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Silent Movies: A fine topic for audio nuts!

216.244.18.37

I'm a big fan of silent movies- that the visual elements had to carry so much more communication is very powerful.

It may be age ("If it's too loud you're too old") but I often feel rung out by the modern, layered, textured sounds that batter the audience- along with editing that cuts every 1/8 second. Turn the sound off of some Batman movie and the silliness and complete waste becomes apparent- the whole thing looks like a squirrel dropped into a blender.

Some silent ones I like especially:

*"Battleship Potemkin"- nearly a perfect film! And full of indelible images. Who can forget the Odessa steps and the pram? The nanny with the shattered glasses? The appatizing maggot scene?

*"Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"- those amazing German Expressionist sets which contrast strangley with the regular clothing of the characters. The suprise ending gives me the same shock every time- which wouldn't happen with "Titanic". But the whole atmosphere is so full of psychological violence conveyed through the shadows and the distorted perspective. It's interesting that the greatness of this movie was partly out of ad hoc necessity- there was very little lighting and materials for sets available.

*"Nosferatu" - the famous scene where "Dracula" (though the name 'Dracula' could not be used for this one) is raised from his coffin to the vertical, the wonderful shadowy quality is so much more mysterious and frightening than the modern style- witness Herzog's remake with Kinski which seemed a cute suburban romp by comparison.

Golly, I've listed two films featuring guys kept in boxes!

*Keaton, Lloyd, and Chaplin comedies- but Chaplin is sometimes too sentimental. Keaton almost never fails: "Steamboat Bill", The General" are fun as can be. I've gotten to appreciate Lloyd more recently- an interesting character.

* Street scenes. This is something that is rarely talked about as ther is no particular art in it, but I am always very interested in old, silent footage of normal street scenes in cities or country. The dress, cars, signage just seems a window to another world. I get a strange feeling when I see a film of a young child from that age, relaizing that this 3 year old is long passed away. One of the Lumiere Bros 1890's 50 second films was of a woman walking with a toddler who slightly trips on a little step. There is something very touching about it that I can't forget. If this were done in 70mm 5.1 surround it would be meaningless.

There are some movies that are so quietly powerful that I think of them sometimes as silent movies- "La Belle et la bête ("Beauty and the Beast") for example. "Quest for Fire" might fall into this category too. With these, I could happily see them without sound and have a satifying experience. Though there was the Anthony Burgess retro dialogue and sounds in "Quest", there is something still and graphic that reminds me of silent film.


Cheers,

Bambi B

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