Asilent film is afilm without synchronizedrecorded sound (or more generally, no audibledialogue). Though silent films conveynarrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of inter-title cards.
The term "silent film" is something of a misnomer, as these films were almost always accompanied by live sounds. During the silent era, which existed from the mid-1890s to the late 1920s, apianist,theater organist—or even, in larger cities, anorchestra—would play music to accompany the films. Pianists and organists would play either fromsheet music, orimprovisation. Sometimes a person would even narrate the inter-title cards for the audience. Though at the time the technology to synchronize sound with the film did not exist, music was seen as an essential part of the viewing experience. "Silent film" is typically used as a historical term to describe an era of cinema prior to the invention of synchronized sound, but it also applies to such sound-era films asCity Lights,Modern Times andSilent Movie which are accompanied by a music-only soundtrack in place of dialogue.
The termsilent film is aretronym—a term created to retroactively distinguish something from later developments. Early sound films, starting withThe Jazz Singer in 1927, were variously referred to as the"talkies", "sound films", or "talking pictures". The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is older than film (it was suggested almost immediately afterEdison introduced thephonograph in 1877), and some early experiments had the projectionist manually adjusting the frame rate to fit the sound,[1] but because of the technical challenges involved, the introduction of synchronized dialogue became practical only in the late1920s with the perfection of theAudion amplifier tube and the advent of theVitaphone system.[2] Within a decade, the widespread production of silent films for popular entertainment had ceased, and the industry had moved fully into thesound era, in which movies were accompanied by synchronized sound recordings of spoken dialogue, music andsound effects.
Most early motion pictures are consideredlost owing to their physical decay, as thenitrate filmstock used in that era was extremely unstable and flammable. Many films were destroyed, because they had negligible remaining financial value in that era. It has often been claimed that around 75 percent of silent films produced in the US have been lost, though these estimates' accuracy cannot be determined due to a lack of numerical data.[3]
Animation of 11 frames ofEadweard Muybridge's 1878 cabinet card of running horse "Sallie Gardner" from the seriesThe Horse in MotionRoundhay Garden Scene, which has a running time of just over two seconds, was filmed in 1888. It is believed to be the world's earliest surviving motion-picture film. The elderly lady in black isSarah Whitley, the mother-in-law of filmmakerLouis Le Prince; she died ten days after this scene was filmed.
Film projection mostly evolved frommagic lantern shows, in which images from handpainted glass slides were projected onto a wall or screen.[4] After the advent of photography in the 19th century, stillphotographs were sometimes used. Narration of the showman was important in spectacular entertainment screenings and vital in the lecturing circuit.[5]
The work of other pioneering chronophotographers, includingÉtienne-Jules Marey andOttomar Anschütz, furthered the development of motion picture cameras, projectors and transparent celluloid film.
AlthoughThomas Edison was keen to develop a film system that would be synchronised with hisphonograph, he eventually introduced thekinetoscope as a silent motion picture viewer in 1893 and later "kinetophone" versions remained unsuccessful.
The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" (1894 in film –1929 in film). The height of the silent era (from the early1910s in film to the late 1920s) was a particularly fruitful period, full of artistic innovation. The film movements ofClassical Hollywood as well asFrench Impressionism,German Expressionism, andSoviet Montage began in this period. Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style and genre of film-making of the 20th and 21st centuries has its artistic roots in the silent era. The silent era was also a pioneering one from a technical point of view. Three-point lighting, theclose-up,long shot,panning, andcontinuity editing all became prevalent long before silent films were replaced by "talking pictures" or "talkies" in the late 1920s. Some scholars claim that the artistic quality of cinema decreased for several years, during the early 1930s, untilfilm directors, actors, and production staff adapted fully to the new "talkies" around the mid-1930s.[6]
The visual quality of silent movies—especially those produced in the 1920s—was often high, but there remains a widely held misconception that these films were primitive, or are barely watchable by modern standards.[7] This misconception comes from the general public's unfamiliarity with the medium, as well as from carelessness on the part of the industry. Most silent films are poorly preserved, leading to their deterioration, and well-preserved films are often played back at the wrong speed or suffer fromcensorship cuts and missing frames and scenes, giving the appearance of poor editing.[8][9] Many silent films exist only in second- or third-generation copies, often made from already damaged and neglected film stock.[6]
Many early screenings were plagued by flicker on the screen, when the stroboscopic interruptions between frames lay below thecritical flicker frequency. This was solved with the introduction of a three-bladed shutter (since 1902), causing two more interruptions per frame.[10]
Another widely held misconception is that silent films lacked color. In fact, color was far more prevalent in silent films than in the first few decades of sound films. By the early 1920s, 80 percent of movies could be seen in some sort of color, usually in the form offilm tinting ortoning or even hand coloring, but also with fairly natural two-color processes such asKinemacolor andTechnicolor.[11] Traditional colorization processes ceased with the adoption ofsound-on-film technology. Traditional film colorization, all of which involved the use of dyes in some form, interfered with the high resolution required for built-in recorded sound, and were therefore abandoned. The innovative three-strip technicolor process introduced in the mid-1930s was costly and fraught with limitations, and color would not have the same prevalence in film as it did in the silents for nearly four decades.
As motion pictures gradually increased in running time, a replacement was needed for the in-house interpreter who would explain parts of the film to the audience. Because silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreeninter-titles were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the audience. Thetitle writer became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from thescenario writer who created the story. Inter-titles (ortitles as they were generally called at the time) "often were graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decorations that commented on the action".[12][13]
Showings of silent films almost always featured live music starting with the first public projection of movies by the Lumière brothers on December 28, 1895, in Paris. This was furthered in 1896 by the first motion-picture exhibition in the United States atKoster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City. At this event, Edison set the precedent that all exhibitions should be accompanied by an orchestra.[14] From the beginning, music was recognized as essential, contributing atmosphere, and giving the audience vital emotional cues. Musicians sometimes played on film sets during shooting for similar reasons. However, depending on the size of the exhibition site, musical accompaniment could drastically change in scale.[4] Small-town and neighborhood movie theatres usually had apianist. Beginning in the mid-1910s, large city theaters tended to haveorganists or ensembles of musicians. Massivetheatre organs, which were designed to fill a gap between a simple piano soloist and a larger orchestra, had a wide range of special effects. Theatrical organs such as the famous "Mighty Wurlitzer" could simulate some orchestral sounds along with a number of percussion effects such as bass drums and cymbals, andsound effects ranging from "train and boat whistles [to] car horns and bird whistles; ... some could even simulate pistol shots, ringing phones, the sound of surf, horses' hooves, smashing pottery, [and] thunder and rain".[15]
Musical scores for early silent films were eitherimprovised or compiled of classical or theatrical repertory music. Once full features became commonplace, however, music was compiled fromphotoplay music by the pianist, organist, orchestra conductor or themovie studio itself, which included a cue sheet with the film. These sheets were often lengthy, with detailed notes about effects and moods to watch for. Starting with the mostly original score composed byJoseph Carl Breil forD. W. Griffith's epicThe Birth of a Nation (1915), it became relatively common for the biggest-budgeted films to arrive at the exhibiting theater with original, specially composed scores.[16] However, the first designated full-blown scores had in fact been composed in 1908, byCamille Saint-Saëns forThe Assassination of the Duke of Guise,[17] and byMikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov forStenka Razin.
When organists or pianists used sheet music, they still might add improvisational flourishes to heighten the drama on screen. Even when special effects were not indicated in the score, if an organist was playing a theater organ capable of an unusual sound effect such as "galloping horses", it would be used during scenes of dramatic horseback chases.
At the height of the silent era, movies were the single largest source of employment for instrumental musicians, at least in the United States. However, the introduction of talkies, coupled with the roughly simultaneous onset of theGreat Depression, was devastating to many musicians.
A number of countries devised other ways of bringing sound to silent films. The earlycinema of Brazil, for example, featuredfitas cantatas (singing films), filmedoperettas with singers performing behind the screen.[18] InJapan, films had not only live music but also thebenshi, a live narrator who provided commentary and character voices. Thebenshi became a central element in Japanese film, as well as providing translation for foreign (mostly American) movies.[19] The popularity of thebenshi was one reason why silent films persisted well into the 1930s in Japan. Conversely, asbenshi-narrated films often lacked intertitles, modern-day audiences may sometimes find it difficult to follow the plots without specialised subtitling or additional commentary.
Few film scores survived intact from the silent period, andmusicologists are still confronted by questions when they attempt to precisely reconstruct those that remain. Scores used in current reissues or screenings of silent films may be complete reconstructions of compositions, newly composed for the occasion, assembled from already existing music libraries, or improvised on the spot in the manner of the silent-era theater musician.
Interest in the scoring of silent films fell somewhat out of fashion during the 1960s and 1970s. There was a belief in many college film programs andrepertory cinemas that audiences should experience silent film as a pure visual medium, undistracted by music. This belief may have been encouraged by the poor quality of the music tracks found on many silent film reprints of the time. Since around 1980, there has been a revival of interest in presenting silent films with quality musical scores (either reworkings of period scores or cue sheets, or the composition of appropriate original scores). An early effort of this kind wasKevin Brownlow's 1980 restoration ofAbel Gance'sNapoléon (1927), featuring a score byCarl Davis. A slightly re-edited and sped-up version of Brownlow's restoration was later distributed in the United States byFrancis Ford Coppola, with a live orchestral score composed by his fatherCarmine Coppola.
In 1984, an edited restoration ofMetropolis (1927) was released with a new rock music score by producer-composerGiorgio Moroder. Although the contemporary score, which included pop songs byFreddie Mercury,Pat Benatar, andJon Anderson ofYes, was controversial, the door had been opened for a new approach to the presentation of classic silent films.
Today, a large number of soloists, music ensembles, and orchestras perform traditional and contemporary scores for silent films internationally.[20] The legendary theater organistGaylord Carter continued to perform and record his original silent film scores until shortly before his death in 2000; some of those scores are available on DVD reissues. Other purveyors of the traditional approach include organists such asDennis James and pianists such asNeil Brand, Günter Buchwald, Philip C. Carli,Ben Model, andWilliam P. Perry. Other contemporary pianists, such as Stephen Horne and Gabriel Thibaudeau, have often taken a more modern approach to scoring.Ben Model in particular advocates in‑era scoring—“keep the sound inside that world so the picture plays the way it should”—rather than contemporary sound palettes.[21]
Orchestral conductors such as Carl Davis andRobert Israel have written and compiled scores for numerous silent films; many of these have been featured in showings onTurner Classic Movies or have been released on DVD. Davis has composed new scores for classic silent dramas such asThe Big Parade (1925) andFlesh and the Devil (1927). Israel has worked mainly in silent comedy, scoring the films ofHarold Lloyd,Buster Keaton,Charley Chase, and others.Timothy Brock has restored many ofCharlie Chaplin's scores, in addition to composing new scores.
Contemporary music ensembles are helping to introduce classic silent films to a wider audience through a broad range of musical styles and approaches. Some performers create new compositions using traditional musical instruments, while others add electronic sounds, modern harmonies, rhythms, improvisation, and sound design elements to enhance the viewing experience. Among the contemporary ensembles in this category areUn Drame Musical Instantané,Alloy Orchestra,Club Foot Orchestra,Silent Orchestra, Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, Minima and the Caspervek Trio,RPM Orchestra. Donald Sosin and his wife Joanna Seaton specialize in adding vocals to silent films, particularly where there is onscreen singing that benefits from hearing the actual song being performed. Films in this category include Griffith'sLady of the Pavements withLupe Vélez,Edwin Carewe'sEvangeline withDolores del Río, andRupert Julian'sThe Phantom of the Opera withMary Philbin andVirginia Pearson.[citation needed]
The Silent Film Sound and Music Archive digitizes music and cue sheets written for silent films and makes them available for use by performers, scholars, and enthusiasts.[22]
Lillian Gish, the "First Lady of the American Cinema", was a leading star in the silent era with one of the longest careers—1912 to 1987.
Silent-film actors emphasizedbody language andfacial expression so that theaudience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic orcampy. The melodramatic acting style was in some cases a habit actors transferred from their former stage experience.Vaudeville was an especially popular origin for many American silent film actors.[4] The pervading presence of stage actors in film was the cause of this outburst from directorMarshall Neilan in 1917: "The sooner the stage people who have come into pictures get out, the better for the pictures." In other cases, directors such asJohn Griffith Wray required their actors to deliver larger-than-life expressions for emphasis. As early as 1914, American viewers had begun to make known their preference for greater naturalness on screen.[23]
Lon Chaney (active 1913–1930) was one of the most talented silent character actors of all time. His unique ability to transform into the most physically grotesque characters earned him the universal name, "Man of a Thousand Faces".[24]
Silent films became less vaudevillian in the mid-1910s, as the differences between stage and screen became apparent. Due to the work of directors such asD. W. Griffith, cinematography became less stage-like, and the development of theclose up allowed for understated and realistic acting.Lillian Gish has been called film's "first true actress" for her work in the period, as she pioneered new film performing techniques, recognizing the crucial differences between stage and screen acting. Directors such asAlbert Capellani andMaurice Tourneur began to insist on naturalism in their films. By the mid-1920s many American silent films had adopted a more naturalistic acting style, though not all actors and directors accepted naturalistic, low-key acting straight away; as late as 1927, films featuring expressionistic acting styles, such asMetropolis, were still being released.[23]Greta Garbo, whose first American film was released in 1926, would become known for her naturalistic acting.
According to Anton Kaes, a silent film scholar from the University of California, Berkeley, American silent cinema began to see a shift in acting techniques between 1913 and 1921, influenced by techniques found in German silent film. This is mainly attributed to the influx of emigrants from theWeimar Republic, "including film directors, producers, cameramen, lighting and stage technicians, as well as actors and actresses".[25]
Until the standardization of the projection speed of 24 frames per second (fps) for sound films between 1926 and 1930, silent films were shot at variable speeds (or "frame rates") anywhere from 12 to 40 fps, depending on the year and studio.[26] "Standard silent film speed" is often said to be 16 fps as a result of theLumière brothers'Cinématographe, but industry practice varied considerably; there was no actual standard.William Kennedy Laury Dickson, an Edison employee, settled on the astonishingly fast 40 frames per second.[4] Additionally, cameramen of the era insisted that their cranking technique was exactly 16 fps, but modern examination of the films shows this to be in error, and that they often cranked faster. Unless carefully shown at their intended speeds silent films can appear unnaturally fast or slow. However, some scenes were intentionallyundercranked during shooting to accelerate the action—particularly for comedies and action films.[26]
Cinématographe Lumière at theInstitut Lumière, France. Such cameras had no audio recording devices built into the cameras.
Slow projection of acellulose nitrate base film carried a risk of fire, as each frame was exposed for a longer time to the intense heat of the projection lamp; but there were other reasons to project a film at a greater pace. Often projectionists received general instructions from the distributors on the musical director's cue sheet as to how fast particular reels or scenes should be projected.[26] In rare instances, usually for larger productions, cue sheets produced specifically for the projectionist provided a detailed guide to presenting the film. Theaters also—to maximize profit—sometimes varied projection speeds depending on the time of day or popularity of a film,[27] or to fit a film into a prescribed time slot.[26]
All motion-picture film projectors require a moving shutter to block the light whilst the film is moving, otherwise the image is smeared in the direction of the movement. However this shutter causes the image toflicker, and images with low rates of flicker are very unpleasant to watch. Early studies byThomas Edison for hisKinetoscope machine determined that any rate below 46 images per second "will strain the eye".[26] and this holds true for projected images under normal cinema conditions also. The solution adopted for the Kinetoscope was to run the film at over 40 frames/sec, but this was expensive for film. However, by using projectors with dual- and triple-blade shutters the flicker rate is multiplied two or three times higher than the number of film frames — each frame being flashed two or three times on screen. A three-blade shutter projecting a 16 fps film will slightly surpass Edison's figure, giving the audience 48 images per second. During the silent era projectors were commonly fitted with 3-bladed shutters. Since the introduction of sound with its 24 frame/sec standard speed 2-bladed shutters have become the norm for 35 mm cinema projectors, though three-bladed shutters have remained standard on 16 mm and 8 mm projectors, which are frequently used to project amateur footage shot at 16 or 18 frames/sec. A 35 mm film frame rate of 24 fps translates to a film speed of 456 millimetres (18.0 in) per second.[28] One 1,000-foot (300 m) reel requires 11 minutes and 7 seconds to be projected at 24 fps, while a 16 fps projection of the same reel would take 16 minutes and 40 seconds, or 304 millimetres (12.0 in) per second.[26]
In the 1950s, manytelecine conversions of silent films at grossly incorrect frame rates for broadcast television may have alienated viewers.[29] Film speed is often a vexed issue among scholars and film buffs in the presentation of silents today, especially when it comes to DVD releases ofrestored films, such as the case of the 2002 restoration ofMetropolis.[30]
With the lack of natural color processing available, films of the silent era were frequently dipped indyestuffs and dyed various shades and hues to signal a mood or represent a time of day. Hand tinting dates back to 1895 in the United States with Edison's release of selected hand-tinted prints ofButterfly Dance. Additionally, experiments in color film started as early as in 1909, although it took a much longer time for color to be adopted by the industry and an effective process to be developed.[4] Blue represented night scenes, yellow or amber meant day. Red represented fire and green represented a mysterious atmosphere. Similarly, toning of film (such as the common silent film generalization ofsepia-toning) with special solutions replaced the silver particles in the film stock with salts or dyes of various colors. A combination of tinting and toning could be used as an effect that could be striking.
Some films were hand-tinted, such asAnnabelle Serpentine Dance (1894), fromEdison Studios. In it,Annabelle Whitford,[31] a young dancer from Broadway, is dressed in white veils that appear to change colors as she dances. This technique was designed to capture the effect of the live performances ofLoie Fuller, beginning in 1891, in which stage lights with colored gels turned her white flowing dresses and sleeves into artistic movement.[32] Hand coloring was often used in the early "trick" and fantasy films of Europe, especially those byGeorges Méliès. Méliès began hand-tinting his work as early as 1897 and the 1899Cendrillion (Cinderella) and 1900Jeanne d'Arc (Joan of Arc) provide early examples of hand-tinted films in which the color was a critical part of the scenography ormise-en-scène; such precise tinting used the workshop ofElisabeth Thuillier in Paris, with teams of female artists adding layers of color to each frame by hand rather than using a more common (and less expensive) process of stenciling.[33] A newly restored version of Méliès'sA Trip to the Moon, originally released in 1902, shows an exuberant use of color designed to add texture and interest to the image.[34]
Comments by an American distributor in a 1908 film-supply catalog further underscore France's continuing dominance in the field of hand-coloring films during the early silent era. The distributor offers for sale at varying prices "High-Class" motion pictures byPathé,Urban-Eclipse,Gaumont,Kalem,Itala Film,Ambrosio Film, andSelig. Several of the longer, more prestigious films in the catalog are offered in both standard black-and-white "plain stock" as well as in "hand-painted" color.[35] A plain-stock copy, for example, of the 1907 releaseBen Hur is offered for $120 ($4,200 USD today), while a colored version of the same 1,000-foot, 15-minute film costs $270 ($9,449) including the extra $150 coloring charge, which amounted to 15 cents more per foot.[35] Although the reasons for the cited extra charge were likely obvious to customers, the distributor explains why his catalog's colored films command such significantly higher prices and require more time for delivery. His explanation also provides insight into the general state of film-coloring services in the United States by 1908:
Price for a hand-colored print ofBen Hur in 1908
The coloring of moving picture films is a line of work which cannot be satisfactorily performed in the United States. In view of the enormous amount of labor involved which calls for individual hand painting of every one of sixteen pictures to the foot or 16,000 separate pictures for each 1,000 feet of film very few American colorists will undertake the work at any price. As film coloring has progressed much more rapidly in France than in any other country, all of our coloring is done for us by the best coloring establishment in Paris and we have found that we obtain better quality, cheaper prices and quicker deliveries, even in coloring American made films, than if the work were done elsewhere.[35]
By the beginning of the 1910s, with the onset of feature-length films, tinting was used as another mood setter, just as commonplace as music. The directorD. W. Griffith displayed a constant interest and concern about color, and used tinting as a special effect in many of his films. His 1915 epicThe Birth of a Nation used a number of colors, including amber, blue, lavender, and a striking red tint for scenes such as the "burning of Atlanta" and the ride of theKu Klux Klan at the climax of the picture. Griffith later invented a color system in which colored lights flashed on areas of the screen to achieve a color.
With the development of sound-on-film technology and the industry's acceptance of it, tinting was abandoned altogether, because the dyes used in the tinting process interfered with the soundtracks present on film strips.[4]
The following are American films from the silent film era that had earned the highest gross income as of 1932. The amounts given aregross rentals (the distributor's share of the box-office) as opposed to exhibition gross.[37]
Although attempts to create sync-sound motion pictures go back to the Edison lab in 1896, only from the early 1920s were the basic technologies such asvacuum tube amplifiers and high-quality loudspeakers available. The next few years saw a race to design, implement, and market several rivalsound-on-disc andsound-on-film sound formats, such asPhotokinema (1921),Phonofilm (1923),Vitaphone (1926),Fox Movietone (1927) andRCA Photophone (1928).
Warner Bros. was the first studio to accept sound as an element in film production and utilize the Vitaphone, a sound-on-disc technology, to do so.[4] The studio then releasedThe Jazz Singer in 1927, which marked the first commercially successfulsound film, but silent films were still the majority of features released in both 1927 and 1928, along with so-calledgoat-glanded films: silents with a subsection of sound film inserted. Thus the modern sound film era may be regarded as coming to dominance beginning in 1929.
For a listing of notable silent-era films, seeList of years in film for the years between the beginning of film and 1928. The following list includes only films produced in the sound era with the specific artistic intention of being silent.
In 1999, theFinnish filmmakerAki Kaurismäki producedJuha in black and white, which captures the style of a silent film, using intertitles in place of spoken dialogue. Specialrelease prints with titles in several different languages were produced for international distribution.[40] In India, the filmPushpak (1988),[41] starringKamal Haasan, was a black comedy entirely devoid of dialog. The Australian filmDoctor Plonk (2007), was a silent comedy directed byRolf de Heer. Stage plays have drawn upon silent film styles and sources. Actor/writersBilly Van Zandt andJane Milmore staged their Off-Broadway slapstick comedySilent Laughter as a live action tribute to the silent screen era.[42] Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford created and starred inAll Wear Bowlers (2004), which started as an homage toLaurel and Hardy then evolved to incorporate life-sized silent film sequences of Sobelle and Lyford who jump back and forth between live action and the silver screen.[43] The animated filmFantasia (1940), which is eight different animation sequences set to music, can be considered a silent film, with only one short scene involving dialogue. The espionage filmThe Thief (1952) has music and sound effects, but no dialogue, as doThierry Zéno's 1974Vase de Noces andPatrick Bokanowski's 1982The Angel.
In 2005, theH. P. Lovecraft Historical Society produced asilent film version of Lovecraft's storyThe Call of Cthulhu. This film maintained a period-accurate filming style, and was received as both "the best HPL adaptation to date" and, referring to the decision to make it as a silent movie, "a brilliant conceit".[44]
The French filmThe Artist (2011), written and directed byMichel Hazanavicius, plays as a silent film and is set in Hollywood during the silent era. It also includes segments of fictitious silent films starring its protagonists. It won theAcademy Award for Best Picture.[45]
The Japanesevampire filmSanguivorous (2011) is not only done in the style of a silent film, but even toured with live orchestral accompaniment.[46][47]Eugene Chadbourne has been among those who have played live music for the film.[48]
Blancanieves is a 2012 Spanish black-and-white silent fantasy drama film written and directed byPablo Berger.[49]
The American feature-length silent filmSilent Life, which started in 2006 and features performances byIsabella Rossellini andGalina Jovovich, mother ofMilla Jovovich, premiered in 2013. The film is based on the life of silent screen iconRudolph Valentino, known as Hollywood's first "Great Lover". After emergency surgery, Valentino loses his grip on reality and begins to see the recollection of his life in Hollywood from a perspective of a coma – as a silent film shown at a movie palace, the magical portal between life and eternity, between reality and illusion.[50][51]
The Picnic is a 2012 short film made in the style of two-reel silent melodramas and comedies. It was part of the exhibit,No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man, a 2018–2019 exhibit curated by theRenwick Gallery of theSmithsonian American Art Museum.[52] The film was shown inside a miniature 12-seatArt Deco movie palace on wheels calledThe Capitol Theater, created by Oakland, Ca. art collectiveFive Ton Crane.
Right There is a 2013 short film that is an homage to silent film comedies.
TheAmerican Theatre Organ Society pays homage to the music of silent films, as well as thetheatre organs that played such music. With over 75 local chapters, the organization seeks to preserve and promote theater organs and music as an art form.[53]
TheGlobe International Silent Film Festival (GISFF) is an annual event focusing on image and atmosphere in cinema which takes place in a reputable university or academic environment every year and is a platform for showcasing and judging films from filmmakers who are active in this field.[54] In 2018, film director Christopher Annino shot the now internationally award-winning feature silent filmSilent Times.[55][56][57] The film pays homage to many of the characters from the 1920s, including Officer Keystone, played by David Blair; Enzio Marchello who portrays a Charlie Chaplin character.Silent Times won best silent film at the Oniros Film Festival. Set in a small New England town, the story centers on Oliver Henry III (played by Westerly native Geoff Blanchette), a small-time crook turned vaudeville theater owner. From humble beginnings in England, he immigrates to the US in search of happiness and fast cash. He becomes acquainted with people from all walks of life, from burlesque performers, mimes, hobos to classy flapper girls, as his fortunes rise and his life spins ever more out of control.In 2021, directorMalte Wirtz brought his silent filmGender Crisis to German cinemas, which is now available online worldwide. The film tells the ancient story ofSamson andDelilah in a modern way.[58]
Although animated filmsThe Apostle (1917) andThe Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) are considered silent, they have used the synchronized sound and music without use of dialogues (only for gibberish and emotion sounds) for their respective films, in similar veins of Academy Award-nominated animated films likeShaun the Sheep Movie (2015),The Red Turtle (2016), and Berger'sRobot Dreams (2023) as well as Academy Award-winning animated filmFlow (2024).
A still fromSaved from the Titanic (1912), which featured survivors of the disaster. It is now among those considered alost film.
The vast majority of the silent films produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are considered lost. According to a September 2013 report published by the United StatesLibrary of Congress, some 70 percent of American silent feature films fall into this category.[59] There are numerous reasons for this number being so high. Some films have been lost unintentionally, but most silent films were destroyed on purpose. Between the end of the silent era and the rise ofhome video, film studios would often discard large numbers of silent films out of a desire to free up storage in their archives, assuming that they had lost the cultural relevance and economic value to justify the amount of space they occupied. Additionally, due to the fragile nature of thenitrate film stock which was used to shoot and distribute silent films, many motion pictures have irretrievably deteriorated or have been lost in accidents, including fires (because nitrate is highly flammable and can spontaneously combust when stored improperly). Examples of such incidents include the1965 MGM vault fire and the1937 Fox vault fire, both of which caused catastrophic losses of films. Many such films not completely destroyed survive only partially, or in badly damaged prints. Some lost films, such asLondon After Midnight (1927), lost in the MGM fire, have been the subject of considerable interest byfilm collectors and historians.
Though most lost silent films will never be recovered,some have been discovered in film archives or private collections. Discovered and preserved versions may be editions made for the home rental market of the 1920s and 1930s that are discovered in estate sales, etc.[63] The degradation of old film stock can be slowed through proper archiving, and films can be transferred tosafety film stock or to digital media for preservation. Thepreservation of silent films has been a high priority for historians and archivists.[64]
Dawson City, in theYukon territory of Canada, was once the end of the distribution line for many films. In 1978, a cache of more than 500 reels of nitrate film was discovered during the excavation of a vacant lot formerly the site of the Dawson Amateur Athletic Association, which had started showing films at its recreation center in 1903.[64][65] Works byPearl White,Helen Holmes,Grace Cunard,Lois Weber,Harold Lloyd,Douglas Fairbanks, andLon Chaney, among others, were included, as well as many newsreels. The titles were stored at the local library until 1929 when the flammable nitrate was used as landfill in a condemned swimming pool. Having spent 50 years under the permafrost of the Yukon, the reels turned out to be extremely well preserved. Owing to its dangerous chemical volatility,[66] the historical find was moved by military transport toLibrary and Archives Canada and the USLibrary of Congress for storage (and transfer tosafety film). A documentary about the find,Dawson City: Frozen Time, was released in 2016.[67][68]
Internationale Stummfilmtage (International Days of Silent Cinema), which is held every August inBonn, Germany.[76]
Le Giornate del cinema muto (Pordenone Silent Film Festival), held annually inPordenone, Italy. It is the first and largest international film festival dedicated to the preservation, dispersion, and study of silent film.[77]
Mykkäelokuvafestivaalit (International Silent Film Festival, Forssa) held inForssa, Finland.[78]
Nederlands Silent Film Festival held inEindhoven, Nederlands.[79]
^Vlad Strukov, "A Journey through Time: Alexander Sokurov'sRussian Ark and Theories of Memisis" in Lúcia Nagib and Cecília Mello, eds.Realism and the Audiovisual Media (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 129–30.ISBN0230246974; and Thomas Elsaesser,Early Cinema: Space, Frame, Narrative (London: British Film Institute, 1990), 14.ISBN0851702457
^DirectorGus Van Sant describes in his director commentary onPsycho: Collector's Edition (1998) that he and his generation were likely turned off to silent film because of incorrect TV broadcast speeds.
^Duvall, Gilles; Wemaere, Severine (March 27, 2012).A Trip to the Moon in its Original 1902 Colors. Technicolor Foundation for Cinema Heritage and Flicker Alley. pp. 18–19.
Kobel, Peter (2007).Silent Movies: The Birth of Film and the Triumph of Movie Culture (1st ed.). New York: Little, Brown and Company.ISBN978-0-316-11791-3.
Read, Paul; Meyer, Mark-Paul, eds. (2000).Restoration of Motion Picture Film. Conservation and Museology. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.ISBN978-0-7506-2793-1.
Slide, Anthony (2000).Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co.ISBN978-0-7864-0836-8.
Standish, Isolde (2006).A New History of Japanese Cinema: A Century of Narrative Film. New York: Continuum.ISBN978-0-8264-1790-9.
Thompson, Frank T. (1996).Lost Films: Important Movies That Disappeared. New York: Carol Publishing.ISBN978-0-8065-1604-2.
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