Lately I鈥檝e been watching silent movies. Part of the reason is because they鈥檙e mostly pretty short 鈥� you can watch one of the silent comedy shorts in a lunch break, so I鈥檝e been making that a habit 鈥� but the main reason is that I haven鈥檛 really paid much attention to silent films before so I thought it might be interesting to further explore a style of film that I don鈥檛 often watch.
I can understand completely when someone says they don鈥檛 enjoy silent films, they鈥檙e very different. You realize quite quickly that voice is one of the most versatile tools an actor has, and so they have to amplify other parts of their repertoire to compensate.
There are plenty of silent performances that a modern viewer would find completely over the top, founded on the belief that you have to amplify emotions to make them appear on screen. Someone like Buster Keaton is inevitably refreshing because he鈥檚 always subtle, a rare quality in the era.
It鈥檚 a fundamentally different form, and couldn鈥檛 have been approached in a very modern way. Even early sound films feel approachable to a modern audience because, as much as things have changed in the decades since, they tend to feel like movies. Silent film feels like something very different.
But it鈥檚 still very interesting to watch a glimpse into another time. Sometimes it鈥檚 surprisingly relevant, such as a vampire using disease to cover his tracks in Nosferatu. Sometimes it鈥檚 just surprising, like The Ten Commandments 小蓝视频 mostly about a modern story about an immoral industrialist, though it still uses the finest special effects 1923 has to offer to part the Red Sea.
Not all of the glimpses are positive, you definitely have to prepare yourself for a chance of racism every time you take a trip to the silent era. While that can be a learning moment, if you鈥檙e just looking to be entertained it can be a jarring experience to go from 鈥淚鈥檓 enjoying this wacky comedy鈥� to 鈥渙h no.鈥�
It鈥檚 a primitive form, and as much as there were hold-outs into the 1930s it was inevitable that silent films would fall out of favor. Synchronized sound just, inevitably, makes things better, and is more appealing to an audience which has grown up with sound. But it鈥檚 worth watching because it鈥檚 history, and it can give you a clearer glimpse into the world of 100 years ago than many other accounts of the time.
Art is a mirror, a reflection of the world we live in. We can learn a lot about people from what they used to entertain themselves. Sometimes, we might even surprise ourselves by 小蓝视频 entertained by the same thing. Some things change dramatically, some things not at all, and silent film is a great example of that.
