The silent films thread: The enema of the screen

[forizzer69]

Within the last couple of months I've seen some absolutely wonderful silent films. My favorite of the bunch being Ménilmontant. That's an impressive one - in the how complex, both emotionally and psychologically, the storytelling is and in its technical effectiveness. And because it's only thirty something minutes, I've watched it three times. I also love Nadia Sibirskaďa's performance.

I was also watching a bit of von Sternberg. I had previously seen The Last Command, his 1928 war-time collaboration with Emil Jannings, on the big screen a few years ago and that left an impression. In my eyes, his style is flawless. I might not have thought it based solely on The Last Command, but if I did, Underworld and The Docks Of New York reinforced beyond solidity. Visually, he is anything but spontaneous, but there is a poetry in his precision that I feel no filmmaker has since matched. Underworld has a big fun story - told by one of cinema's great storytellers, Ben Hecht - with a big, dumb, and very effective central performance by George Bancroft. I liked it a lot. The Docks Of New York was beautiful to look at, but I can't say I remember too much of it off-hand. I liked it, I know that, but it didn't have a narrative as satisfying as Underworld's and I had just seen that, but still a good film in its own right, and I liked Bancroft's performance here even more here - he had a brooding presence when he was quiet, even-tempered. Compston was nice and effective, too. (It's probably just as good as Underworld, actually. Hecht's story is a lot more operatic, whereas Brackett's is delicate and affected.)

Around Halloween time, I watched The Fall Of The House Of Usher which I've now seen twice and consider an absolute favorite. It's utterly transfixing and with that, hypnotic. I love, love, love the central performance given by Jean Debucourt as Roderick Usher, an 18th century man obsessed with painting his wife, therein immortalizing her, before her illness causes her to fade completely from this world. It also has some of the most poignant music choices that play heavily into the film's intellectual, yet hallucinatory atmosphere. it simply takes me out of this time, out of this world, and into a lonelier time of obsession and destitution. A+

I also watched most of Broken Blossoms but fell asleep. I like the story and the acting (Barthelmess is a fantastic actor) but the inter titles are so archaic that I would have rather not had them at all, at least for the most part. The images, the visual storytelling, is effective, which, given that this is film by one of cinema's first directors, is fitting. That sentence is so simple, but the point is that the movie is good because it's doing a good job at being a movie. Does anyone have a favorite Richard Barthelmess performance?

I've seen some really wonderful and influential silent films lately!

And even though it isn't a silent film, it does feature a couple of silent staples with Emil Jannings and Josef von Sternberg, I'd just like to give a shout out to The Blue Angel which I saw in tandem with the rest of these, and absolutely loved.

[Buster]

Within the last couple of months I've seen some absolutely wonderful silent films. My favorite of the bunch being Ménilmontant. That's an impressive one - in the how complex, both emotionally and psychologically, the storytelling is and in its technical effectiveness. And because it's only thirty something minutes, I've watched it three times. I also love Nadia Sibirskaďa's performance.

Due to Dallicious' enthusiastic raving of Ménilmontant, about a year ago I bought Kino Video's Avant-Garde set of 20's & 30's shorts which features this, and ... I still haven't opened it ?!?
I shall ... soon! (he said)

I also watched most of Broken Blossoms but fell asleep. I like the story and the acting (Barthelmess is a fantastic actor) but the inter titles are so archaic that I would have rather not had them at all, at least for the most part. The images, the visual storytelling, is effective, which, given that this is film by one of cinema's first directors, is fitting. That sentence is so simple, but the point is that the movie is good because it's doing a good job at being a movie. Does anyone have a favorite Richard Barthelmess performance?

I'll be the first to pipe in here, noting that if you're indeed a Barthelmess fan ( I am as well ), then you must absolutely seek out his best ... Tol'able David , followed then by Way Down East. Both are brilliant, and Richard was never better.

[McTeague]

Gross, primo, gross. I was the one to pimp Ménilmontant. Dally only followed track.

[David Giancarlo]

Ménilmontant is love, but A Page of Madness is even better!

[forizzer69]

Ménilmontant is love, but A Page of Madness is even better!

I've heard really good things and definitely intend on seeing it, at some point and time. It might take me to next Halloween, but I'm sure I'll watch it. You live in Toronto, right? I just moved from there and have been missing Bell Lightbox something bad, but at least I got to see Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors on the big screen, here in Portland, pretty recently. You went to the Bresson retrospective, right? That man's a genius. Anyway, do you have any other favorite silent films? Or silent horror films?

Another note on with Ménilmontant, it's also in my wife's top ten of all time after watching it a couple of times. It just has that timeless quality.

[forizzer69]

Gross, primo, gross. I was the one to pimp Ménilmontant. Dally only followed track.

Have you seen Rapt yet? I plan on seeing it soon, but since you care so much about the movie I thought I'd ask you about that one.

[McTeague]

Have you seen Rapt yet? I plan on seeing it soon, but since you care so much about the movie I thought I'd ask you about that one.

No, and I didn't know about its existence. it's a priority now, thanks!

[Buster]

Primo, you know I just naturally assume that you are most likely the original instigator of all this silent cinephilia, hence my attempt to throw a bone to newbies like that Dally fella (and his little dog too). The guy needs all the encouragement he can get, no?

Not to mention a new set of duds.

[forizzer69]

No, and I didn't know about its existence. it's a priority now, thanks!

Good! We'll talk about it someday soon. One of us will start a thread and then we'll get a real Kirsanoff revolution going.

Due to Dallicious' enthusiastic raving of Ménilmontant, about a year ago I bought Kino Video's Avant-Garde set of 20's & 30's shorts which features this, and ... I still haven't opened it ?!?

Get on it naughty boy. It will inspire you.

[Dally]

So, I watched Roland West's The Monster (1925) last evening. A rather ho-hum Old Dark House affair, the film does manage some silly fun. More than anything, it's a great opportunity for Lon Chaney to send-up his screen persona to comedic effect. Although top-billed, Lon Chaney is a supporting character, assuming the mad scientist role in a sanatorium filled with underlings who torture entrapped town folks for no discernible reason. Johnny Arthur is the lead, a weakling, effeminate hero, who manages to save the day. The haunted house gags are fun and, although the film straddles gags and scares fairly well, it adds up to something minor and somewhat forgettable. The first thirty minutes are Arthur playing bumbling detective are entertaining because the viewer knows Chaney must be around the corner but, the pay-off isn't much. Still, The Monster is a competent historic relic of the genre and it is nice to see Chaney playing more laughs, though I can't say it is something I would recommend.

[Jali]

I know The general is more iconic nowadays, but I found Battling Butler a better film, at least if was more entertained and moved by the story, and Keaton delivers a better performance. That doesn't mean The general isn't great, it is, but I prefer BB.

[Timmer]

I watched Harold Lloyd's first ever film with the "glasses" today, 1919's Bumping into Broadway (available on YT if anyone wants to see it).

It's pretty standard stuff, exactly what you would expect from a Hal Roach production at the time, a horde of cops chasing a guy, people swinging haymakers at each other and invariably hitting a third party. The story itself is barely anything; Lloyd meets a girl, wants to give her a flower and ends up escaping a police raid at an illegal casino with her for various reasons. But I like how it sets up the glasses persona; Lloyd feels very comfortable in it, and it's instantly appealing as an everyman. I constrast that to Chaplin's Tramp who imo took a few films to really get into stride.

Not a bad way to spend 24 minutes!

[Jali]

A page of madness is on youtube:



The film can be difficult to follow, there are no subtitles, but is a fascinating film. My favorite part must be the beginning of the film with the crazy girl dancing under the sound of thunders, everyhing in that escene (the directing, the editing, the cinematography) are impressive, I would love to see a more perfect copy of the film.


Tell it to the marines This must be the first film I've seen with Lon Chaney playing against type, I mean, he plays a perfect normal fellow. The film is like the An officer and a getleman of the 20s, with William Haines playing a guy that doesn't want to be a marine but is recruited because he doesn't have any other prospect of life and falls in love with one of the girls of the military lodging. Chaney plays his sergeant, a rude man with a heart of gold that is also in love with the girl. The film is adorable and Chaney delivers, again, another great performance. I am more and more convinced that Chaney must be one of the greatest actors of all times, in a rank of 10 i would place him in the top 5.

The scarlett letter. Another great film of Sjöström, even if the screenplay isn't very faithful to the novel, the moral discuss of the book disappeared in the adaptation, the characters are more conventional and the ambiguity of the character of Pearl is killed by the innocence that Lillian Gish gives to the character. The directing is so sublime that Sjöström skips any barrier of criticism and Lillian Gish is soooo good in this that she is almost unrecognizable, she, for once, controls herself and delivers a performance, that, for me, must be the inflexion point of her career, where she went from being good or serviceable to being fucking perfect and the great actress that she is remembered nowadays. Bravo la Gish!

The temptress. Second film of Garbo in Hollywood where she plays, of course, the temptress, a lethal french vamp that falls in love with an argentinian architect (played by Antonio Moreno, the first spanish star of Hollywod. Today nobody remembers him and Sara Montiel is wrongly considered the first spanish star in Hollywood). He runs to Argentina trying to forget her, but she follows him leaving some spiteful corpses behind her. The film belongs to Garbo, but Niblo had some very lucid escenes with Garbo not involved, especially the one that introduces us in the party where the last lover of Garbo kills himself, the camera introduces us in the high society and shows us how classy and normal is the behaviour of the people of the party, suddenly the camera goes under the table and we see the real corrupted, seductive world that is hidden under the good manners of the society. The special effects are also worthy, but not new if we've seen Torrent (the other film of Garbo from 1926), because in both films the power of the water that erases everything is used as a synonym of Garbo's characters: Garbo appeasr and destroys every man's soul, every man's mind just for one minute of pleasure in her hands.

Sparrows. This film could have been called "Mary Pickford meet the Thenardiers", because that is the plot of the film. The mother of Pickford sends her to live with an awful couple that enslave her. She is not alone, the are other children, orphans that suffer with her and, poor Pickford, stole the film from her. The children are wonderful, and the acting directing of Beaudine is perfect, all their escenes are great and the main reason to see the film. Pickford in the other hand, is unsufferable, I wonder if she was behind some of the directing choices of lightning and writing of the film, because the film tryes everything to idealice Mary Pickford as a saint, and I doubt Beaudine had that in mind. The film also, has a very bland directing, this film could have been directed in 1910 because all the escenes are static, something surprising because in 1926 almost all the films tryed to be innovative in some way.

[McTeague]

Sparrows. This film could have been called "Mary Pickford meet the Thenardiers", because that is the plot of the film. The mother of Pickford sends her to live with an awful couple that enslave her. She is not alone, the are other children, orphans that suffer with her and, poor Pickford, stole the film from her. The children are wonderful, and the acting directing of Beaudine is perfect, all their escenes are great and the main reason to see the film. Pickford in the other hand, is unsufferable, I wonder if she was behind some of the directing choices of lightning and writing of the film, because the film tryes everything to idealice Mary Pickford as a saint, and I doubt Beaudine had that in mind. The film also, has a very bland directing, this film could have been directed in 1910 because all the escenes are static, something surprising because in 1926 almost all the films tryed to be innovative in some way.

What.

No.

[Timmer]

Isn't Sparrows the one where Pickford leads the children through that awful swamp? Oh my, I consider that one of Pickford's best!!

i agree wholeheartedly with all of your other reviews, though!

[Jali]

In terms of performance, for me, is Pickfor's worst, I really appreciate others performances of her career, but this isn't one of them. And Sparrows, the film's best achievement aside of the children are the art direction and the cinematography but the screenplay is way too religious and santificates the person of Pickford to a degree that I found tasteless, and as I said the directing of Beaudine is archaic considering how revolutionary was that second half of the decade for other directors or cinematographies. He had some good composition ideas (the children that dies) and the film looks like something that the german expresionism could have achieved in the early years, but for me, other directors did that better, for example Alfred Hitchcock in The lodger took the best of the german expresionism and did something unique and in a worst environvement considering that UK didn't have a film industry by that time.

[McTeague]

but the screenplay is way too religious

Just because a film deals with religion it doesn’t mean it’s religious itself. I found the religiosity in “Sparrows” absolutely atypical and even groundbreaking for 1928. The script is constantly treating religion with sarcasm and ambiguity. “God won’t let our kite to be lost”, and then the kite is lost. “God won’t allow this child to die”, and then the child dies. The whole narration in the beginning is filled with irony, paraphrasing the book of the Genesis from the Devil’s point of view (“the Devil saw that the place he had created was evil enough and he, satisfied, took a rest”, or something like that). Even the most religious moment, when Pickford has the vision of Jesus, can be construed as just that, the delirium of an illiterate, starving girl.

a the directing of Beaudine is archaic considering how revolutionary was that second half of the decade for other directors or cinematographies. He had some good composition ideas (the children that dies) and the film looks like something that the german expresionism could have achieved in the early years, but for me, other directors did that better, for example Alfred Hitchcock in The lodger took the best of the german expresionism and did something unique and in a worst environvement considering that UK didn't have a film industry by that time.

But the fact is that “Sparrows” isn’t a film from other cinematographies. It’s a Hollywood film, not an expressionist German film. As such, I think it blends very well Hollywood’s classicism in a rather Griffith-esque narration (with Griffith’s dose of Victorian melodrama and with Griffith’s sense of the importance of nature and the landscape, here an oppressive, terrifying one) with touches from German expressionism. It doesn’t pretend or aspire to be an expressionistic movie, it’s just a Hollywood classic movie with a plus, with a personality all of its own, taking elements from expressionism, yes (which is in itself a step ahead for a Hollywood film) but adding also a mythic, Biblical and folk touch that makes it very intrinsically American. It’s not expressionism, it’s American Gothic with lots of personality (and a clear influence on Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter”, for instance).

You also underplay its findings: the scene of the child that dies is simply breathtaking, in the matter-of-fact way in which half of the barn becomes a field with Jesus in it. The way fantasy appears directly, without any signalling that prepares us for a fantasy moment, with just a camera movement, is almost disturbing, and keeps you guessing about how literally you’re supposed to take it. But you also forget there’s a flash-forward in the end (first use ever?) when Pickford tells about how their lives will be if the rich guy adopts all the children from the children farm, or a shot as stunning as that of the hands of the children waving goodbye to the child that’s been bought.

With those groundbreaking touches, with shots as beautifully composed as that of the hands, with the oppressive and expressive use of the sets and landscape, with the ambiguous and unusually ironic treatment of religion, with the personal touches (expressionistic, mythical, tale-like) that make it one of the first, if not THE first filmic American gothic, I don’t know how you can say Beudine’s direction is nothing special. If there’s anything “Sparrows” is, that’s special and unique, like the movie it most inspired, The Night of the Hunter.

[Timmer]

I've been perusing a bunch of pre-1910 silents on the youtube lately, and it has really expanded things past Griffith and Melies for me!

First off, being able to watch Griffith and Melies explore their craft and "discover" new ideas like tracking shots etc. is cool, but youtube has stuff that is vastly more interesting than that. First, it has a ton of films by Segundo de Chomon who worked for Pathe. Chomon was a lot like Melies, but his films are on average much more unreal. Where Melies was making films featuring magic characters interacting in otherwise normal surroundings, Chomon frequently pulls normal people into magic surroundings instead. Many of his films take place in some variation of hell, which is wild for the times. Sadly, many of Chomon's films were obviously cribbing from Melies, including an almost shot for shot remake of A Trip to the Moon.

One short in particular, though, just blew my mind. Made by Arthur Cooper, it's a 7-minute stop-motion gem (except for the bookend scenes) called Dreams of Toyland about toys coming to life. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu-1t9sId5I

I highly suggest watching this, and look at the incredible depth of movement in the stop motion scenes. There are at times up to ten separate actions going on at once, each choreographed minutely, and the toys each take on their own simultaneous, personal little tales. Study, for instance, the tour bus with the polar bear in the back who gets his ass kicked by either a devil or a monkey(?), but who shows up later riding a train and attacks the monkey back? Note also the geese trying to rip a man apart, and the horse, and the stilt woman, and... shit, just watch it. And then tell yourself. It was made in 1908.

[McTeague]

Chomon is a legend (a very obscure one, but still) here in Spain! I still haven't seen any of his films, though, but I'm waiting for the right moment.

[Timmer]

Chomon is a legend (a very obscure one, but still) here in Spain! I still haven't seen any of his films, though, but I'm waiting for the right moment.

I've probably watched about 15-20 of his on youtube, and this is easily, EASILY the most fascinating one available:

The Legend of a Ghost 1908 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcK17rqaV5g