(Redirected from Silent films)
A 'silent film' is a
motion picture with no synchronized recorded
sound, especially spoken
dialogue.
The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded
sound is nearly as old as the
motion picture itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, most films were silent before the late
1920s.
The silent film era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the Silver Screen".
History
Main articles: History of film
The first film was created by
Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a three second film of people walking around in a garden, called ''
Roundhay Garden Scene''.
The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" before silent films were replaced by "
talking pictures" in the late 1920s. Many film scholars and buffs argue that the aesthetic quality of cinema decreased for several years until directors, actors and production staff adapted to the new "talkies."
The visual quality of silent movies -- especially those produced during the 1920s -- was often extremely high. However, there is a widely held misconception that these films were primitive and barely watchable by modern standards. This misconception is due to technical errors (such as films being played back at wrong speed) and due to the deteriorated condition of many silent films (many silent films exist only in second or even third generation copies which were often copied from already damaged and neglected film stock).
Intertitles
Since silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen intertitles were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the
cinema audience. The ''title writer'' became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from the ''scenario writer'' who created the story. Intertitles (or ''titles'' as they were generally called at the time) often became graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decorations that commented on the action.
Live music and sound
Showings of silent films almost always featured live music, starting with the pianist at the first public projection of movies by the
Lumière Brothers on December 28, 1895 in
Paris (Cook, 1990). From the beginning, music was recognized as essential, contributing to the atmosphere and giving the audience vital emotional cues (musicians sometimes played on film sets during shooting for similar reasons). Small town and neighborhood movie theaters usually had a
pianist. From the mid-teens onward, large city theaters tended to have
organists or entire
orchestras. Massive theatrical organs such as the famous "mighty
Wurlitzer" could simulate some orchestral sounds along with a number of
sound effects.
The scores for silents were often more or less
improvised early in the medium's history. Once full features became commonplace, however, music was compiled from
Photoplay music by the pianist, organist, orchestra conductor or the
movie studio itself, which would send out a cue sheet with the film. Starting with mostly original
score composed by
Joseph Carl Breil for
D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking epic ''
The Birth of a Nation'' (USA, 1915) it became relatively common for films to arrive at the exhibiting theater with original, specially composed scores (Eyman, 1997).
By the height of the silent era, movies were the single largest source of employment for instrumental musicians (at least in America). But the introduction of talkies, which happened simultaneously with the onset of the
Great Depression, was devastating to many musicians.
Some countries devised other ways of bringing sound to silent films. The early
cinema of Brazil featured ''fitas cantatas'': filmed
operettas with singers lip-synching behind the screen (Parkinson, 1995, p. 69). In
Japan, films had not only live music but also the ''
benshi'', a live narrator who provided commentary and character voices. The ''benshi'' became a central element in Japanese film form, as well as providing translation for foreign (mostly American) movies (Standish, 2005). Their popularity was one reason why silents persisted well into the 1930s in Japan.
Few film scores have survived intact from this period, and musicologists are still confronted by questions in attempting a precise reconstruction of those which remain. Scores can be distinguished as complete reconstructions of composed scores, newly composed for the occasion, assembled from already existing music libraries, or even improvised.
Critical in the development of the silent score is the
theater organ designed to fill a gap between a simple piano soloist and a larger orchestra. Theater organs had a wide range of special effects, and used actual
percussion.
Specialists in the art of arranging and performing silent film scores are rare today. Notable specialists include
Steven Ball (of Ann Arbor's
Michigan Theater); Rosa Rio (organist at the Brooklyn Fox during the silent era and now at the Tampa Theater),
Ben Model,
Neil Brand, Phillip C. Carli, Jon Mirsalis, Dennis James and Donald Sosin
Carl Davis has created entirely new scores for silent era classics.
Acting techniques
Silent film actors emphasised
body language and
facial expression so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen.
Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or
campy. For this reason, silent
comedies tend to be more popular in the modern era than drama, partly because overacting is more natural in comedy.
Overacting in silent films was sometimes a habit actors transferred from their stage experience. Some directors who understood the intimacy of motion pictures discouraged the older acting styles, and some silent films were quite subtly acted, depending on the director and the skill of the cast.
Projection speed
Up until around 1925, most silent films were shot at slower speeds (or "frame rates") than sound films, typically at 16 to 23 frames per second depending on the year and studio, rather than 24 frames per second. Unless carefully shown at their original speeds they can appear unnaturally fast and jerky, which reinforces their alien appearance to modern viewers. At the same time, some scenes were intentionally
undercranked during shooting in order to accelerate the action, particularly in the case of
slapstick comedies. The intended frame rate of a silent film can be ambiguous and since they were usually hand cranked there can even be variation within one film. Film speed is often a vexed issue among scholars and film buffs in the presentation of silents today, especially when it comes to DVD releases of
"restored" films; the 2002 restoration of
''Metropolis'' (Germany, 1927) may be the most fiercely debated example.
Projectionists frequently showed silent films at speeds which were slightly faster than the rate at which they were shot. Most films seem to have been shown at 18 fps or higher - some even faster than what would become sound film speed (24 fps). Even if shot at 16 fps (often cited as "silent speed"), the projection of a nitrate base 35mm film at such a slow speed carried a considerable risk of fire. Often projectionists would receive instructions from the distributors as to how fast particular reels or scenes should be projected on the musical director's cue sheet. Theaters also sometimes varied their projection speeds depending on the time of day or popularity of a film in order to maximize profit.
[1]
Silent films in the sound era
Silent gives way to sound
Although attempts to create sync-sound motion pictures go back to the Edison lab in 1896, the technology became well-developed only in the early 1920s. The next few years saw a race to design, implement, and market several rival
sound-on-disc and
sound-on-film sound formats. Although ''
The Jazz Singer's release in 1927 marked the first commercially successful sound film, silent films formed the majority of features produced in both 1927 and 1928. Thus the modern sound film era may be regarded as coming to dominance beginning in 1929.
Silent films in the early sound era
For a listing of notable silent era films, see ''
list of years in film'' for the years between the beginning of film and 1928. The following list includes only films produced in the sound era with the specific artistic intention of being silent.
★ ''
The Docks of New York'',
Josef von Sternberg, 1929
★ ''
Diary of a Lost Girl'',
GW Pabst, 1929
★ ''
Pandora's Box'',
GW Pabst, 1929
★ ''
Man With a Movie Camera'',
Dziga Vertov, 1929
★ ''
Earth'',
Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1930
★ ''
Love Is Strength,
Mikio Naruse, 1930
★ ''
City Lights'',
Charlie Chaplin, 1931
★ ''
Tabu'',
F. W. Murnau,
Robert Flaherty, 1931
★ ''
I Was Born, But...'',
Yasujiro Ozu, 1932
★ ''
A Story of Floating Weeds'',
Yasujiro Ozu, 1934
★ ''
Modern Times'',
Charlie Chaplin, 1936
Later homages
Several filmmakers have paid homage to the comedies of the silent era, including
Jacques Tati with his ''
Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot'' (1953) and
Mel Brooks with ''
Silent Movie'' (1976). Taiwanese director
Hou Hsiao-Hsien's acclaimed drama ''Three Times'' (2005) is during its middle third a silent, complete with intertitles;
Stanley Tucci's ''
The Impostors'' has an opening silent sequence in the style of early silent comedies. Writer / Director Michael Pleckaitis puts his own twist on the genre with ''
Silent'' (2007). Reminiscent of ''
Pleasantville'' (1998), it's done in the vein of a silent movie from the earliest days of cinema.
The style is also echoed in the 1999 German film ''
Tuvalu''.
Guy Maddin won awards for his homage to Soviet era silent films for his short ''
The Heart of the World''. ''
Shadow of the Vampire'' (2000) is a highly fictionalized depiction of the filming of
Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's classic silent
vampire movie ''
Nosferatu'' (1922).
Werner Herzog honored the same film in his own version, (1979). Some films draw a direct contrast between the silent film era and the era of talkies. ''
Sunset Boulevard'' shows the disconnect between the two eras in the character of Norma Desmond, played by silent film star
Gloria Swanson.
In
1999, the famous
Finnish filmmaker
Aki Kaurismäki produced the silent film ''
Juha''. It is not 100% silent, as it contains music, but it definitely captures the style of a silent film using intertitles in place of spoken dialogue.
[2]
★ ''
Silent Movie'',
Mel Brooks, 1976
★ ''
Sidewalk Stories'',
Charles Lane, 1989
★ ''
Juha'',
Aki Kaurismäki, 1999
★ ''
The Heart of the World'',
Guy Maddin, 2000
★ ''
Claire'', Milford Thomas, 2001
★ ''
Tuvalu'',
Veit Helmer, 2001
★ ''
Dracula, Pages From a Virgin's Diary'', Guy Maddin, 2002
★ ''
Cowards Bend the Knee'', Guy Maddin, 2003
★ ''
The Call of Cthulhu'',
Andrew Leman, 2005
★ ''
Brand Upon the Brain!'', Guy Maddin, 2006
★ ''
The Lounge'', Brian Rose, 2006
★ ''
Silent'', Michael Pleckaitis, 2007
★ ''
Dr. Plonk'', Rolf de Heer, 2007
★ ''
Lyrisch Nitraat (aka
Lyrical Nitrate)'', Peter Delpeut, 1991
Lost silent films
Unfortunately, many films of the silent era have been lost. Many of those which haven't been lost are badly damaged. The importance of archiving silent films wasn't realized until it was too late and hence many classic silent films are lost forever.
[3]
Thousands of silent films were made during the years before the introduction of sound. However, some historians estimate between 80 and 90 percent of films made during the silent era are now
lost films.
Movies of the first half of the
20th century were filmed on an unstable, highly flammable
nitrate film stock which required careful preservation to keep it from decomposing over time. Most of these films were considered to have no commercial value after they were shown in theaters and were carelessly preserved if at all. Over the decades their prints crumbled into dust (or goo). Many were recycled by the studios to reclaim their silver content, and a sizable number were destroyed in both studio fires and space-saving projects. Some prints were sold either intact or broken into short clips to individuals who bought early novelty home projection machines and wanted scenes from their favorite movies to play for guests or family members. As a result, silent
film preservation has been a high priority among movie historians.
Major silent films presumed lost
★ ''
Saved From the Titanic'' - 1912
[4]
★ ''
The Apostle'' - 1917 (world's first
animated feature film)
★ ''
Cleopatra'' - 1917
[5]
★ ''
Arirang'' - 1926
★ ''
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes'' - 1927
[6]
★ ''
The Great Gatsby'' - 1927
★ ''
London After Midnight'' - 1927
Recovered and found silent films
These films have survived in film archives or have been found in private collections.
★ ''Defense d’afficher'',
Georges Méliès, 1896
★ ''X-Rays'',
George Albert Smith, 1897
★ ''
Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon)'',
Georges Méliès, 1902
★ ''
El Hotel eléctrico'',
Segundo de Chomón, 1908
★ ''
La Tosca'', André Calmettes and Charles Le Bargy, 1909
★ ''Jephtah’s Daughter: A Biblical Tragedy'', 1909
★ ''
Frankenstein'', 1910
★ ''A Manly Man'',
Thomas H. Ince, 1911
★ ''At the Duke's Command'',
Thomas H. Ince, 1911
★ ''The Colleen Bawn'',
Thomas H. Ince, 1911
★ ''The Mirror'', 1911
★ ''Maid or Man'',
Thomas H. Ince, 1911
★ ''The Sultan's Garden'',
Thomas H. Ince, 1911
★ ''
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'', Lucius Henderson, 1912
★ ''A Fool and His Money'',
Alice Guy-Blaché, 1912
★ ''Under Two Flags'', 1912
★ ''Richard III'', 1912
★ ''
The Prisoner of Zenda'',
Edwin S. Porter, 1913
★ ''
Der Hund von Baskerville (The Hound of the Baskervilles)'', Rudolf Meinert, 1914
★ ''Double Trouble'', William Christy Cabanne, 1915
★ ''His Lordship's Dilemma'', 1915
★ ''Youth'', Harry Handworth, 1915
★ ''Mysteriet natten tell den 25:e'', Georg al Klercker, 1916
★ ''Purity'', Rea Burger, 1916
★ ''Bucking Broadway'',
John Ford, 1917
★ ''His Wedding Night'',
Roscoe Arbuckle, 1917
★ ''The Image Maker'', Eugene Moore, 1917
★ ''Max and His Taxi'', 1917
★ ''Max Comes Across'', 1917
★ ''Max Wants a Divorce'', 1917
★ ''The Rough House'',
Roscoe Arbuckle, 1917
★ ''Hell Bent'',
John Ford, 1918
★ ''Oh Baby!'', 1918
★ ''A Gun Fightin' Gentleman'',
John Ford, 1918
★ ''Back Stage'',
Roscoe Arbuckle, 1919
★ ''Scarlet Days'',
D.W. Griffith, 1919
★ ''If I were King'',
J. Gordon Edwards, 1920
★ ''In the Days of St. Patrick'', Norman Whitten, 1920
★ ''The Blue Fox'', Duke Worne, 1921
★ ''
Beyond the Rocks'',
Sam Wood, 1922
★ ''
The Young Rajah'', Phill Rosen, 1922
★ ''$20 A Week'', Harmon F. Weight, 1924
★ ''
The Breaking Point'',
Herbert Brenon, 1924
★ ''Pied Piper Malone'', 1924
★ ''The Boob'',
William Wellman, 1926
★ ''The Exquisite Sinner'',
Josef von Sternberg, 1926
★ ''The Flaming Frontier'', Edward Sedgwick, 1926
★ ''The Magic Flame'',
Henry King, 1927
★ ''You Never Know Women'',
William Wellman, 1926
★ ''
A Page of Madness'',
Kinugasa Teinosuke, 1926
★ ''The Ridin' Rowdy'',
Richard Thorpe, 1927
★ ''The Rough Riders'',
Victor Fleming, 1927
★ ''Senorita'', Alfred E. Green, 1927
★ ''Sorrell and Son'',
Herbert Brenon, 1927
★ ''The Constant Nymph'', Adrian Brunel, 1928
★ ''
The Passion of Joan of Arc'',
Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928
★ ''Drag'',
Frank Lloyd, 1929
★ ''Why Be Good?'',
William Seiter, 1929
★ ''Wonder of Women'',
Clarence Brown, 1929
Top grossing silent films
The following are the films that earned the highest ever gross income in film history, according to ''
Variety'' magazine in 1932. The dollar amounts are not adjusted for inflation, and the values were calculated in 1932.
[7]
# ''
The Birth of a Nation'' (1915) - $10,000,000
#''
The Big Parade'' (1925) - $6,400,000
#''
Ben-Hur'' (1925) - $5,500,000
#''
Way Down East'' (1920) - $5,000,000
#''
The Gold Rush'' (1925) - $4,250,000
#''
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'' (1921) - $4,000,000
#''
The Circus'' (1928) - $3,800,000
#''
The Covered Wagon'' (1923) - $3,800,000
#''
The Hunchback of Notre Dame'' (1923) - $3,500,000
#''
The Ten Commandments'' (1923) - $3,400,000
#''
Orphans of the Storm'' (1921) - $3,000,000
#''
For Heaven's Sake'' (1926) - $2,600,000
#''
Seventh Heaven'' (1926) - $2,400,000
#''
Abie's Irish Rose'' (1928) - $1,500,000
See also
★
★
★
Classic Images
★
Laurel and Hardy films
★
List of film formats
★
List of silent films released on 8mm or Super 8mm film
★
Melodrama
★
Sound stage
★
Lost films
Notes
1. Silent Film Speed, , James, Card, Image, 1955
2.
3. The Preservation and Restoration of Silent Films
4. Lost Films: Important Movies That Disappeared, , Frank T., Thompson, Carol Publishing Corporation, ,
5. Thompson, ''op cit'', pp. 68-78.
6. Thompson, ''op cit'', pp. 186-200.
7. Biggest Money Pictures, , , ''Variety'', Variety,
References
★ Brownlow, Kevin. ''Behind the Mask of Innocence''. New York: Knopf, 1990. ISBN 0-394-57747-7
★ Bean, Jennifer M., and Diane Negra, eds. ''A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema'' (Camera Obscura Book). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8223-2999-9
★ Cook, David A. ''A History of Narrative Film'', 2nd edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1990. ISBN 0-393-95553-2
★ Eyman, Scott. ''The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-1930''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-81162-6
★ Parkinson, David. ''History of Film''. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995. ISBN 0-500-20277-X
★ Standish, Isolde. ''A New History of Japanese Cinema: A Century of Narrative Film''. New York: Continuum, 2005. ISBN 0-8264-1709-4
★ Koszarski, Richard. ''History of The American Cinema - An Evening's Entertainment: the Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915-1928''. New York: Charles Scriber's Sons, 1990. ISBN 0-684-18415-X
External links
★
The Silent Era
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