the silent film thread

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (623 of them)

if anyone is in paris this february email me i have a special event to tell you about

― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 1 February 2004 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I watched that Britney Spears movie with the TV on mute. Does that count?

― El Spinktor (El Spinktor), Sunday, 1 February 2004 21:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I feel that Murnau's "Nosferatu" is one of the ten greatest films ever made, and suspect that the only reason people go on about "Sunrise" is that critical opinion does not like to accord just levels of acclaim to a film about a bloodsucking vampire

it probably has more to do with the fact that Sunrise is still a moving film, but Nosferatu (great tho it is) really isn't scary anymore. horror doesn't age well, sadly.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 2 February 2004 00:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom, I think the DVD may not be out yet, since the BFI is set to release a new print in Soho in the next few days. I'd guess it would be make more sense to release the DVD shortly after the theatrical run? Dunno.

Just saw my first silent film screening with live accompaniment (Red Heroine), and I must say that it is somehow more satisfying knowing that there is a guy sitting there watching the film and weaving together different themes in a coherent whole, non-stop, without any sheet music. Whether or not he memorized the piece or improvised it, very impressive. It doesn't exactly feel totally different than watching a silent film with an added score, but it feels just slightly subliminally fuller.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Monday, 2 February 2004 01:52 (twenty-two years ago)

nosferatu is totally scary wtf

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 2 February 2004 09:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I just saw a British 1926 adaptation of 'A Tale of Two Cities' (called 'The Only Way,' which was apparently an extremely successful stage play -- which the film more or less recreates). Because it's not particularly well-remembered or leved, I ended up enjoying this far more than other sitlents, and has given me the itch to see a whole load more. With so many silents I feel oppressed by the idea that the film is a major leap forward in film language -- I can't just watch the thing, i have to recognize how significant that cut or this track is. This film broke that spell. So I'm gonna see 'Sunrise' (for the third time) when it's out.

Also: Tom -- Murnau's 'The Last Laugh' is out soon on DVD -- for a long time this was even more highly regarded than 'Sunrise'.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 2 February 2004 09:54 (twenty-two years ago)

how long of a time? the two years between their release dates?

i havent seen a murnau film i haven't adored--right now i'm big on his faust

― amateur!st (amateurist), Monday, 2 February 2004 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

'The Last Laugh' got mo' love from the 'socially concerned' critix cos of the whole neue sacherlicht (sp!) thang. I think.

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 2 February 2004 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"The Last Laugh": great news... I've heard a fair bit about that. Not perhaps as praised as "Sunrise" but not too far off (and how is that a problem when "Sunrise" is one of my few favourite films?).
May well pick up "Faust" today for £7 in Fopp...

Girolamo: No, it is actually out, on Eureka, and I know this because I now possess it! :) I just ask because I won't be able to watch it until March; i.e. my DVD player is at home while I'm at University.

― Tom May (Tom May), Monday, 2 February 2004 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

ARGH don't remind me of Cambridge Fopp

a) that's where my december paycheck went
b) oxford doesn't have a fopp grrr

― Enrique (Enrique), Monday, 2 February 2004 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

;-) Only "Faust" and the (mentioned on ILM; loads of classic late 70s/80s disco-r'n'b) "Pure Groove" compilation this time, I think. Though I got the Upsetters' "Super Ape" for a fiver a few days ago, too.

They've also had in stock (or did, anyway) "...Caligari", "The Blue Angel" and a special edition "Nosferatu". Is the "Nosferatu" package recommended?

― Tom May (Tom May), Monday, 2 February 2004 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

recommended, highly: the king vidor version of 'la boheme' with lillian gish

― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 20 March 2004 23:10 (twenty-two years ago)

KING VIDOR I LOVE YOU CAN I BE IN ONE OF YOUR MOVIES PLEAS!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 21 March 2004 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I AM DEAD SORRY

--KING VIDOR

― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 21 March 2004 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

THX SORRY

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 21 March 2004 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

eleven months pass...

I just found Sjoman's The Phantom Chariot. I'm going to probably watch it on Monday.

― A Nairn (moretap), Sunday, 6 March 2005 04:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd really like to see 1923's Trilby, i'm not even sure if there are any prints of it left but I've been fascinated since I bought a production still of ebay of it.

http://photos3.flickr.com/5930783_db2693c8c6.jpg

It starred Audree LaFayette and Philo McCoullough

― kate/baby loves headrub (papa november), Sunday, 6 March 2005 04:34 (twenty-one years ago)

sjostrom--i hope you like it! i hope you found a good copy. a good-looking print of the film will be positively gorgeous. it's a very moody and subtle film (though not as subtle as some of his other films).

i can check to see if that one exists. somehow i think it does, but i may be wrong.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 6 March 2005 08:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Silent drama can be avery dangerous thing. If it's not made by a great visual stylist (Murnau, Lang, Vidor etc), the going can be tough.

I was gifted with the Keaton box last Christmas. Still, his films are best seen first on the big screen, cuz it's vital to see his face.

Orson Welles said, purely on aesthetics, silents should have continued alongside talkies as a distinctly different art form.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 7 March 2005 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

Edison box set! Anders als die Andern FINALLY available on home video!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 29 May 2005 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

And then there's this enticing forthcoming little number.

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 29 May 2005 16:01 (twenty-one years ago)

wow! that looks amazing.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Sunday, 29 May 2005 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

By the way, my favorite Edison (based on the dozen or so I've seen) is this:

http://www.railwaybridge.co.uk/images/topsyelectrornd.jpg

Seemingly establishing the format as being capable of great cruelty, et al.

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 29 May 2005 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The only Keaton I've been underwhelmed with so far is The Navigator. But the scene where Keaton and his love interest chase each other around the ship's deck, trying to catch up with each other's phantom presence for what seems like five minutes is teh roffle.

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 29 May 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

The somewhat grim stories of ">Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and Topsy the Elephant.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 29 May 2005 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Which is to say Electrocuting an Elephant also helps establish the format as excellent for Toxic Sludge is Good for You-style manipulation.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 29 May 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Topsy the Elephant had killed three people, and even if one of them had fed her a lit cigarette...

Also establishing the notion that most inmates executed under death penalties are either innocent or committed justifiable crimes.

Electrocuting an Elephant is the birth of the 20th century in nearly every conceivable way.

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 29 May 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Annabelle Serpentine Dance: BIG DANCING VAGINA.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 29 May 2005 16:59 (twenty-one years ago)

that edison boxset is insane!

― cozen (Cozen), Sunday, 29 May 2005 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

It's really good, Cozen! I bought it a while back, and I still get a kick out of showing some of the stuff to friends.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Sunday, 29 May 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

i think my entire april paycheck went to box sets of silent films

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Sunday, 29 May 2005 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

you should list what was on the receipt.

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Sunday, 29 May 2005 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

http://www.cadrage.net/dossier/aelita.gif

Oh, now I remember where I saw this. On Chris Marker's Immemory. (It's on Netflix!)

― Eric H: not a troll, with one exception (Eric H.), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 16:08 (twenty years ago)

it's funny that protazanov (sp???) is primarily known in the west for that film, when he made really intense, sometimes beautiful and very moving, very slow, and verrrrrry russian dramas before and after the revolution. "father sergius" etc. SPOILERS: (that's the one where the monk chops off his finger so as to resist the temptation of a flirtatious crazy woman)

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

(inspiring a collective "aieeeeeeeeee!!!!" from the audience, always.)

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:29 (twenty years ago)

http://www.silentfilm.org/

We're going to see

http://www.silentfilm.org/thebigparade.jpg

and

http://www.silentfilm.org/2005festival/thescarletletter/images/thescarletletter.jpg

'The Scarlet Letter'

― M. White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:35 (twenty years ago)

both are extraordinary. the latter especially.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 21 June 2005 18:37 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

has anyone seen this buster keaton film? (not strictly silent.)

― N_RQ, Tuesday, 18 October 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

I have, and as the comments there would suggest, for completists only. From the bottom of Buster's derailed-career bottle. (I think there are clips in that 'A Hard Act to Follow' PBS biography they use just cuz you can see he has the shakes.)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 13:57 (twenty years ago)

hmmm, it's funny cos it's directed by what was basically a member of the uk avant-garde, who made little pastiche movies through the '20s. on the wants for now.

― N_RQ, Wednesday, 19 October 2005 07:38 (twenty years ago)

Well, that would make a strange precursor to that Beckett film Buster did the year before he died.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 19 October 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Tonight I saw Sunrise for the first time in twelve years and the second time ever, and I'm still comfortable calling it my all-time favorite movie, if I have to have one.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 6 February 2006 03:22 (twenty years ago)

but what about janet gaynor's wig?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Monday, 6 February 2006 04:24 (twenty years ago)

Is it a wig, though? Towards the end, there's a scene where her hair is long and damp and yet still blonde. Ish.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 6 February 2006 04:28 (twenty years ago)

Er OK, I'm seeing a website that says it was a wig used in Murnau's Faust:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00005ASOS.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 6 February 2006 04:36 (twenty years ago)

(And holy shit take a look at this AMAZING film poster for Faust.)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 6 February 2006 04:37 (twenty years ago)

there was an amazing exhibit of Ufa posters here a few years ago... i got the book and it's full of totally wicked stuff, some collage-y, some still showing art nouveau influence, just lots of really beautiful and creative stuff (including that faust poster). if people want i could maybe scan some in...

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 6 February 2006 15:11 (twenty years ago)

One of the exhibit's strengths is that it features different posters advertising the same film, usually intended for separate markets (generally German or Austrian). In some cases the studio would hold a public competition to determine who would design a film's poster. The two winners for Murnau's Faust are markedly different, one a brightly coloured variation on a Medieval woodcut, the other a straightforward painting of Faust and Mephistopheles.

(that's from an article i wrote about the show)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 6 February 2006 15:12 (twenty years ago)

i saw a good silent, anthony asquith's 'a cottage on dartmoor' (1929). the orig. had a brief scene of sound -- when the characters go to see a talkie, but that version is lost.

kind of pudovkin does brit melodrama.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Monday, 6 February 2006 15:14 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

I do have a multi-region player. It only cost me $70 though.
I know precious fuck-all about prewar Soviet cinema outside of the usual suspects--Eisenstein, Kushelov, Vertov, Pudovkin. I've long wanted to see stuff by Kozintsev and Trauberg, Room, Boris Barnet. A lot of good people insist that Barnet's By the Bluest of Seas (actually from 1936) is one of the greatest films ever made. I've always wanted to see Chapayev too. I mean we all know the line about Tarkovsky and Parazhanov rebelling against Socialist Realism or Momumentalism but where are the examples of those genres?
This October the major silent film festival at Pordenone in Italy is featuring a tribute to as Ivan Mosjoukine, the Russian actor and director who left for France during the Revolution and there made Le Brasier ardent (1923) which supposedly anticipates both Soviet montage and French impressionist cinema! He also starred in L'Herbier's Feu Matthia Pascal and Volkoff's Casanova.
Pordenone

-- Amateurist (amateuris...), April 16th, 2003.

london has a kozintsev and trauberg season on. thus far i've seen 'the devil's wheel' and 'the cloak'. 'the cloak' is based on gogol and possibly debunks (it was attacked for doing so) a classic of russian literature. the problem is that without that cultural background, this doesn;t really go over. it's very reminiscent of 'der letze mann', though trauberg in later life staunchly denied this. it was scripted by one of the formalist critics (tynyanov, sp.) and so has a kind of privileged position in film studies (maybe).

'the devil's wheel', their earliest surviving film (1926, i think) is much better, very 'strike', kind of an 'underground' story. neither of them are really 'montage' films, in terms of editing but they are i suppose about montage in that they are consciously plays of symbols, signs not signifieds and all that.

re. socialist realism -- i think 'Chapayev' was part of this, but also k & t's very popular 'maxim' trilogy (not to be confused w. gorky's own maxim films...).

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Friday, 3 March 2006 12:28 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 523 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.