Silent Films

[ToucanSpam]

We all love to talk about movies and television a lot so I figured at some point perhaps some of us have seen one or some silent films. At the risk of sounding pretentious I find silent films make you focus more on the scenery, the music and the physical expressions of the actors which I admittedly don't do with other movies because I'm very interested in dialogue. I also find that silent movies are great for creating suspense and tension, maybe more so than 'talkies'.


My question for all of the movie buffs up in here is have you ever seen a silent film? If so, which one? What did you think?

I've seen a couple and my favorite is Nosferatu (1922?). Easily my scariest movie of all time. It's very eerie and disturbing.

[Randetica]

i saw cast away

[Freebasser]

Silent Movie (y)

[Bjork]

Jay and Silent Bob

although Jay does make up for Bob x 10

[mathcart]

took a silent film class in college- so yeah I've seen a bunch of them. Mostly agree with your assessment of them, but "talkies" have their advantages too. I don't think you can consider yourself a serious movie aficionado unless you are somewhat conversant in the silents (if for no other reason because of how influential the greats of this style where to modern cinema, and because of how much was borrowed from them). Battleship Potemptkin stands out- but nosferato was also good- as I remember. Grew up on Charlie Chaplin flicks on sunday morning, I think those were extremely valuable for actors portraying emotions (I also felt it worked best for comedic purposes, since it is pretty silly acting). My 2cents
(y)

[Documad]

Silent Movie (y)

That is a classic! I haven't seen it since I was a kid!


I am not a fan of silent movies. I always feel bad about it. I've seen all the famous ones. I just tend to prefer screwball comedies of the 30s. I love the sound of movies more than the visuals. I love great dialogue. I am almost always disappointed when I see a movie that is acclaimed for its visuals because I tend to be bored and I feel bad about myself -- I feel like a dumbass. It's part of why I tend to dislike Scorsese by the way. I find his camera tricks distracting. If it still has good dialogue it can work, like with Goodfellas.

I do love film noir movies, even though the visual element is important to them. I guess my love of crime trumps everything else. :p Along those lines, I did enjoy "M" despite it being silent. I'm a massive Peter Lorre fan.

[mate_spawn_die]

i never finished watching "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"

i will one day.

[na§tee]

the general.

best silent film evarh.

[Lex Diamonds]

My question for all of the movie buffs up in here is have you ever seen a silent film? If so, which one?
lol

[roosta]

Battleship Potempkin

Im fairly sure I was made watch it for a film class in college, but I quite liked it.

I also saw Man With A Movie Camera with the new Cinematic Orchestra soundtrack, that was also pretty good.

[abcdefz]

^

Two good ones, there.


Buster Keaton: The General, Our Hospitality, Steamboat Bill, Jr., and Sherlock, Jr. -- in that order.

Chaplin: The Gold Rush

Fritz Lang adapted The Ring into two movies -- those were good, and he even manged a pretty decent dragon for slaying. I've never been
that crazy about Metropolis, but there's a full version available now which maybe works better.

Griffith's Broken Blossoms is a heartbreaker.

King Vidor's The Crowd is terrific.

Hitchcock's The Lodger is really good.

There's a Swedish director who did a movie called The Wind which is terrific.

A lot of Stan Brakage's stuff is modern but silent -- check out Black Ice on the Criterion collection of his stuff. Amazing, abstract work.

Bunuel's Un chien andalou is worth a look.

Von Stroheim's Foolish Wives is really good, and Greed is a masterpiece. I wish the studio hadn't cut it down -- I'd love to see the full thing.

[rirv]

If you want something to make you turn to drink try watching The Birth of a Nation.

[ToucanSpam]

If you want something to make you turn to drink try watching The Birth of a Nation.

I don't need to watch a movie about the KKK to drive me to drink, their mere presence is enough to make me angry.


Wasn't there a Great Train Robbery done silent film style? I've never seen it and I probably wouldn't anyways but I'm curious.

EDIT: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/papr:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(edmp+2443s3))+@fi eld(COLLID+edison))

LOL

[hellojello]

Not strictly silent, The Quiet Room, is probably the closest thing to a silent film I've watch in its entirety.
While Bad Boy Bubby would have been a hard film to follow up by anyones standards, The Quiet Room, is probably, one of the most sedating and banal films I've ever seen. Now that I think about it though, it would be interesting to see what my views on it are now 8 years since I first endured at.
At the time, I was more than disappointed.

[Pres Zount]

The only ones I've seen are Battleship Potekmin and October 1917. Pretty good, I guess.

As far as old films go, I usually can't stand them. Bad acting kills me.

[na§tee]

old films don't necessarily mean bad acting you philistine.

[paul jones]

All the Laurel and Hardy silents are just as good as the ones with sound.the ones with sound add to it of course.
I used to watch 'Hooray for Harold Lloyd' or something like that on BBC2 years ago.Sort of a compilation of Harold Lloyd silent movies but with a narrator.
Haven't seen much Buster Keaton although it is often said he was the master at the art,along with Chaplin.
It's just moving pictures,telling a story,like comic books.You use your own imagination.
A lot of todays movies would be more tolerable being silent.Especially ones with soundtracks that have Nikelback and Fall Out Boy tracks.
A lot of todays movies are basically shit anyway,come to think of it.(y)

[rirv]

I don't need to watch a movie about the KKK to drive me to drink, their mere presence is enough to make me angry.


It's not the fact the KKK are in it that makes it so mind numbing - it's the fact that it's such a long, turgid, god-awful film that had huge success when released. I have a particular disdain for it because on three seperate occasions I had to watch it for my degree.

[abcdefz]

Haven't seen much Buster Keaton although it is often said he was the master at the art,along with Chaplin.



Keaton was leaps and bounds ahead of Chaplin, I think. Great actor, great director. He usually didn't sign his films, but he basically directed
all of his pre-MGM features and most of the shorts. The guy really knew how to use film and editing much better than Chaplin.

[Audio.]

I saw The Red Balloon. Although, not technically a silent film, but there are allllmoooooooost no dialogs except for like two or five words thru out the whole film.

Yeah, I found it to be pretty great. They focus a lot on expressions and they build drama and comedy and other elements used in films, even so I bet without the score the film would of been a boring fest. Practically all movies would suck without a song in it.

meh, I watch animation more. They get better facial expressions, strong body movements, great scripts, great surroundings, and awesome voice cast. Animation ruuless.

[MC Moot]

"Birth of a Nation"

and

"Hunchback of Notre Dame"

are the only 2 that I ever took to,especially the Hunchback...(y)