I was never drawn to silent movies before I came to the Academy. I always thought that they would just be silly. I thought that Charlie Chaplin was just a man who fell over a lot. And I still think that he is silly but now I can understand and appreciate the importance of what he was doing. I now know more about the silent era of film which makes me enjoy them more. I find the information behind the movies interesting but the movie its self not so much. For example the kid I was told was going to make me cry and it didn't. Now maybe that was because it was built up to much I am not sure. One of the other reasons why I did not like that film was because I found my self getting annoyed at Chaplin. I grew bored very quickly of his falling over and silly faces. The thing about him that I do like is what he did. He was able to bring happiness to millions of people and that it pretty cool. He help shaped cinema as we know it today so for that I do like him. I think that that era was right for the market at the time but I can not get the same enjoyment out of it now. I enjoyed the film Chaplin more that any of his films I have watched.
Then there was Buster Keaton. One of the reasons I prefer Keaton is that he does not pull any stupid faces. The other is thing I liked about him was his stunts. He fell over in style. His special effects were outstanding in his films for when they where made. It was when I was watching his film that I thought to my self that I should not pre judge things. Like the Chaplin movies I thought that they would be silly but they were but they had something so much more to give.
It is the same story with The Battleship Potyomkin. I did not enjoy it but thought it was cool to watch because it was what started so much. It was really interesting to see where editing first came about and when I talk about silent movies I will now be able to mention that TBP was a stepping stone to what we watch on our screens today. In the film was the famous scene which has been used so many times. The Untouchables, The Witches, Crunchy Nut, Alvin and Chipmunks and the Simpsons are but to name a few. It is cool to be able to say yeh I saw the first one of that.
Here is a video of the start of naked gun which has four pram's and a lawnmwer falling down some stairs. You might want to skip to one minute.
Then there was Caligari. German impressionism. Like Andy said you can see how this film influenced films like Batman and Edward Scissor hands. My feelings are the same with this film I did not enjoy it but I was glad to see and find out about where these film making practices came about from.
I have not finished watching The Birth of a Nation as it is over three hours long but what I have seen so far as been interesting. There are huge battle scenes which I can see audiences shouting and screaming at back in 1915. There are also white people playing black people which just about sums up the tone of this film. What was really interesting about this film is its lenth. The films was have seen in class around 1902ish have been three minutes then there was Chaplin who Film the kid was 68 min in 1961. So what was a 190 min film doing in 1915?
So what I have been trying to say in my rambling is basically I will not judge a book by its cover. I should watch things even if they look rubbish because I will always be able to take something from it. From silent movies I have taken an appreciation for the film makers who shaped our cinema and did wonders with the equipment they had to use. Also I was able to learn what the people wanted from there films in the early days and how their attitude changed quite quickly.
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