Silent Film Appreciation / CLASSIC MOVIES ROUND-UP

Silent Film Appreciation

22.3.20

“In many of the films now being made, there is very little cinema: they are mostly what I call 'photographs of people talking.' When we tell a story in cinema we should resort to dialogue only when it's impossible to do otherwise. I always try to tell a story in the cinematic way, through a succession of shots and bits of film in between.” — Alfred Hitchcock

This March I'm focusing on watching silent films because I love them and there are lots of titles on my watchlist. I also want to see more of Lillian Gish so that's like killing two birds with one stone. She's one of my great discoveries since I delved into silent cinema. This month I already watched 3 more Gish films, True Heart Susie, La Bohème and The White Sister and love them all (more about those in this month's round-up post). Hopefully I can watch a couple of more Gish titles during the last days of March.

What makes silent films so appealing and when did I get into them?

I think most people associate silent film with comedy and slapstick and are familiar with icons like Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy. It was the same for me. But when I started to explore silent cinema, a whole new world opened up. I found out that many silent films, especially those of the 1920s, can be considered pieces of art, in terms of cinematography and in the way they are groundbreaking.

I discovered Buster Keaton and his brilliant stunts and innovative gags. I watched Chaplin films, was moved by his pathos and the way he combines a smile and a tear. I discovered the mesmerising and unique Lillian Gish. And I also discovered that for great storytelling you don't need words. It's not so difficult to engage an audience with physical comedy since humour can be universally understood without dialogue. Yet to tell drama effectively and hook the viewer emotionally when there are no words spoken is something else.

Well, I can tell you this, there are plenty examples of great dramas in silent film. Just watch The Wind, He Who Gets Slapped, Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, City Girl or The Docks of New York, to name a few. Whereas exaggerated body movements and facial expressions were well suited for silent comedy, overacting in drama was less desired and a more subtle and restraint acting style was adopted. Lillian Gish can sometimes overact and do her wide-eyed act but when she tones it down, she's completely spellbinding.

I cannot recall exactly what my first acquaintance with silent film was. I guess I must have seen some silent Laurel and Hardy films in my childhood but I have no recollection of titles or content. Probably the first conscient brush with silent film was when I was a student and took a film course. I remember having seen Battleship Potemkin then, not recalling anything of it now, except for the famous scene with the baby carriage falling down the stairs. I think my first Chaplin film was The Circus but most Chaplin films I discovered later. And I had never seen a Buster Keaton film before 2016.

My interest for silent film really started after having seen Lucky Star at the beginning of 2016. I fell in love with that film and I think it probably was the first time I realised that I didn't need spoken dialogue at all. I also fell head over heels in love with Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell. I guess it's the appeal of the actors that matters in the end, irrelevant of the decade, be it silent or talkies. What would silent film be without Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Lillian Gish, Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Greta Garbo, Marion Davies (recently discovered her and love her!), Ronald Colman .....

So basically 2016 became the year that I started watching a lot of silent films, as you can see in the list below. This list contains all silent films I've seen so far. I've also seen a good amount of silent films at the Filmoteca on the big screen, most of the time accompanied by live piano music, which is of course the best way to experience them.

The following list is in watching order, 60 films in total, feature films as well as shorts:

*Battleship Potemkin (seen in my student days during a film course)
*The Circus (first seen on Belgian television when living in Amsterdam and rewatched on the big screen in January 2018)
*Modern Times (I think I've also seen this on television when living in Amsterdam)
*The Kid (August 2015 and rewatched on the big screen in December 2019)
*The Immigrant (September 2015)

*The Tramp (September 2015)
*City Lights (November 2015)
*Lucky Star (January 2016 and rewatched at the Eye Film Institute, Amsterdam, in April 2016)
*One Week (January 2016)
*Neighbors (January 2016)
*Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (January 2016 and rewatched on the big screen in January 2020)
*7th Heaven (January 2016)
*Safety Last! (January 2016)
*The Docks of New York (January 2016)
*Cops (February 2016)
*Sherlock, Jr. (February 2016)
*Street Angel (March 2016)
*The Boat (May 2016)
*City Girl (May 2016)
*The General (July 2016)
*The Crowd (July 2016)
*The Wind (July 2016 and rewatched on the big screen in June 2017)
*He Who Gets Slapped (July 2016)

*The Scarlet Letter (July 2016)

*Steamboat Bill, Jr. (Augustus 2016 and rewatched on the big screen in March 2018)

*The Gold Rush (Augustus 2016 and rewatched on the big screen in June 2018 )
*It (Augustus 2016)
*Easy Street (Augustus 2016)

*The Scarecrow (September 2016)

*The Play House (September 2016)
*My Wife’s Relations (October 2016 and rewatched on the big screen in April 2019)
*Underground (December 2016)
*The Adventurer (November 2017)
*The Cure (January 2018)
*One A.M. (January 2018)
*The Rink (March 2018)
*Metropolis (March 2018, seen on the big screen)
*Faust (April 2018, seen on the big screen)
*The Pilgrim (May 2018, seen on the big screen)
*Pay Day (May 2018, seen on the big screen)
*The Idle Class (May 2018, seen on the big screen)
*A Dog’s Life (May 2018)
*The River (June 2018)
*The Mark of Zorro (April 2019, seen on the big screen)
*Broken Blossoms (April 2019, seen on the big screen)
*A Woman of Paris (April 2019, seen on the big screen)
*Three Ages (April 2019, seen on the big screen)
*Battling Butler (April 2019, seen on the big screen)
*Rosita (June 2019, seen on the big screen)
*The Patsy (November 2019, seen on the big screen)
*Romola (February 2020, seen on the big screen)
*Lonesome (March 2020)
*True Heart Susie (March 2020)
*Show People (March 2020)
*The Red Mill (March 2020)
*Enchantment (March 2020)
*La Bohème (March 2020)
*The Goat (March 2020)
*The High Sign (March 2020)
*The White Sister (March 2020)

Here are some of my favourite silent films (I don't think I've seen a bad silent film yet). They're in no particular order:

*Lucky Star

*Underground

*City Lights

*City Girl

*The Kid

*The Crowd

*The Wind

*Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
*The White Sister
*Sherlock, Jr.
*Steamboat Bill, Jr.
*Show People
*One Week
*True Heart Susie
*The Scarlet Letter
*Modern Times
*Street Angel

At the bottom of this post you'll see posters of all silent films I've seen so far, in chronological order by release date. There's a lot of room for improvement, I know, but at least it's not just Chaplin and Keaton. I will continue watching silent films for the remainder of March and you can read my thoughts on them in my upcoming round-up post.