Silent Film

The silent film era was a unique experience in itself. The dialogues help to retain the attention of the audience. Without it only the masters like Charles Chaplin could hold the crowd together for hours. This requires very consistent expertise, direction and editing with story backup. The set decoration and the landscape scenes also need minute attention to compensate the sound and lead the viewers to follow the story as intended. The few who created these silent master pieces were real genius people. They understood the public moods better.

Birth of a Nation (1915)

Birth of a Nation is directed by D. W. Griffith. This silent film is roughly three hours long. The viewers like it despite the length and stay completely absorbed from the beginning to the end. This civil war time movie is seemingly divided in two phases. The story is about two families each living in north and south zones. The circumstances lead these friends to fight for the opposite sides in the war. The scenes picturized at the country side are very near to being realistic. The costumes match the civil war day pattern and the support atmosphere carries a fantastic resemblance to the old era, literally reviving the old memories of the time. The actors are portrayed black faced suiting the characters they resemble.

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The second half of the silent movie shows the reconstruction process after the war. The alarming and the awesome scenes of the war make the film a master piece keeping the audience completely engulfed in the events shown. The Lincoln’s assassination is very realistically picturized depicting very similar surroundings. Both the lead characters Mae Marsh and Henry B. Walthall looked more dashing and beautiful than they actually are. The musical backup of the events was excellent, playing the original civil war time tunes. The silent film is one of the best.

The Dragon Painter (1919)

This silent film is based on a Japanese fairy tale. A brilliant artist, Tatsu lives in the mountains and is commonly known as the ‘Dragon Painter’. The artist is dressed in tattered clothes and only paints dragons in the hope to find his ‘Enchanted Princess’ who has been turned into a dragon by the spirits a 1000 years age.

A master artist in Tokyo lives with his only daughter and happens to be looking for an artist assistant who could further his family traditions. The two master artists are introduced to each other but the single minded is only interested in his Princess to come to life. Then Tatsu observes the master’s daughter resembles his dream princess and vouches to become apprentice only after marrying his daughter. The old master agrees and the practical life pursuits start for Tatsu. He now has to learn the talent again beyond dragon princess.

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The film has been much appreciated on the whole as entertaining and beautifully screened. The jungle scenes and the tinted print offers enchanting fantasy atmosphere. The emotions within add a romantic touch to the story.

Stella Maris (1918)

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The theme of this film is intelligently chosen. The story rotates around two ’look alike’ girls of about the same age, but living in almost different and opposite social exposure.

Stella Maris is a beautiful girl of a well to do family. She avails all comforts of life but is paralyzed since childhood and lives in a dream world, totally cut-off from the real outside world. Her companion is a Teddy dog along with all types of dolls and toys.

Unity Blake is the other ugly looking girl housed in a London orphanage. A woman adopts Unity from the orphanage and takes home. Unity finds the woman is a drunkard woman and probably wanted a house servant. Her husband, John Risca introduces himself to bed-ridden Stella as a princely guy living in a castle and is unmarried. Stella starts loving him.

One day some naughty street boys snatch the night meal from Unity, who is then thrashed by the woman as she reaches home. The woman is jailed for three years while John adopts Unity to compensate the injustice done to her. Stella is able to walk after a lucky surgical operation. She walks beyond the door and peeps outside to find misery, hunger and crime in abundance. By coincidence both Stella and Unity love John. But he only loves Stella and also that he cannot separate himself from his old wife who is released from prison and lives alone.

The dream story is filmed fantastically turning the circumstances quite realistically. The costumes and the makeup is the best. The beautiful Stella in contrast to Unity, the ugly duckling with small eyes, darkened teeth and untidy lifestyle.

Peter Pan (1924)

The Peter Pan film is based on a fantasy play by J. M. Barrie. The opening scene is a nursery where Nana nurse, a big dog gets three nice children, Wendy, John and Michael, who are now ready to go to bed. Form the bedside window they see a boy, Peter Pan looking for his shadow with a moving light ball, Tinker bell. Peter Pan wants to stay young to enjoy life forever. They become friends and Pan offers to teach flying and take them to the Never Never Land for Wendy to pose mother and tell stories to the Lost Boys there. The make believe forest is full of pirates, red skins and friendly mermaids. Jealous Tinker prompts the lost boys to kill Wendy. Wendy is saved and the boys build a house for her. They play fantasy games and Wendy tells the boys stories.

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Peter cuts the hand of evil captain Cook and fed it to the crocodile. The revenging pirates attack the children. Back home the children’s mother is very sad and waiting for her own children’s return.

The fantasy portraying and landscaping is tremendous. The special effects on fantasy charm are engulfing. A beautiful entertainment film on the whole.

A Trip to the Moon (1902)

This is the hard work of George Melies, who is a known pioneer of fantasy films and proves his best. He was a professional magician and used his techniques to produce a very memorable film.

His fantastic astronauts reach the moon by magical flight. They walk and enjoy the trip in ordinary clothes and sleep in blankets in the cold. The stars bearing human faces peep on them joyfully astonished. The moon creatures are converted into smoke puffs by the magic of Melies.

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The communication effects are produced by intelligent editing taking typical hints from fictional stories. The film is a great feat of humor mixed with fantasy.

October (1927)

This film was a master piece by Sergei Eisenstein. It is based on the October Revolution in Russia. People also recall it as Ten Days that Shook the World. The Soviet Union sponsored this film to commemorate the Tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. The legendary director made tremendous efforts for this master piece as assigned by the Russian Government. All history was recreated in detail to recall the events as they happened. The party policy is vivid, but the main credit goes to the director as to how he used the unlimited resources in the best way. A real good experimentation completed.

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The documentary has dramatized how Lenin became the mastermind with the other revolutionary leaders as consultants. The film was made at the actual locations in Petrograd (renamed Leningrad/ Stalingrad and St. Petersburg). The film gathers great appreciation by special featuring of the ‘Storming of the actual Winter Palace’. The director proved his worth by producing the film according to the expectations of the sponsorers.

City lights (1931)

The film represents the Chaplin super mark. He is the producer, director, music composer, editor and the lead role actor. He is known for his perfection and in this particular film he achieved it to the utmost high. This film took three years to complete and was released in 1931. Reportedly Chaplin was not satisfied with certain aspects of the stage and shut down production till the proper solution was found. This shows his commitment to his profession. The laughter that results from his acts, even decades after is because of the perfect fine tuning of his actions through excellent editing.
The film is about a blind girl surrounded in unfavorable social conditions. The humor starts at the opening dedication ceremony scene where things get mixed up and messed up that ends in the funniest boxing match full of laughter and humorous scenes. No doubt Chaplin is at his best.

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Modern times (1936)

This film by Charles Chaplin ranks among the top. This is about the western civilization and their economic and social setup. He humorously takes on the authority figures defying their policies. A few scenes are really amazing like a diabolic feeding machine. In another one the labor union is seen catching in on him as he picks up a dropped flag of the construction company. The beauty lies in his silent, tactical and typical movements that keep the attention of the audience in tact.

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The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

The film is renowned for its extraordinary photography in Dutch style. The lead actress Maria Falconetti’s extreme passionate acting is another landmark of the film. In the crying scene the tear streaks on the face with intense absorbing feelings were so pronounced and deep that the actress never acted again. There is much more in the film.

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The film remained lost for some time. The complete original version was found in 1986 in a Dutch mental institution. Those who had missed can view the engulfing experience on DVD.

Red Lily (1924)

This film is full of emotions and sad feelings. The scene opens in a small village in Britain. Jean Marline liked and loved each other since childhood. The girl’s father dies. She being alone moves to her relatives, who are poor and unfriendly. The family was a drunkard father, wife and many children. The drunkard man tries to whip to seduce the girl who is forced to flee to her old home and unites with Jean. They go to Paris to live their. The shear hard luck they lose each other and separate again. The film reveals their individual experiences there after in the vast crime ridden city of Paris.

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The photography is well up to the mark and enhanced by bright tinted shades of different colors. The actors did their roles well and displayed passionate emotions through out. The music support was well coordinated.