many, only a small percentage of the films posted on this thread I have actually seen and most of those being Chaplin's films. I would have to say my favourite silentof the ones I have seen would have to be Buster Keaton's The General (1926)



It's just an amazing piece of filmmaking. And for it's time the technical aspects of some of the shot's they came up with are just unbelievable.

I have seen battleship Potemkin & a few Chaplin movies, im not really into silent films, all the ones i have seen have been in school, battleship potemkin in history class and Chaplin films in my Economics class for some reason. Altough the chaplin one was funny and made me laugh.