In any event, a precis: Search: VICTOR SJÖSTRÖM, the greatest director of silents there was. He made films in Sweden from 1912 to 1922 and in the U.S. from 1922 to 1928. If you can find them: Ingeborg Holm, Terje Vigen, The Girl from the Marsh Croft, The Outlaw and His Wife (available on NTSC VHS), Sons of Ingmar, The Monastery of Sendomir (available on PAL VHS), The Phantom Chariot aka The Phantom Carriage aka The Stroke of Midnight aka Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness (available on PAL VHS), Mortal Clay, He Who Gets Slapped, The Wind (easily available).
Search also: Fritz Lang (Destiny/The Three Lights, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, The Nibelungen, Spies), Louis Feuillade (Les Vampires, Fantômas), Carl Dreyer (The Pardon's Widow, Michael, Thou Shalt Honor Thy Wife, The Passion of Joan of Arc), and anything you can find by Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu. Those of you in London, keep your eyes peeled, it is a good town for silents.
Many American cities have silent film festivals. New York is of course one of the world's great film towns (Paris being an uncontested no. 1). Chicago is OK, there is a summer silent festival but the Film Center of the Art Institute passed up a recent Mauritz Stiller retrospective (he's another good Swedish filmmaker and the guy who discovered Garbo).
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 20:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 20:12 (twenty-one years ago) link
http://www.filmkultura.iif.hu:8080/articles/prints/images/boyer/1.jpg
so, right then, who do you fancy then?
― erik, Wednesday, 1 January 2003 00:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
I still have a backlog of world-conquering ambition (from my childhood you understand) to work past (to once and finally convince myself I have neither the tenacity nor the self-confidence to actually see through a film on my own), but once that's done I think I might be suited to the fields of film preservation and programming.
To veer back on-topic:
My favorite moments in Buster Keaton films, and perhaps in all silent films put together, are when Buster submits dutifully and without complaint to what he perceives to be the natural order of things. For instance in Steamboat Bill Jr. when after a succession of folllies involving people being hurled from a steamboat when someone steps in front of them, Buster simply leaps into the water when he sees that someone is approaching. Or in College, when after having knocked over a long succession of hurdles, Buster finally makes the last, he turns around, does a double take, and then with a faint sigh tips over the final hurdle and walks off.
The greatest silent comic though was Jacques Tati who never made a silent film. He was the center of his films, always silent or nearly so, with the madness of the modern world buzzing and creaking and crashing and whirring and dripping around him.
― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 12:58 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 13:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 1 January 2003 13:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
Bauer was a major director of the pre-Soviet era in Russian film, an era which was basically completely ignored until glasnost allowed some such films to seep out of the archives where they had been surprsingly well-preserved (those that survived, anyway--I think about 10-20%). He only made films for a few years (1913-17) before an early death but on the evidence of this DVD they were extraordinary. Bauer excelled at complex lighting effects, carefully coordinated tracking shots (very unusual for the time), deep staging, and really astonishingly vivid and terrifying dream sequences. He began as a stage designer and his sets are perhaps the most remarkable aspect of his cinema--they are often quite elaborate and frequently macabre in keeping with the morbid plots of the movies. (He really was Russian.)
The notes to the DVD assert that Bauer was the superior of contemporaries like Sjöström and Griffith. I don't buy that, esp. not in the case of Sjöström, but he's a great find nonetheless. The DVD also includes a 30-minute lesson in Bauer's style from Yuri Tsivian, a Russian film scholar who teaches at the University of Chicago. It's put out by the BFI and is Region 2. All of you in Europe might take a look at this.
― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 02:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 03:03 (twenty-one years ago) link
don't be, your information is very valuable
― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 03:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
I really don't know French Impressionist cinema well at all, and it's hard to track stuff down.
― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 03:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― A Nairn (moretap), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 03:54 (twenty-one years ago) link
Have you ever seen "Bed and Sofa" by Avram Room?
This is all I will say for now.
― slutsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 04:18 (twenty-one years ago) link
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 (amateurist), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 15:38 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 15:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― von slutsky, Wednesday, 16 April 2003 16:05 (twenty-one years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 27 April 2003 00:59 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 27 April 2003 01:01 (twenty years ago) link
― slutsky (slutsky), Sunday, 27 April 2003 16:50 (twenty years ago) link
Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life, made by the same folks who, eight years later, would make King Kong is also pretty damned incredible -- it involves nomadic tribes in Iran carrying their livestock up mountains. It's absolutely exhausting to watch them, in a good way.
The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra. It's like something Joel Hodgson might put together if he was a young turk in the 20's: delirious experimentation, short, art deco, lights and shadow, puppets. Shares the look and feel with more than a few eighties videos.
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 27 April 2003 19:17 (twenty years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 27 April 2003 19:22 (twenty years ago) link
― amateurist (amateurist), Sunday, 27 April 2003 20:58 (twenty years ago) link
― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Sunday, 27 April 2003 21:34 (twenty years ago) link
anyway i'm off to see this film for the umpteenth time at the action ecoles. sadly i couldn't round up anyway to go with me because this is like the greatest date movie ever, except that it's so beautiful you'll probably completely forget about your date which depending on your date might be a good thing!
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 18:10 (twenty years ago) link
though...
(swedish and bay area ILXors take notes)
a COMPLETE RETROSPECTIVE OF THE SILENT FILMS OF VICTOR SJOSTROM is coming first to sweden, some time in january i think, and then eventually to the pacific film archive in berkeley, in february. GO GO GO GO GO
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 18:11 (twenty years ago) link
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 1 November 2003 18:49 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 21:14 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 21:15 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 21:21 (twenty years ago) link
http://cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/comunicati_stampa/COMUNICATI_LIVE_03/COMUNICATI_STAMPA_imgs/Mosjoukine.jpg
rowr
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 21:32 (twenty years ago) link
― eriik, Saturday, 1 November 2003 22:07 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 22:11 (twenty years ago) link
― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 1 November 2003 22:15 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 22:18 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 1 November 2003 22:24 (twenty years ago) link
― Girolamo Savonarola, Sunday, 2 November 2003 04:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Sunday, 2 November 2003 05:01 (twenty years ago) link
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Sunday, 2 November 2003 05:03 (twenty years ago) link
― nickn (nickn), Sunday, 2 November 2003 06:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Lara (Lara), Sunday, 2 November 2003 20:16 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 2 November 2003 20:56 (twenty years ago) link
― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:00 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:02 (twenty years ago) link
sad about the remainder of murnau's career: one film now lost, another cut to ribbons by the producers, the final film a flawed bit of brilliance which only premiered after his death in a car accident.
― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:03 (twenty years ago) link
(admittedly I had just smoked a joint but STILL)
― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:06 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:12 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:13 (twenty years ago) link
(they were crying and talking? what were they saying?!)
― s1utsky (slutsky), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:38 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 2 November 2003 21:40 (twenty years ago) link
anyone have thoughts? my impression of the period is everyone involved in movies viewed them as super ephemeral, but this is perhaps overstating it
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 27 July 2023 16:29 (eight months ago) link
I will admit that my main reason for assuming that at least the "serious" stars thought they would live on is the films of the 50s where everyone realizes that no they won't, and people are sad about it. Singin' in the Rain, Sunset Boulevard, that kind of thing (I say "that kind of thing" because those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head).
― trishyb, Thursday, 27 July 2023 17:03 (eight months ago) link
When sound came in, certain high-profile silent films (Birth of a Nation, Ben Hur, the 1929 goat-glanding of The Phantom of the Opera) were rereleased with musical tracks.
Iris Barry created MoMA's film studies department in 1932; this included film archiving and preservation.
Beginning in the 1930s, there were film libraries that rented films for home viewing (plus there was some very limited sale of films for at-home viewing). Ben Model coined "Accidentally Preserved" for titles that survived this way.
The U.S. studios made some efforts to preserve their archives, but they seem to have been thinking more of preserving their rights in case someone wanted to make a talkie remake.
― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Thursday, 27 July 2023 17:05 (eight months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwPZuyF2Th0
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 20 September 2023 18:57 (seven months ago) link
cool! just looked Theda up (only know her from Hollywood Babylon) and it's heartbreaking how many of her films are lost
― ( X '____' )/ (zappi), Wednesday, 20 September 2023 20:39 (seven months ago) link
In my house growing up we had a poster of Theda Bara as Cleopatra attached to the cabinet where we kept our TV. Kind of a striking, sexy image. It was heartbreaking to learn much later that the film is basically gone.
― Josefa, Wednesday, 20 September 2023 21:58 (seven months ago) link
"found in a toy projector"Does this mean it was an 8mm film? Especially impressive restoration if so.
― nickn, Wednesday, 20 September 2023 22:17 (seven months ago) link
Was really impressed by Pandora's Box (the new Eureka bluray) and all the backstory about Brooks in the bonus features. Silent films and this one in particular give me a feeling of "what could have been" like little else and I really want to see more because it's been a long time since I seen many. Was wondering if a Bluray of Diary Of A Lost Girl would follow but there already is one from 2014.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 2 December 2023 23:51 (four months ago) link
Haven't watched this yet but I'll just leave it here https://archive.org/details/Wind1928
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 2 December 2023 23:54 (four months ago) link