Thoughts & Things

Silent Film

Before this year, I didn't have a lot of interest in silent films. Well... the interest was there, but not enough interest to act on it. I saw Behind the Screen (1916), a short starring Charlie Chaplin; Cendrillon (1899), a short film directed by Georges Méliès and featuring early examples of special effects; and Nanook of the North (1922), one of the first feature length narrative documentaries. I enjoyed most of what I saw. It was a fascinating view into history. I enjoyed getting to see what people found funny, what people thought of other people, and even just what people found funny. I enjoyed all three to varying degrees, but none of them was really "for me" in a pure entertainment sense.

This year I started a film challenge. I created it and got family and friends to participate. I actually completed the challenge early July (it was meant to last through 2016). There were thirty categories to watch new films from. A number of these were based on decades, including 1930s, 1920s, 1910s. This ended up pushing me into a few silent films, including some additional ones that were excess and would not count for the challenge.

This year I have managed to watch The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first ever technicolor features, co-written by a woman, Frances Marion, and starring Anna May Wong, Hollywood's first Chinese American star; The Sheik (1921), starring Rudolph Valentino; The Son of the Sheik (1926), with Rudolph Valentino reprising his role as the Sheik, while also playing the son, also co-written by Frances Marion; The Goddess / Shen nu (1934), a Chinese silent film, starring Ruan Lingyu, an exceptional actress who sadly committed suicide within a year of this film's release; Where Are My Children? (1916), a film co-written and co-directed by Lois Weber, with pro-birth control and anti-abortion sentiments, with the primary sympathetic character supporting eugenics; The General (1926), starring Buster Keaton, and set during the Civil War.

I never would have thought I would genuinely enjoy so many of these on so many different levels. Many of them have excellent humour, excellent emotion, and excellent stories. Most of them are a tad offensive when viewed through a modern scope, but it's fascinating to see what would have been socially acceptable or shocking at the time. It was fascinating to see what changed in film from 1916 to 1926, from camera quality to special effects. Most of it what I watched became even more fascinating if I gave myself background knowledge about who the actors, writers, and directors were, and any contemporary fuss over the film.

It's genuinely been really fascinating to begin to enjoy silent films, and it has been fascinating to learn more about them as I go. I feel like I have a long way to go, and there's so much more that I want to see. I feel like it's something everyone should try at least once.