Silent film

A silent film is a film with no accompanying, synchronized recorded spoken dialogue. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the motion picture itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, most films were silent before the late 1920s.

Related Topics:
Film - Dialogue - Sound - 1920s

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The years before sound came to the movies are known as the silent era among film scholars and historians. The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity before silent films were replaced by talking pictures or talkies and many film buffs believe the esthetic quality of cinema actually decreased for several years as the new medium of sound was adapted to the movies. The visual quality of silent movies (especially those produced during the 1920s) was often extremely high but later televised presentations of poor, second or even third generation copies made from already damaged and neglected stock (usually played back at incorrect speeds and with inappropriate music) led to the widely held misconception that these films were primitive and barely watchable by modern standards.

Related Topics:
Scholar - Historian - Talking pictures

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Since silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, graphic titles were used to clarify the on-screen situation or key dialog for the cinema audience, but showings of silent films usually were not silent at all. Live music was often featured, frequently improvised by a piano or organ player. Early in the development of the motion picture industry music was recognized as an essential part of any movie, giving the audience vital emotional cues for the action taking place on the screen. Small town and neighborhood movie theaters usually had a pianist to accompany the film. Large city theaters had organists or entire orchestras which were also able to provide some sound effects.

Related Topics:
Cinema - Improvised - Piano - Organ - Pianist - Orchestra

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The medium of silent film required a greater emphasis on body language and facial expression so the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Combined with cultural differences arising from the passage of time, modern-day audiences may be disoriented watching some films from the silent era. Silent comedies tend to be more popular in the modern era than drama, partly because overacting is more natural in comedy. However, some silent films were quite subtly acted, depending on the director and the skill of the actors. Overacting in silent films was sometimes a habit actors transferred from their stage experience and directors who understood the intimacy of the new medium discouraged it.

Related Topics:
Body language - Facial expression - Actor - Comedies

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Most silent films were shot at slower speeds than sound films (typically 16 to 20 frames per second as opposed to 24), so unless carefully shown at their original speeds they can appear unnaturally fast and jerky, which further reinforces their unusual appearance. Nonetheless, some silent films were intentionally undercranked in order to accelerate the action. This early sort of special effect was done with comedies far more often than with dramas.

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Literally thousands of silent films were made during the years before the introduction of sound but some historians estimate between 80 and 90 percent of them have been lost forever. Movies of the first half of the 20th century were filmed on an unstable, highly flammable nitrate film stock which required careful preservation to keep it from decomposing over time. Most of these films were considered to have no commercial value after they were shown in theaters and were carelessly preserved if at all. Over the decades their prints crumbled into dust (or goo). Many were recycled and a sizable number were destroyed in both studio fires and space-saving projects. As a result, silent film preservation has been a high priority among movie historians.

Related Topics:
20th century - Nitrate - Film stock - Film preservation

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Several filmmakers have done homage to the comedies of the silent era including Jacques Tati with his Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953), Mel Brooks who starred in Silent Movie (1976) and indie filmmaker Eric B. Borgman with his film The Deserter (2004).

Related Topics:
Jacques Tati - Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot - Mel Brooks - Silent Movie

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