watch ten classic silent movies

Birth of a Nation left?! I can do this…but do I want to do this, over Christmas…hmmm, some samurai movies maybe?

I wanted to see something with Lillian Gish, so this movie was the one that I could get. I tried my best to watch it without being horrified, but all of the stereotypes and some of the language…very cringe-y.

This one would be good to contrast with the Sheik, in the different portrayals of hero and heroine and cross-cultural love affairs.

One more to go…

Clara Bow was very pretty, feisty and charming. I am glad that I got to see one of her movies. I would watch this one as a double feature with “It happened one night”.

follow it up with “Shadow of the Vampire” a what-if story of the filming of Nosferatu in which Murnau (John Malkovich) engages a real vampire, Orlok/Shrek (Willem Defoe) to play the part of a vampire in his movie. Funny but also creepy, this is a great movie about film making and the vampirism of art.

“Your wife has a beautiful neck…”

Fright Night was one of my favorite movies in junior high, so I’m glad I watched this movie.

The soundtrack included on the version I watched was just obnoxious, so turn it to mute.

Murnau’s story about good and evil waging war over man. Faust is an elderly alchemist whose city, as part of the Jobian wager between Mephisto and the Archangel, is struck by plague. Tempted by the devil, Faust is offered the power to save lives if he will sign over his soul to the devil.

If you liked the Passion of Joan of Arc, you will like this film.

Mephisto is very creepy and then campy, so I liked that character the best. Worthwhile. The soundtrack values on this movie were terrible so I had to turn up the volume considerably to hear the score. No extras on the disk (Kino).

Sweet film with great comic scenes, the boxing match especially.

I watched this on a double dvd set and the extras on the second dvd are actually worth watching. In one of the comments in the intro to the extras, the narrator explains that Chaplin kept his tramp character silent so that the character remained universal. I had never considered this before but one of the virtues of silent films is that a speaker of any language can enjoy the film; the actions speak it all.

Maria Falconetti has a highly sympathetic and pathetic face; her hands are eloquent. Very moving performance.

Interesting how some of the clergy are outright jeering and disrespectful, others are Machiavellian cunning and some are in sympathy with Joan/Jean/Jehanne, trying to save her.

1. an abnormal condition of sleep in which motor acts (as walking) are performed
2. actions characteristic of somnambulism

From the Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

Francis tells the story of his friend Alan and the visit of the sinister Dr. Caligari and his sleeping minion, Cesare.

If you’re a fan of Tim Burton’s elaborate sets, designs and costuming, check out this film. The Penguin from Batman Returns even resembles the grubby necromancer, Dr. Caligari. The set is jagged, angled, but at the same time, has long gaps of light and dark arcs like a spider web.

And finally, finally one of these movies has a suitable soundtrack with no synthesizers. Created for the 1996 restoration of the movie, the music is creepy and completely suited to the film.

According to the IMDB, a remake for this movie is planned in 2006.

actually really hard to get in some cases. I may have to make some more adjustments to my list to get some of them.