Pre-1930s Hall of Fame II

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Lonesome

I hated watching this movie, but the three main reasons weren't really it's fault. The first was the music, which was a crap rock band accompaniment... Within a minute or two I had muted it, and put on Mahler's Symphony No. 4, which worked beautifully, I highly recommend it while watching this.

The second reason was the language barrier. This movie was in Italian and I couldn't find versions with subtitles. The plot was easy enough to get however, and I guess the Italian fillers were unnecessary.

And the last reason was the visuals... It was blurry and boring to watch.

Oh ****....Guys if you find a crap version of any nom, post and ask for a better link!

I have a link for Lonesome that is the restored version, with proper music score and English subtitles. I'll PM it to everyone. Please if you guys need better links just ask next time.



Oh ****....Guys if you find a crap version of any nom, post and ask for a better link!

I have a link for Lonesome that is the restored version, with proper music score and English subtitles. I'll PM it to everyone. Please if you guys need better links just ask next time.
Haha I'm sorry I looked for a different one and couldn't find it. I'll rewatch Lonesome with the one you sent, at least part of it as I already know the basic plot.



Haha I'm sorry I looked for a different one and couldn't find it. I'll rewatch Lonesome with the one you sent, at least part of it as I already know the basic plot.
There's no need to rewatch Lonesome, unless you really want to.

I watched a fully restored version Battleship Potemkin and in my mind the beautiful print and proper score help make the movie very memorable. Bear in mind not all silent films have been restored. I watched a number of them that were so poor quality I could verily make out faces. Sad that all the remaining silent films aren't already restored and preserved. But I'm willing to help seek out the best links, Youtube often has the worst. Not always though.



Interested to see how I like Die Nibelungen. Richard Wagner wrote "The Ring Cycle" in the mid-1800s, and has the same plot as "Die Nibelungen" and is suspiciously close to Lord of the Rings as well. I encourage anyone to check it out, I believe it is on Youtube. It's probably my favorite work of art ever made, including all movies, music, and visual arts... so "Die Nibelungen" has some pretty high standards to live up to
The Nibelungenlied FAR pre-dates The Lord Of The Rings, suspicion would then fall on Tolkien rather than The Song Of The Nibelungs, written around the year 1200.



Interested to see how I like Die Nibelungen. Richard Wagner wrote "The Ring Cycle" in the mid-1800s, and has the same plot as "Die Nibelungen" and is suspiciously close to Lord of the Rings as well. I encourage anyone to check it out, I believe it is on Youtube. It's probably my favorite work of art ever made, including all movies, music, and visual arts... so "Die Nibelungen" has some pretty high standards to live up to
The Nibelungenlied FAR pre-dates The Lord Of The Rings, suspicion would then fall on Tolkien rather than The Song Of The Nibelungs, written around the year 1200.
Yeah, I was more talking about how Wagner’s Ring has a whole lot of elements that are quite similar to the lord of the rings, such as the ring obviously, the magic swords, the dragon guarding gold, and same type of themes too. While all three are based on the Nibelungenlied Wagners Ring and Lord of the Ring are a lot closely connected.... which is why I find some elements of... “friendly borrowing” on Tolkien’s side.



The Passion of Joan of Arc

This was a chillingly modern take on the real life case of Joan of Arc and her eventual death. This movie is not entertaining in any sense, it is a depressing struggle for a brave woman who's faith in God and the Heavens is constantly tried and tested. Boy, does the film really make you hate all those British judges, they were all such douches that I wanted to punch them all by the end. Joan of Arc keeps quiet dignity throughout, and there are simple moments of beauty that are so touching. This is one of the more accessible silent films out there, and one of the better ones I think.




It

Clara Bow really is one of the greatest silent actresses in my opinion. In "It" she is literally glowing in her star role. It's just like Louise Brooks, she is a strikingly modern and amazing woman in a dated world... and that totally made the movie. I loved it! It was probably because of Clara Bow, but every minute of it was entertaining. The characters were fun, the story line engaging, and everything just had a snappy, quirky, lighthearted, humor. This is no epic masterpiece, like Battleship Potemkin, but it doesn't need to be. It doesn't take itself so seriously, and that's a good thing.

I'm also happy to say it's much better than the 2017 clown horror flick...




7th Heaven
7th Heaven is fine I guess. It didn't really do much for me, and I couldn't help but get bored by the end. None of the actors were all that good, including the street worker, who was just wooden. The characters also weren't funny or interesting like in "It." The guy was pretentious and full of himself, bossy and sometimes rude. The woman was frustratingly simple, shy, and un-interesting. It made for a couple that I didn't care in the slightest about. That said, some of the war scenes were great, and overall there was a nice calm flow of the film's romance and events.




Lonesome



This is a movie I almost nominated so I was looking forward to it. The story is simple but it's the story that I liked about it. Not much else unfortunately. Well, actually the score was excellent thankfully otherwise I probably would have disliked the movie rather than thinking it was ok. I didn't think much of the two main characters. She was alright but nothing special. The guy was a dud. Nothing against the movie but those bathing suits the men wore looked ridiculous. When they first spoke I was shocked and I didn't like it. It came off so unnatural. I also didn't like the occasional and feeble attempts to use color. The ending was ironic but underwhelming, and not emotional like it needed to be. Not a bad movie but it was a disappointment to me.





It (1927)

Clara Bow, wow!...If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be here today at MoFo.
It says alot about an actress from a century ago who had enough 'it' power to catch my attention. It was by random chance that I was shopping in a book store almost 20 years ago with my wife and I started wondering around the store when I seen a very provocative book cover, Sin in Soft Focus Pre-Code Hollywood. I didn't know what soft focus meant or what a Pre-Code was but that cover caught my eye. As I thumbed through the book I found the name of the actress on the front cover, Clara Bow.

I didn't buy the book as it was way too pricey. But I did find a set of Clara Bow's films on DVD, on ebay, for cheap. They had to be boot leg as the quality was poor, but it was cool having access to so many of her films. There's some good ones too, but It is my favorite. That's the film that made Clara into a huge star. Unfortunately like a lot of silent screen stars she didn't do much in the sound era, but she did make a few talkies.

It
, what a fun film! I had a smile on my face through the entire movie. And unlike some silents that seem to drag and drag, the time flew by. Maybe that's because the film felt so modern. I really like silent films but they can be somewhat inaccessible as they seem so far removed from our time. But not It, both the film's pacing and Miss Bow's performance seemed much more like a modern movie.

I was impressed with how enpowered Clara Bow's charterer was. She's a modern woman who stands up for herself and is a fully formed character, with a strong sense of who she is. That's refreshing as a lot of older movies treated women as arm-hangers who's only role was to look pretty. Yes Clara has It!


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Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge

This was a very innovative film with great visuals much like Fritz Lang's other (and I think better) film Metropolis... But the characters were pretty dull and uninteresting. I read the entire plot of Siegfried, and it's basically the same thing as the last two parts of Wagner's Ring Cycle "Siegfried" and "Twilight of the Gods"... I like Wagner's interpretation better. I think he brings more life to the characters, although it's unfair to compare too much since Wagner never wrote a version of Kriemhild's Revenge, his story ends with the death of Siegfried, and Brunnhilde lighting the world on fire. But a key thing that Kriemhild's Revenge needed was some sort of common thread to tie all the stories together with... this was basically the purpose of the ring in "The Ring Cycle." The last half ended up sagging because of this and all the fight scenes, which were cool for what they were. But in the end, nothing incredibly original like The Ring Saga.




Battleship Potemkin



Incredible filming and a great score. It's like a mini epic with its short running time. It's not going to be a personal favorite because I didn't feel any personal connection, but I know I wasn't supposed to. It's just not that kind of movie and it left me just a little cold. Still, I was extremely impressed. I guess the scene on the steps is a famous one but I had never heard of it before this thread. It's famous for good reason. There's brutality that I never imagined for a movie of this era. It's certainly shocking. I'd call it a great movie.

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Lonesome (1928)

"Ah, look at all the lonely people!
Ah, look at all the lonely people!"

There must be a lot of lonely people in the world for this movie to have an 8.0 rating at IMDB. That's a high rating for such a simple film. At a time when silent films were breaking new grounds, Lonesome felt pretty simple in it's camera work and yet it's effective because I was engaged and rooting for the lonely couple to find love through out the film. I was glad when they met and started falling in love. I can relate to how the two individuals felt isolated in a crowd at the beginning of the film. And I can also relate to their thrill of meeting that right person. I think most of us can relate to these two people. All of that then works wonders for when the tragic separation happens. As they lose sight of each other in that crowd, we feel their loss. Crowds play a big part of this film, so does the desire to escape loneliness...and that's a human equation.
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7th Heaven



Tied with Sunrise for most wins at the first Academy Award including best director and best actress, although it seems Janet Gaynor won for multiple films including Sunrise. It was nominated for but didn't win most outstanding picture. Gaynor and Charles Farrell were also the leads in the inferior Lucky Star, which I nominated in the last HoF. I loved most of this movie but wasn't a fan of the ending.

Loved the settings/sets and the score. It was terrifying what Diane was going through in the beginning culminating with her running out into the street. Gaynor is immensely believable as the sympathetic and vulnerable Diane. Chico is a lovable character who comes to her rescue. Very believable chemistry, so much so that I was surprised to see it take so long for Chico to fall in love. It becomes quite the romantic movie and there's even a great scene of payback. There are some excellent scenes of war even if one particular shot looks obviously fake. One part that seemed a little strange was when there was a sudden scene in which Diane was working and a military man was hitting on her. I thought when did she get a job and who is this guy? It didn't hurt the movie but as I said already, I was not a fan of how it wrapped up and that did hurt the movie for me. Overall it was still a terrific watch.

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I need links for Laugh Clown Laugh, He Who Gets Slapped, and J’Accuse. (Also Variety depending if Cricket changes nom).



I need links for Laugh Clown Laugh, He Who Gets Slapped, and J’Accuse. (Also Variety depending if Cricket changes nom).
Cricket is changing Variety as we can't find an English title card version with soundtrack. So stay tuned for his new nom.
@Siddon do you have a link for J’Accuse with English title cards? It appears to be hard to find.

I'll check on Laugh Clown Laugh & He Who Gets Slapped and post back. I did watch a really great version of The Doll, if anyone needs that link. It was nicely restored with soundtrack too.



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
I need links for Laugh Clown Laugh, He Who Gets Slapped, and J’Accuse. (Also Variety depending if Cricket changes nom).
sent a link for Laugh and Slapped in Comments
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