the silent film thread

that's feature films. what about short subjects, newsreels, etc.? I suppose that'd be a hard report to write, since there aren't many reliable filmographies of that sort of thing.

it is good to have a solid number though, for features anyway. i've heard anything from 60% to 99% quoted. of course, it depends on when the film was made. as you move toward the end of the silent era, it's more likely that a studio feature has been preserved. that doesn't mean, of course, that there aren't many high-profile cases of late silent features that have been lost. but if you move back to the early-mid 1910s it gets much worse.

Thompson and Bordwell's best of '23:

http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2013/12/29/the-ten-best-films-of-1923/

tl; dr; not in proper list format

wait for their Oscar blog

I've been on a major silent film binge this month. I think I've seen all the major titles now apart from The Wind, The Crowd and Napoleon. I saw The Wedding March last night and wow, Stroheim was a total master. Some other highlights from my watching spree: Safety Last, Un Chien Andalou, The Phantom Carriage and Menilmontant.

Anyone seen any good ones lately?

Apparently the Italian Futurists made a number of stage and film productions that focused on the feet. None of those survive, but a clown at L'Ambrosio Studios made this, in 1914 -- things get real interesting around 1:45 (turn the music off):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx11nKrAv24

I'm sure somehow that Quentin Tarantino knows about this.

what... the... that was interesting.

i finally saw The Crowd. that's another one I can tick off "the list". it didn't disappoint!

Recent discoveries include Mickey Rooney's first starring short:

http://selfstyledsiren.blogspot.de/2014/03/good-news-for-silent-film-fans.html

Is that link SFW?

Yep.

Surprised that link didn't mention the Balfour/Pearson discovery in the Netherlands!

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/lost-british-silent-masterpiece-rediscovered-holland

Do any ILXors head to the Giornate del cinema muto?

(Also, how gorgeous are the set desgins in Lubitsch/Negri's Die Bergkatze? Expressionism meets, IDK, The 5000 Fingers of Dr T.)

a British silent primer

http://whitecitycinema.com/2014/06/09/a-silent-british-cinema-primer/

Looking for recommendations for a good silent comedy "chase" scene to show a class. Could actually be any silent scene with movement and cutting on action, but I think chases work best for exploring space, screen direction, etc.

Harold Lloyd might be yr best bet there. Seems like there's been a good chase scene in every Lloyd film I've seen, though that hasn't been very many.

Cool, I just took the first few discs of that big Lloyd set out of the library.

The chase scene in Keaton's 'Cops' is p special

Keaton dodging boulders and brides at the climax of Seven Chances?

something a little more straightforward, the final chase in Sherlock Junior.

xxp

yeah, i was gonna say seven chances but it's a long scene.

maybe harold lloyd's never weaken?

this reminds me i ought to watch that blu-ray of the freshman

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/08/mit-extract-sound-audio-silent-video-picture-information/

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/nyregion/coming-soon-a-century-late-a-black-film-gem.html

Any NYers planning on attending this? Have had Bert Williams on the mind after reading Caryl Phillips' Dancing In The Dark; hopefully this'll find some form of DVD or digital release.

first ive heard of it, i'm sure it will circulate. also TOO MUCH TO SEE HERE, ALL THE TIME.

You've got to quit your job and adopt the Jack Angstrom diet, Morbius.

-streich

plz i'm close enough to undead already

Misspelt on purpose.

Also, some info on Alex Barrett's neo-'city symphony' film, London Symphony, + info on the BFI's 1914 on film channel:
http://silentsplease.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/british-despatch/

Has anyone ever seen The Living Corpse?

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/calendar?view=list&month=11&year=2014#showing-43510

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019609/combined

Critic and MoMA curator Dave Kehr on restoration, specifically Dwan/Fairbanks' The Iron Mask:

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-sound-of-silents-us-film-critic-and-curator-dave-kehr-on-his-quest-to-restore-historic-movies-20150415-1mln2k.html

My curator/researcher friend has played a big role in resurrecting the films of comic/director Marcel Perez, big in Europe 1910-15, and he worked in the US too:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/67747/marcel-perez-collection-the/

https://silentology.wordpress.com/2015/02/16/introducing-mirth-maker-marcel-perez/

the Mostly Lost fest, next month in Culpeper VA

http://culpepertheatre.org/mostly-lost/

listicle of 100; fine with #1

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/06/the-100-best-silent-films-of-all-time.html?a=1

Fine with nearly all of the ones I've seen from that list tbh.

#1 is a good choice. Was kinda disappointed by #2.

not gonna argue with the number 1 but the overload of Keaton is borderline challopy

^heretic

Mabuse doesn't even place!

i didn't say it was mistake-free. haven't scrolled the whole thing yet anyhoo.

and i think two of the talkie Mabuses are perhaps superior

fair enough but i'm just saying he could've foregone 1 or 2 of his comedies to correct that kind of "statement"

ah, kickin' comedy to the curb, you Kop!

i haven't come across any objectionable choices, but you get to the end of the list and realise that there's 25 Buster Keaton movies and a stack of omissions that satisfy his own criteria imo, i.e. "the best silent films, not the most historically significant ones"

still it's good to have an offbeat aesthetic i guess

yeah it's fine and expected to object to some choices, but I consider all of those comedies pretty "significant" too.

Spione is probably better than the first Mabuse too

i wd've found a space for Der Golem and i'd've put The Last Laugh much higher, amongst others

haven't noticed any other omissions i'd consider heinous at the moment

oh, at least one Lon Chaney! Hunchback of Notre Dame at least

obviously arguing with somebody else's choices is a pointless endeavour but that's one od the reasons these kinds of list get published

Not to boil it down to "what's aged the best," but an acquaintance who I expect has seen more silents than you or I have once said, "You have to be very careful with (showing) silent dramas today." Contemporary audiences, at least in public screenings, seem much more engaged by even the second-tier, well-made comedies than by all but the creme of the dramas.

Pssst, the same holds true for today's movies too.

xp

i assumed that attitude about comedy informed the tenor of these choices but i wouldn't want to second guess what a "contemporary audience" might be or think - don't see the point in trying to make converts of the reluctant, and a good film is a good film

The Last Laugh is my favorite Murnau, probably my favorite silent film altogether.

don't see the point in trying to make converts of the reluctant

so people are still watching these 50 years from now, if that's possible? Dramas included, but whatever's the gateway.