Anyone looking forward to the movie Babylon? I’ve heard some complaining already that it’s not historically accurate, but I’m prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Here’s an interview with the director, Damien Chazelle, that’s worth a read.
Damien Chazelle:
Comparing some of the last silent films to some of the first sound films, you see right away just how brutal the shift was — that suddenly the open-air freedom and expansiveness and experimentation of silent film gets sandwiched and cloistered onto very confined soundstages where you can barely move because they hadn’t quite figured out yet how to move the camera easily with sound. The early talkies are really hemmed in, and it feels like this total, catastrophic loss.”
Nitrate film is mostly discussed because of its flammability and the need for careful preservation. Here’s an interesting article I came across about how the BFI has been working to preserve films originally on this stock, as well as what exactly IS nitrate? If you’re interested in the technical aspects of film and film restoration, it’s worth a look.
For the first video on my channel, I decided to focus on someone I had never really paid much attention to in film school: Rudolph Valentino. From just watching a few clips and hearing about how women lost their minds over his untimely passing, I figured he was just an overrated sex symbol; all sex and no substance.
A Tribute to Rudolph Valentino on Talking Silents
However, after watching as many of his films as I could get my hands on recently, my thoughts have changed. Rudolph Valentino was truly made for silent pictures. I hope I have captured in this video how much emotion he could portray with just a look…a look that could melt butter. He wasn’t just a pretty face, but a face that could say in a glance what might today require a whole paragraph of dialogue.
I was very impressed with his charisma and charm. It’s hard to look at the other actors in the screen because he pulls focus every time unintentionally.
His best known role is probably as the Sheik in the aptly titled, “The Sheik,” but he showed a lot of versatility in a variety of roles, as you’ll see here. One minute he’s wooing a lady, the next he’s shooting a gun or dancing flamenco.
I hope this video encourages you to check out some of films, which can easily be found on the internet for free, or on my channel. Watch, like, and subscribe!
If you think silent films are boring, grainy, or just silly, I am here to change your mind.
Silent films are fascinating. The artists who made them were learning as they went. There were no rules and plenty of room for innovation. Things we take for granted today we’re invented by these filmmakers working with rudimentary equipment and, sometimes, only natural light.
Silent films are only grainy if you have a bad print. Over 90% of all silent films ever made have been lost forever, never to be seen again. Many of the prints you see today were taken from sub-par copies because that’s all we have. Luckily, many of these masterpieces are being restored when the funding is available. (Support film restoration!)
Scene from D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance
Sometimes silent films look unintentionally silly. This is usually because they were frequently run at the wrong speed when shown on television, giving them a “Benny Hill chasing a half-naked woman while Yakety Sax plays” effect. If you don’t know what that means, watch this. Frame rates were not universal back then, frequently around 16 FPS, but later the standard was set at 24 FPS, so many silent films were being run at a much faster rate than intended.
This is only just scratching the surface. Pioneers of early cinema, including women, immigrants, and minorities, did so much with so little, before filmmaking became a commodity run by a few white men.
Oscar Michaux, silent filmmaker
This is my first post here while I work on launching my YouTube channel, where you’ll find my silent film documentaries and can watch some early films, with context and commentary. If you have any interest in filmmaking, history, or creative innovation, be sure to subscribe here and on YouTube so you don’t miss a thing!
Talking Silents 