silent_films | Recent Entries

Yesterday Silentology posted a list of 12 especially beautiful silent films. Maybe some inspiration for what to watch this weekend! :)

yarnandglue

Silent film showings in the Chicagoland area have been greatly curtailed since organist Jay Warren's passing earlier this year. But there are still a few coming up! Saturday, July 5 at 11:30am the Music Box Theater in Chicago will be screening A Story of Floating Weeds (1934), directed by Yasujirō Ozu. The film will be musically accompanied by the MIYUMI Project Japanese Experimental Ensemble, a hybrid avant-garde jazz/traditional Japanese group.

More information can be found on the Music Box Theater's website.

yarnandglue

The artist Johanna Öst has recently finished two Buster Keaton figurines modeled from his appearance in an oversized swimsuit in The Cameraman (1928).

Most of her updates on the figures have been behind a paywall on her Patreon but you can also find more information and photos on her website.

agent_mimi

Hello all! As most of you have noticed, I'm not here much, and the community needs a moderator who's active. Please let me know if you're interested so I can transfer ownership over to someone else. Thanks!

yarnandglue

There's a Kickstarter going through February 14 to bring 12 Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle films to DVD and Blu-Ray! They have already met their goal but if they hit their next stretch goal they can digitally restore all of the films. The consists entirely of films not previously available for home release and will include:

Twixt Love and Fire (1914)
Cleaning Up (1925)
The Gangsters (1913)
A Noise from the Deep (1913)
An Incompetent Hero (1914)
The Sea Nymphs (1914)
Crazy to Marry (1921)
A reconstruction of Fatty and the Broadway Stars (1916)
Never Again (1924)
Stupid but Brave (1924)
Dynamite Doggie (1925)
Home Cured (1926)
Honeymoon Trio (1931)
and a video essay on Arbuckle

The Kickstarter can be found here.

scifirenegade

I am once again leaving a skinny German-English actor in this community's doorstep. A somewhat fragmented look at the silent films of his I've watched for the first time in the past year or so.

Has anyone seen these? If so, what are your thoughts?

Opium (1919)
Some beautiful shots and interesting imagery (nymphs and satyrs aplenty). However, it's soap-opera-ey and features racist depictions of non-western cultures :/

Opium Caligari pops out of nowhere. Homoerotic. Veidt starts veidting, and is Romantic (note the capital R), but is not here much.

Der Reigen (1920)
A typical "bad things happen to woman" story. Asta Nielsen is the highlight, worth watching just for her. Conrad Veidt was obnoxiously evil (in a fun way).

Lady Hamilton (1921)
A decent historical drama directed by Richard Oswald, but he's got better historicals under his belt (see below).

It does have the weirdest Lord Nelson in the history of film (guess who).

Lucrezia Borgia (1922)
Oswald historical, big budget, epic war scenes. Historical-accuracy? Never heard of her, but we get Conrad Veidt being a nasty delight as Cesare (not that one, the Borgia!).

Wilhelm Tell (1923)
Meh. Very meh.

Carlos und Elisabeth (1924)
Apparently, I have a thing for historicals directed by Richard Oswald. Mistakingly refered to as an "expressionistic", it still is quite pretty to look at. The plot is very character-driven, so if that isn't how you like your historical dramas, well...

I've never seen a 16th century man as Romantic as Veidt's portrayal of Prince Carlos.

10/10 dog. 10/10 collarbones.

Die Flucht in die Nacht (1925)
An adaptation of a stage play it very much feels like it.

Shame that the only copy in existence is so badly preserved and missing so much footage. Veidt gave an incredible performance.

Die Brüder Schellenberg (1926)
Good twin and bad twin film. An explosion at a factory kills several workers. The good twin creates a commune to help the unemployed, the bad twin lives a life of debauchery and, sorry for the expression, gets blueballed and disgraced.

I liked it, but I prefer the other Veidt-as-twin film (not silent).

The Beloved Rogue (1927)
Fun: I don't think there's any other word to describe this film. It's got action scenes, it's got quiet scenes between our hero François Villon and his love interest, it's got homoeroticism; an adventure film through and through.

Die Grosse Sehnsucht (1930)
Talkie? But there's a silent version.

A film nerd may enjoy this, since there's lots of behind-the-Ufa bits. And you get to play spot-the-actor.

Current Mood: grumpy

scifirenegade

Hello! Wrote this piece a few days ago, thought it would fit here. We need to bring some of DW's communities to life, right?

I've been on a Conrad Veidt binge as of late, and after rewatching Anders als die Andern | Different from the Others (1919) (yet again), I thought "Why not post some of my thoughts"?

( Thoughts and Things Under This Cut )

(Crossposted to my journal and

classicfilm

mistressmandoli

I don't know if this off-topic or not, but has anyone here seen Babylon yet, or is planning on seeing it? I was going to see it earlier this week, but time constraints kept me from going when I wanted to (I might see it later this week).

agent-mimi.livejournal.com

Hello all. I'm currently the only active moderator on this community. Due to LiveJournal's newest Terms of Service, I will be leaving LiveJournal soon.

I have moved the community over to Dreamwidth, and it can be found here at silent_films (As of 3:00PM Central time on 7 April 2017, it's in the process of being transferred over to DW; please allow a day or so for all the posts and comments in the community archive to show up.)

While the community will remain up here on LiveJournal, it won't be active and I may not be around to moderate. Please contact me if you'd like to be a moderator, or if there are any issues here on silent_films now or in the future. You can find me at agent-mimi over on Dreamwidth.

snooker11.livejournal.com

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone on this board might be able to make suggestions of silent films/particular scenes that might illustrate these concepts:

Creating suspense
Shocking the viewer
Teasing the viewer
Showing not telling

Many thanks in advance!

emaline5678.livejournal.com

Has anyone seen this great Anna May Wong film? It's a British silent (which must explain the bizarre billed Charles Laughton cameo...can someone explain to me why having Laugton play a grumpy customer would attract audiences? He's there for five minutes! At least he distracts us form Gilda Gray's horrible dancing) made at the end of the era. There's some great dramatic camera shots and editing. It's plot is on the meladramtic side, but it's all in good fun. Anna May completely steals the picture and rightly so. I wish more of her films were around to see (at least more that I can get access too).

( Read more )

irigaraysw.livejournal.com

Originally posted by

irigaraysw at Please check out my friend, Matías Bombal's Facebook and Youtube page for his program, Hollywood

"Matías Bombal’s Hollywood" presents movie reviews of new films currently playing or coming soon at a theatre near you. This page takes you behind the scenes and allows you to interact with the show's host, Matías Bombal.

Matías is an old friend and one of the people who got me interested in older films. He is a silent film, early film, and early recording aficionado.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWrnFTX67Y0&feature=c4-overview&list=UUit03KJhTNfw3MdLhy30wyw

irigaraysw.livejournal.com

Dear silent film community,

Also see my page about these early technologies and media for recording and film if you are interested.

Thank you!

irigaraysw

http://until-talkies.livejournal.com/468.html

irigaraysw.livejournal.com

I'm currently working on a dissertation that involves the development of mechanical, electric, and eventually digital technologies in the United States and STRONG FEMALE LEADS. So far, it's been a wild ride and an amazing endeavor to start on my own. TO START, I'd love to communicate with a community of people who share my interests of silent film of the early 20th century. If you want to discuss a little on how these films were made and to what desired effect, that is an added bonus!

I've been watching silent films mostly from early opera singers and other women actresses who worked in Hollywood such as Geraldine Farrar and Mary Garden. I'm also looking into early talkies of figures, Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. So far I'm intrigued with how early cinema developed with some of these great films as a young Cecil B. DeMille's Carmen, and Von Sternberg's films of Dietrich.

I plan to watch a series of films (out of sequence in year) and comment on them here. Please feel free to watch them alongside me. I can provide clips for the pivotal scenes if I can find them on Youtube. The one I'm starting with is Carmen by Cecil B. Demille. Released 1915, starring the most famous woman of the stage at the time, the Met's favorite prima donna Geraldine Farrar. There is an especially riveting scene with Farrar in this film in the "fight scene" where she attacks the writer Jeannie Macpherson, who was left bloody, shaken, and crying after the scene. This was quite a shift from the "prima donna" style of acting that was typically much more controlled and refined than this style of realism. It was considered one of the most important accomplishments for cinema to date, because of a young Cecil B. DeMille's skills as a director, and the star appeal of Geraldine Farrar. But also because film was not considered reputable for public consumption yet in the United States. This film helped convince the public and the critics...Stay tuned.

emaline5678.livejournal.com

"The Butler" is a 1916 short film that Warner Brothers' currently owns. It stars Davy Don and Florence Williams. I'm assuming it's still around (I haven't seen it yet) because I doubt WB would cause such a fuss over a lost film. WB has sued TWC for using the title of "The Butler" for their new film starring Forrest Whitaker and Oprah. A judge recently reversed the appeal by TWC (according to EW.com and imdb.com) so unless they want to pay $25,000 every day to promote the film, they'll have to change the title.

I think it's funny that even a little short silent film can still be important enough in this day and age. I read somewhere else that WB mainly made the fuss because they want the rights to "The Hobbit", but whatever. They won anyway. TWC will probably change the title to "Butler" or something instead.

Anyway, go silent films for still counting in this day and age - even if it's just to cause trouble. It just goes to show those big studios that you can't forget about any film - even if it's almost 100 years old!

emaline5678.livejournal.com

EW released what they consider the top 100 films. Of course, not a lot of silents were on the list. "Sunrise", "The Gold Rush" and "Intolerance" might have been it (I'll have to check it out again. I'd post a link, but I'm crunched for time here. I'm sure someone can find it online).

What upset me the most though, was no Buster Keaton. I mean, I know Chaplin's number one, but where's the Keaton love? Keaton's films are so sweet, funny, full of great stunts and usually cleverly done. "Sherlock jr" would have been my pick, but most critics choose "The General". What does everyone else think?

emeraldarrows.livejournal.com

I started watching silent films a couple years ago and have since seen all of Mary Pickford's films that are available on DVD or VHS, as well as Ben-Hur and Wings. I'd like to watch other silent films, too, but aren't sure where to start. Could someone please recommend some to me? I prefer drama to comedy, or a film with a mix of the two. Many thanks for any ideas!

emaline5678.livejournal.com

I've heard through the grapevine that the only silent star represented this year is Ramon Novarro and it's on August 8th (my birthday!). Guess that means we'll see "Ben-Hur" at least. Wallace Beery (aug 17th) also started in some shorts, so maybe we'll see some of his - though doubtful.

I'm starting to really get into silent films, so I'll def have to check this out!

agent-mimi.livejournal.com

The Museum of the Moving Image will be screening Buster Keaton’s The General with live music by the Australian ensemble Viola Dana on Sunday, April 14, at 4:00 p.m. Ticket prices and info plus more details of the event can be found here.

ViolaDanaTheGeneral-154-1-700px

Viola Dana (pictured above during a showing of The General) is an Australian ensemble who create and perform music for film. Their new soundtrack for The General premiered in 2009, and they are currently on a North American tour. More about the band can be found on their website here.