Chapin, Murnau, Lang, Hitchcock, Eisenstein. Where in Silent Cinema does your heart belong? Chaney, Valentino, Fairbanks, Lloyd, Pickford, Astor, Swanson. In all the silents in all the world, which would you walk into?
4 Likes
Buster Keatonās Steamboat Bill, Jr. is a masterpiece.
9 Likes
Anything by F.W. Murnau.
4 Likes
Too many to name only 1 - but Buster Keaton is king
After that, the man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney
Actresses? Gish, Garbo, Swanson, Anna May Wong. Marion Davies (in comedy), Bridgette Helm, Blanche Sweet, Asta Nielsen
Directors? Keaton (again), Victor Sjƶstrƶm, Gance, yeah Murnau, Lang and Eisenstein
Movie: Passion of Joan of Arc would be my best of the era, but again, too many to number, Caligari, Nosferatu, Man With a Movie Camera, The General, Metropolis, Potemkin, and on and onā¦
6 Likes
One of my very artistic and precise grandfatherās first jobs as a young man in Germany was painting title cards for UFA. I donāt know for sure because I only found that out after he died, but the timeline lines up and he may very well have done some of the original titles for Metropolis.
4 Likes
Amazing. What films are you sure he worked on? And how were you able to discover this?
That particular scene is terrifying to watch because Buster actually stood there and if heād been just an INCH out of place he would have likely been killed. That wall was weighted so it would fall correctly. Buster, at that point in his life, was acutely depressed; his wife was taking him for everything he was worth and his studio was not helping, so he later confided in a few trusted friends that if he had died doing the stunt it wouldnāt have mattered in the slightest. Itās amazing that a man so known for making people laugh could be in that much personal trouble, but as the saying goes, the saddest people smile the brightest (although āOlā Stonefaceā, as Buster was known, wasnāt exactly a smiler)
8 Likes
Iām fond of āBeloved Rogueā. John Barrymore just fills the screen.
2 Likes
Iām a huge Harold Lloyd fan! I have a collection of his works that Iām sure would be worn out by now had they not been plastic discs!
Also own several Fritz Lang movies
4 Likes
I donāt actually know what films he worked on. I just know he was there in 1927.
1 Like
I did a school project in eighth grade on Clara Bow. I have been fascinated by silent films since I was at least 12. Probably my favorite silent film is The Phantom of the Opera with Lon Chaney. The reveal is truly frightening.
6 Likes
Lon Chaneyās ability to do amazing horror films (Phantom of the Opera, etc.), character stuff (Tell It To The Marines) and stuff that was really wild and ahead of its time (He Who Gets Slapped) makes him my go-to silent movie pick.
3 Likes
Possibly the greatest stunt of all time. Three inches miscalculation in any direction and heās a dead man.
4 Likes
Mostly because of being made aware of his comics last year, but Iām planning in the near future to get this silent movie:
2 Likes
The complexity of Harold Lloyd runs circles around modern comics. The visual inventiveness and rollercoaster energy annex other genres enriching the enjoyment these films cater. Grandmaās Boy (1922), Safety Last! (1923), Girl Shy (1924), The Freshman (1925), The Kid Brother (1927), Speedy (1928). This is daredevil entertainment on top of the comedy they provide. Heartbreak, victory, affection, irony, the Lloyd silents are floods of humanity covered in charm.
5 Likes
I will walk in to any movie where the audience is silent. Those are my favorite.
2 Likes
Yup Lloyd and Keaton stand a the pinnacle for me. Nowadays Iāve been diving on occasion into all the classic silent films on Kanopy (my local library subs and I can watch 8 films a month.) They have a great selection. Iāve been going slowly through the early Arbuckle and Keaton shorts.
3 Likes
My favorite Keaton is Sherlock Jr., especially because of this sequence, which just awes me since it was done totally in-camera.
4 Likes
And thatās a hell of a thing, everything that you two have pointed out.
Glad things ended up well there! That wasnāt always the case for silent performers (gestures to everything the great Harold Lloyd suffered).
2 Likes
Buster often got injured doing his stunts. That scene inā¦ I forget the name of the movie, but he gets pulled off a moving train by grabbing the cord on a water tower and as he goes down the water turns on, drenching him? A doctor later determined heād fractured several of his cervical vertebrae doing that. He also broke his ankle during a stunt involving a moving staircase and any number of other injuries.
2 Likes