the silent film thread

enjoyed that, the lofi-ness of the presentation fit with the films somehow. could do without the mouse pointer on screen though lol.

Aaaaand Maryland theaters (and restaurants) have been ordered completely closed as of 5pm today. Just as AFI was about to open its Fox Film Corporation 1915-1935 series.

also sunk: the MoMA Edison/Biograph series

first 'official' show this Sunday w/ three shorts; they will rerun the Hank Mann vehicle

https://www.silentfilmmusic.com/watch-party-01/

Watched Ford's Four Sons las night, a rather sprawling WWI narrative for a 96-minute film. His last silent? Certainly shows the Murnau influence, and the strength/bluntness of the actors' gestures shows perhaps why vets like him (he made silents for get accused of allowing hammy performances in the talkie era... it worked well here, and was probably hard to throw out of your toolkit.

one of the most dreamlike of films

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfmH7WyWXg8

Ben Model stream begins in 3 minutes

update: they've experienced a YT snafu

search on YT for "the Silent Comedy Watch Party"

now set for 3:30 pm EDT

this is the new link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UE0j2WeFbo&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0zbjXxfGc3-JFxPKe3LQqGmVwT3m89K6zi6IVnIYXeUlzzTZyKyxEznGI

oh, just search

I've been slowly watching Haxan in installments over the past few months. Really hit the spot this morning

this weekend's show (will be archived):

https://www.silentfilmmusic.com/watch-party-02/

today's program:

https://www.silentfilmmusic.com/watch-party-5/

An empty Paris.
A world on the verge of stopping completely.

No it's not today, it is 1925's sublime PARIS QUI DORT (THE CRAZY RAY) by René Clair. With English intertitles (and French sub). It's for free, it's avalailable worldwide & it's only on Henrihttps://t.co/CZAV3LVE94 pic.twitter.com/ak0TrcdP5C

— La Cinémathèque (@cinemathequefr) May 5, 2020

Thank you, will watch this tonight (aka At 3:25).

Harold Lloyd fuels his Model T with stolen heroin around 15:00 here (the short is one of his best)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1-kR7o34cA

also little Sunshine Sammy Morrison, later of Our Gang, steals all his scenes, and no racial stereotyping

Harold Lloyd On Heroin would be a good band name.

btw there is now The Roscoe Arbuckle Appreciation Society easily findable on FB, tons of links to online films

triggers: mother-in-law, cat in oven, man eating dishware (and that's just the first 8 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kR5ouegUmg

^This film was selected to the National Film Registry, Library of Congress, in 1995.

with an accent on Biograph:

During the month of August, we’ll be streaming treasures from MoMA’s film archive and sharing fascinating cinema history—with a new selection of films released each Thursday. We’ve chosen films that everyone—from famous filmmakers and actors, curators and eminent scholars, to high school students just discovering cinema studies—asks to see again and again. You’re gonna get a little Warhol, a lotta Dada, and more about the landmark early Biograph studio than you knew you wanted to know.

https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5239

After a recent series of events, I've decided to embark on a strange writing project involving shorts, and boy did reading this thread make me miss Morbz and wish he was here to advise.

sorry, silent shorts. I smoked some weed.

I’ve been slowly going through the Buster Keaton shorts when he played second fiddle to Fatty Arbuckle. My brother noted that Keaton definitely outshone Arbuckle (the bigger star at the time) from nearly the beginning, especially with his physical skills. He hasn’t quite hit on the Great Stone Face yet but his star talent makes him far more compelling than Arbuckle’s cornier comedy.

So, <I>Safety Last!</I> is pretty great. Who knew?

https://www.wbur.org/artery/2021/07/08/alloy-orchestra-has-disbanded

Creative differences.

"After three decades, Alloy Orchestra is no more. Winokur has exited; Donahue and keyboardist Roger Miller, who joined in 1998 after Sampson’s death, continue on under a new moniker, Anvil Orchestra. Larry Dersch, who’d played with Miller in a previous band, Trinary System, will take Winokur’s spot in the new group."

"Winokur, who started thinking about leaving the Alloys in late 2018, continues on with another film scoring outfit, the Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra, specializing in music that accompanies short films made by Ken Brown during the late 1960s for rock club The Boston Tea Party. He’s joined by Jonathan LaMaster and, at present, Vapors of Morphine saxophonist Dana Colley."

I've loved every Alloy Orchestra accompaniment I've heard (haters who refer to the "Annoy Orchestra" can suck my left one).

i'm in a silent movie kind of mood this week. i don't want to hear people yapping. i've been watching stuff on the criterion channel: harold lloyd shorts, hitchcock's the lodger.

https://www.wbur.org/artery/2021/07/08/alloy-orchestra-has-disbanded🕸🕸

Creative differences.

_"After three decades, Alloy Orchestra is no more. Winokur has exited; Donahue and keyboardist Roger Miller, who joined in 1998 after Sampson’s death, continue on under a new moniker, Anvil Orchestra. Larry Dersch, who’d played with Miller in a previous band, Trinary System, will take Winokur’s spot in the new group."

"Winokur, who started thinking about leaving the Alloys in late 2018, continues on with another film scoring outfit, the Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra, specializing in music that accompanies short films made by Ken Brown during the late 1960s for rock club The Boston Tea Party. He’s joined by Jonathan LaMaster and, at present, Vapors of Morphine saxophonist Dana Colley."_


I've loved every Alloy Orchestra accompaniment I've heard (haters who refer to the "Annoy Orchestra" can suck my left one).

Just watched the first episode of a silent serial called Belphégor, about a phantom haunting the Louvre (it's shot on location!), and if you have any fondness at all for stuff like Mabuse or Fantômas you owe it to yourself to track it down. Action packed, spooky, funny and the restoration is out of this world - you could show me screengrabs & say it's a film from the late 40's, and I'd probably believe you.

Had a chance to catch it courtesy of the online edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato (https://www.mymovies.it/ondemand/35-cinema-ritrovato/) which is well worth it, tho obv not everyone has 50 pounds to spend on a limited selection of streaming movies.

Seemed like the best place to put this: https://variety.com/2021/film/news/hollywood-highland-removing-elephant-statues-dw-griffith-1235032218/

"Cinema’s First Nasty Women is a 4-disc DVD/Blu-ray set featuring rarely-seen silent films about feminist protest, anarchic slapstick destruction, and suggestive gender play. The collection includes 98 European and American silent films, produced from 1896 to 1926, sourced from 10 international film archives, and spotlighting slapstick comediennes and cross-dressing women of the silent screen."
https://wfpp.columbia.edu/cinemas-first-nasty-women/
Scroll down for a bunch of stills and posters, and the "Past Events" section has detailed program notes from screenings...

How are YOU celebrating National Silent Film Day (September 29)?

I'll be at a screening of The Loves of Carmen (Walsh, 1927, accompaniment by Andrew Simpson) at the AFI Silver Theatre.

Other events on that day will include the dedication of Los Angeles' Chaplin-Keaton-Lloyd Alley, a common filming site for these and other filmmakers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSHIt_ysNDA

https://www.wbur.org/artery/2021/07/08/alloy-orchestra-has-disbanded

Creative differences.

"After three decades, Alloy Orchestra is no more. Winokur has exited; Donahue and keyboardist Roger Miller, who joined in 1998 after Sampson’s death, continue on under a new moniker, Anvil Orchestra. Larry Dersch, who’d played with Miller in a previous band, Trinary System, will take Winokur’s spot in the new group."

"Winokur, who started thinking about leaving the Alloys in late 2018, continues on with another film scoring outfit, the Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra, specializing in music that accompanies short films made by Ken Brown during the late 1960s for rock club The Boston Tea Party. He’s joined by Jonathan LaMaster and, at present, Vapors of Morphine saxophonist Dana Colley."

I've loved every Alloy Orchestra accompaniment I've heard (haters who refer to the "Annoy Orchestra" can suck my left one).

― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Friday, July 9, 2021 1:14 PM (three months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Just heard The Anvil Orchestra accompanying Metropolis at AFI Silver. They play tomorrow for The General and Underworld; DO NOT MISS THESE.

Also, on 11/13/21 the Psychedelic Cinema Orchestra will accompany a program of Ken Brown shorts. Very curious to hear what this will sound like.

How are YOU celebrating National Silent Film Day (September 29)?

― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Saturday, September 11, 2021 1:14 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

I am disappointed that I will be observing Silent Film Day 2022 at home for a condo association meeting, rather than the screening of The Spanish Dancer at AFI Silver. Anyone here observing the day in a more agreeable fashion?

Here's a question: what's an example of a bad silent film?

It feels like since so much of the silent era still had the rules of film being written there's less examples of the "rules" being broken in an inept manner.

I've heard ppl point to Oscar Micheaux but frankly taking into account the conditions he was working under it's impressive that he managed to do what he did.

According to silent comedy aficionados, Al Joy is the worst comedian, narrowly beating out the team Ham and Bud. And watching Billy West or other Chaplin impersonators go through the motions is a waste of time and energy.

As for feature-length films (especially drama), I can't think of any that are actively bad, as opposed to just boring hackwork. But there's still a barrier to accessing most surviving silent films--there may be awful works decaying in an archive because the archivist doesn't want to inflict them on the community.

As for Oscar Micheaux, part of it is the nonexistent production values, part the acting style. While most of what I've seen makes me cringe, it probably is based in 19th century stage acting styles, as developed on the stage by Black performers for Black audiences--there's probably a continuity between Micheaux and Tyler Perry, but I couldn't trace it.

What I wonder about is the audience for Micheaux and other contemporary "Colored" films. Did they grind their teeth at the slipshod production and over-the-top acting, or did they appreciate works in which people who looked like themselves played the lead characters?

Mixture of both I'd guess? Certainly still see ppl joke about supporting stuff from their community even if they think it's pretty slipshod now.

_How are YOU celebrating National Silent Film Day (September 29)?

― Infanta Terrible (j.lu), Saturday, September 11, 2021 1:14 PM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink_


I am disappointed that I will be observing Silent Film Day 2022 at home for a condo association meeting, rather than the screening of _The Spanish Dancer_ at AFI Silver. Anyone here observing the day in a more agreeable fashion?

I don't know what people are talking about when they say Micheaux was bad

The performances in Micheaux' silent-era films aren't much worse than the run of silent film acting. But in his sound films that I've seen, the performances are disconcertingly stagey in ways that the major studios ironed out in a hurry after sound definitively came in.

The question of Black-made films for Black audiences reminded me to look at the films of James and Eloyce Gist (Hell-Bound Train, 1930; Verdict: Not Guilty, 1934; and Heaven-Bound Travelers, 1935), collected in the Pioneers of African-American Cinema compilation and currently available via the Criterion Channel. The Gists were missionaries and self-taught filmmakers who toured churches and community centers in African-American neighborhoods for years, screening their films. The films are about as amateur as it gets, shot on handheld 16mm cameras without synchronized sound, and costumes, sets, and performances out of a poorly rehearsed pageant. But as images of African-American communities, fragile and vulnerable right then and there to the vices condemned in these productions, these films are priceless social documents.

I do recommend viewing these films. But even more than the most polished and high-production-value titles from the silent era, they have to be approached as artifacts of a different place, time, and sensibility.

This reminded me of Babylon, which I just watched the other night, and how the central sadness of that film is that all those 1920s silent stars thought they would live forever in celluloid and their exploits would be legendary, and -- spoiler alert! -- nobody remembers them now.

― trishyb, Thursday, 27 July 2023 09:25 (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

and how the central sadness of that film is that all those 1920s silent stars thought they would live forever in celluloid and their exploits would be legendary, and -- spoiler alert! -- nobody remembers them now.

Interesting, this feels almost the opposite of what happened IRL - 1920's movie stars lived in a world without rep screenings, film preservation or home video, it was taken as granted that they'd be forgotten...and yet as recently as my childhood ppl like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were still amongst the most recognizable figures worldwide (and I'm going to assume this is still the case as obv the passage of time stops at my birth and all my subsequent experiences representative of the Present).

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 27 July 2023 10:38 (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

1920's movie stars lived in a world without rep screenings, film preservation or home video,

I think a lot of them thought the films were the preservation, for a while at least. Anyway, there is maybe a better thread for chat about cultural memory, I don't want to derail SNW chat.

― trishyb, Thursday, 27 July 2023 15:21 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

anyone have thoughts? my impression of the period is everyone involved in movies viewed them as super ephemeral, but this is perhaps overstating it

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).

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwPZuyF2Th0

cool! just looked Theda up (only know her from Hollywood Babylon) and it's heartbreaking how many of her films are lost

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.

"found in a toy projector"
Does this mean it was an 8mm film? Especially impressive restoration if so.

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.