the silent film thread

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.

I went to one of Paul Merton and Neil Brand's silent comedy evenings not that long ago. It was great to see well presented silents on a big screen with an enthusiastic host and audience. We got a Keaton feature, and Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy shorts. As is always the case in my experience, L&H got by far the biggest laughs of the night, yet as a film, theirs was by far the crudest and least artful.

FWIW, Safety Last would be my choice of silent comedy film. And Metropolis should be top ten, prob top five.

for my own taste, The Gold Rush at #66 is way too low. And I don't find anything artless about L&H, esp the ones listed above. (McCarey learned plenty from Charley Chase and Stan Laurel, as he said in interviews.)

Was going to complain about no Italian diva films, but they've got Il Fuoco at #88 (waaaaay too low ... seen it, Eric?); no Asta Nielsen or Ivan Mosjoukine (Ctrl-F-wise, anyway), only one Bauer & only one Vertov ... IDK, this list seems weighted way too much towards Hwood (though ofc #1 is a fine choice etc, happy to see A Page of Madness & the Epstein Usher place decently).

Haven't!

https://silentsplease.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/03b-il-fuoco-1915-pina-menichelli-close-up.gif
https://silentsplease.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/06b-il-fuoco-1915-pina-menichelli-at-castle.gif
https://silentsplease.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/04b-il-fuoco-1915-pina-menichelli-smash-lamp.gif
https://silentsplease.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/il-fuoco-4-sml.gif
https://silentsplease.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/09-il-fuoco-1915-crazy-sad-origami-man-2.gif

Speaking of Safety Last, saw Project A this weekend & thought of you, Morbs. Don't have YT/Tumblr access here in the PRC (though domestic services like Youku etc have been great for delving into HK films), but surely someone's done a supercut/listicle of every Jackie Chan silent comedy homage?

maybe. im not much for supercuts.

city lights is way too low imo.

has anyone seen lang's frau im mond? any good?

tempted to order it unseen b/c i'm kind of in love with the cover:

http://diaboliquemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/91yPP9r1YqL._SL1500_.jpg

I think the other version of House Of Usher is much better.

no Haxan! no Girl in Every Port!

spione is definitely a refinement of the first dr. mabuse films, but i have a very soft spot in my heart for the latter. hard to choose from among lang's silents, which despite being very obviously the work of the same couple (harbou is as important as lang i think), have very different virtues. the two nibelungen films are as startling and involving in their way as the mabuse films, spione, metropolis, etc.

i find that i /admire/ the first sound mabuse more than i really love it. there are some profoundly, wonderfully strange and disturbing things in there, but it also seems a little lumpy, in a way that you could probably chalk up to the relatively new sound technology -- IF lang hadn't already made one of the most fluid and assured of early sound films in "M."

i didn't look at that list b/c i don't need the grief today, but if there's no sjostrom in the top five, no credibility.

xpost

woman in the moon is great! you are not likely to be disappointed.

Oh, had blanked Lang's Nibelungen films - amazing, alien performance from Margarete Schön in Kriemhilds Rache:
https://silentsplease.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/kriemhildsrache_eyebrow.gif

Surprised they couldn't find room for The Goddess or New Woman (or even Piccadilly, heh). No Die Sinfonie der Großstadt!

you guys are really doing this, huh?

where's Heavy Love by Ton of Fun (aka the Three Fatties)?

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/images/reviews/81/1164570497.jpg

forthcoming bio of the comedy pioneer Clyde Bruckman, gettin good word

http://thecriticalpress.com/books/the-gag-man/

Homunculus, restored German scifi serial screening today in NYC

http://www.moma.org/calendar/events/1514

Kristin and David pick the ten best of '25 (think i've only missed Lazybones and Tartuffe:

http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2015/12/28/the-ten-best-films-of-1925/

^now only Lazybones

Yet more of Gance's Napoleon on the way:

http://news.sky.com/story/1631395/epic-five-hour-napoleon-film-restored

last year's top video releases, he says

http://moviessilently.com/2015/12/08/the-best-silent-movie-home-video-releases-of-2015/