Silent Film Era Hall of Fame

Sounds good! Glad to have you join use any way that you choose.

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I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

The Crowd (1928)
Spoiler free and safe to read if you haven't seen the movie yet.

So I decided to kick off my silent film watching with The Crowd. I had never heard of it before. Nor had I heard of the two leads, (James Murray, Eleanor Boardman), but I really liked both of them! It's important to care about the couple in a film that revolves around romance. And I did care about them as people and believed in their love.

Not going to read that^^untili I write something about it later.

The viaduct scene in The Crowd inspired De Sica, don't you think?

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Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.

I understand Cricket. In short I loved it!

Sounds good, Citizen.

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"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the war room."

Thanks Max, I got a feeling I'm going to love them all

I was just going to say the same thing (even if it is "spoiler free" ). I saw this movie awhile ago. And when I say "awhile ago", I mean quite awhile ago. So I want to watch it again to refresh my memory before I comment, too. And I plan on getting this HoF started with that exact movie this weekend.


In the meantime, I am going to be a copycat and copy CR - just because I love his idea so much -, and I am going to start to post links to reviews on the first page after the list of nominations:
http://www.movieforums.com/community...08#post1556508

Glad you're doing the links I've really used them a lot in the 10th and Noir Hof myself so that I can go back and read other people's reviews/write ups, without the hassle of looking through upteen pages to find them.

I understand people don't want to read reviews until they've watched the movie (I'm usually that way too)...But I swear without links I would give up on writing much of anything as otherwise I really do think most of what a person writes in a Hof goes unnoticed. Which is sad. So links good!

Ok so this was my nomination despite the fact that I had never seen it before. My experience in silent film has been limited to a couple documentaries, a couple horrors, a little Chaplin and Keaton, and a couple others. I didn't especially want to nominate anything I had already seen, so I sought out an expert referral. I had no idea what to expect, but I think it turned out to be a great nomination. At least I am very happy to have seen it.

There's not much as far as a story goes, and I saw the premise basically as a look at the quest for the American dream, and the harsh realities that can go with it. The characters are very ordinary people, and so are the issues they deal with that result in love and humor, stress and grief, etc. Because they are ordinary, I think the characters and situations are very relatable to the viewer, thus allowing us to identify with and feel their emotions. I was surprised at the emotion I felt watching such a simple story.

I don't know what it's called, but I thought the text used on screen was done very well; timed right and used as often as it needed to be. I also thought the direction, acting, and musical score were all impressive. I loved it and I hope everyone else does to.

Glad you liked it CR!

I will be "ignoring" anything you have to say for now, too, cricket. But your review has also been added to the first page.


One thing that I just want to say is that I hope people realize what good actors there were in the silent era. I know I have said before on here that if you can tell what someone is thinking, or feeling, just by the expression on that person's face, then that person is a good actor. And silent film stars rely on their faces. So they have to be good at what they are doing or else these films would never work.

There was a review of "The Artist" that I read a few years ago. It was after the Oscars. And this man was so upset that Jean Dujardin won for Best Actor. He said that he didn't deserve it because he didn't speak in the film. Therefore, he didn't act. And that comment has bothered me ever since then. As far as I am concerned, it takes a lot more talent to be able to convey what you are thinking/feeling from just facial expressions, or a look in someone's eye, than speaking the words.

I just wanted to say all of that quickly as long as it was in my mind.

People call those by different names. I call them title cards, I'm not sure what they were called back in the day?

So true!

It's a different style of acting than used in sound films and especially used today. So many people get hung up on watching newer movies only, because older movies often have a different acting style, which was more theatrical, than done today. Silent films especially have more facial acting like you said.

If anybody wants to call out what they are watching next, I will try to watch the same film so we can have a discussion about it.

Just for Cricket...was the old amusement rides at Luna Park Coney Island cool or what!

I never went to Coney Island. I used to go to Pleasure Beach in Blackpool England, Great America in Illinois, Disneyland and Disneyworld, Six Flags New Jersey, and more recently parks around Massachusetts.

Think I will watch Diary of a Lost Girl today or tomorrow, sounds the most appealing of the ones I haven't seen yet.

I'd watch that one next so we can discuss it, if someone has a link?

I ordered it on Netflix and it's coming today. However, it looks like it's on YouTube.

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Thanks guys, I will try to watch it in the next couple days. I have to let my wife watch some of her movies too