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Silent Cinema: Seven Reasons to Love Silent Movies

Let's be honest, silent films do not have the best of reputations. Often dismissed as corny, cliched and ridiculous (usually by people who have never actually seen one), silent cinema has gotten very little respect. Fortunately, the tide is turning, and more and more film fans are discovering how vibrant and intriguing these movies really are.

Of course, watching silent films is still not a common hobby. In fact, the most common question I get is, 'How did you start watching those?' followed by 'Why?'

The 'why' can be broken down into seven reasons. There are many more but seven is a good number to start.

1. Silent films aren't what you think.

What do I mean by this? Well, if you ask the average citizen on the street to describe a silent movie, chances are they talk about scratchy, black and white movies with a tinkling piano and a woman tied to train tracks, a sawmill or similar peril. Kevin Brownlow addressed this myth in his excellent Hollywood miniseries but it lives on three decades later.

In fact, what most people think of as a silent movie is a reenactment that bears no resemblance to the original. Often, it is a copy of a copy of a copy.

So, what is a silent movie really like? That brings us to...

2. Silent films will pull you in.

Many people experience a learning curve when they watch silent movies for the first time. Everything is visual; a viewer cannot look away and just listen if they hope to follow what is happening. It's a mistake to think silent films are just sound movies with title cards thrown in.

In fact, watching a silent movie is halfway between watching a sound movie and reading a novel. The viewer's mind and imagination are engaged and required to fill in the blanks. As a result, when a silent film grips the viewer, the grip is tight and intimate. The best silent films have the power to haunt the viewer for days, weeks, years.

3. Silent films reward your attention.

Due to censorship concerns and the desire to keep intertitles to a minimum, silent actors and directors would have to be subtle. Subtlety in silent movie acting? Oh, yes. The talented performers could convey a world of emotion with a single look or a small movement of the hand. In fact, it might take several viewings to absorb the full impact and meaning of a performance.

For example, watch the way The Musketeers of Pig Alley unfolds. There are title cards, but they are almost unnecessary due to the skillful performances. Lillian Gish and Elmer Booth are able to tell the story of a gangster and a tenement laundress through looks and gestures and some very fine acting. At the risk of sounding like Norma Desmond, they didn't need dialogue; they had their bodies. (It wasn't just about faces.)

4. Silent films are vibrant reminders of the beginning of the movies.

The silent era was a pioneering time for motion pictures. Stars, producers, writers and directors broke rules because the rules didn't exist yet. There is an excitement and a sense of adventure in the best silent films. You can feel the newness of the art and the filmmaker's enthusiasm for their new discoveries. The work of Georges Melies, for example, is not 'sophisticated' by modern standards. The painted sets are clearly sets. But Melies was not out to fool us into believing that we were seeing reality. He sought to entertain and charm his audience and transport them into a magical world. The innocence and zeal on display in his films is the key to their charm.


5. Silent films had juicy roles for actresses.

The image of a damsel tied to the train tracks is not only inaccurate in itself; it also gives the impression that silent films were populated exclusively by damsels. Then as now, films did use female characters in peril as plot devices but there were also many, many juicy roles for women. And silent film actresses were up to the challenge.

Mary Pickford was America's Sweetheart and she made her share of romantic comedies but she also specialized in playing aggressive, wild young ladies who were not above engaging in a bit of adventure in order to get their way. Whether breaking her crush out of jail in M'Liss or crossing a swamp full of gators to save a band of orphans in Sparrows, Pickford's heroines tended to be on the spunky side.

Pickford was not the only actress who took on interesting roles. From the Gish sisters to Louise Brooks, the silent era was full of fascinating women playing complicated parts.

6. Silent films have comedy for every taste.

Another assumption is silent films were all about pie fights and pratfalls. While true pie fights (as opposed to a solo pie in the face) were a rarity, pratfalls were abundant in slapstick comedies. But slapstick was only one genre of many. I could talk about the Big Four (Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, Langdon) but let's step off the beaten path an inch or two.

Marion Davies has won over a whole new generation of fans with her charming antics in The Patsy and Show People. A wicked mimic, she had a great deal of fun at the expense of her fellow stars.

Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew specialized in domestic comedies that manage to charm without a single pie to be seen.

Reginald Denny perfectly embodied the humorous perils of suburban life. In Skinner's Dress Suit, he is a wage slave trying to get a promotion. His wife thinks he already has it and has been spending accordingly. Help arrives in the form of some complicated dance steps, proving to be his passport into the upper levels of society. But will he get that promotion before the creditors come calling? Again, funny business with nary a pie to be seen.

(I am not opposed to pies now and again. I just don't like the assumption this was all silent comedians needed to do in order to get a laugh. They had many, many more tricks up their sleeves.)

7. Silent films influenced what came after.

There's an apocryphal story floating around about someone who saw The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari for the first time and declared that it was like, 'Tim Burton had traveled back in time and made a film!' All joking aside, silent films continue to influence modern moviemaking. It's fun connecting the dots and discover who borrowed what from where.

Silent films are not dead and they are not relics. They are beautiful works of art and windows to the past. They are educational and possess an exciting pioneering spirit. As the icing on the cake, they are also a great deal of fun. So, why do we watch silent films? Because they're wonderful.

Fritzi Kramer is the chief cook and bottle washer at Movies Silently, where she opines on all things related to silent film. She lives in central California, which is the part without the palm trees.