{"id":198,"date":"2012-03-13T15:44:20","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T19:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/?p=198"},"modified":"2020-12-06T21:33:02","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T02:33:02","slug":"dude-yousawtheartist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drfilm.net\/blog\/?p=198","title":{"rendered":"Dude, #youSawTheArtist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that The Artist <\/em>has won the Best Picture Oscar, I\u2019ve been asked by numerous people to recommend other silent films.\u00a0 People treat me as if I speak a foreign language and that perhaps I can teach them the secret to unlocking it.\u00a0 In a way, this is really true, because silent film uses a different filmic syntax, and it\u2019s one that has to be learned with repeated viewings.\u00a0 Silent film technique is not <\/em>primitive… it is quite advanced, in fact, but it is fundamentally different<\/em> from the techniques we use today. That\u2019s why it can seem a little silly if you are not used to it.<\/p>\n

Most of the people who ask me about silent films are younger folks who are just discovering silents.\u00a0 I hope this will dispel the myth that I somehow dislike younger people or \u201cnewbies,\u201d which is definitely not the case.\u00a0 The entire goal of the Dr. Film <\/em>show is to be able to include films and shorts that will appeal to a broad audience, from newbies to dyed-in-the-wool film geeks.<\/p>\n

What I don\u2019t like, and will continue not to like, is the persistent cultural idea that there were only five films made before Star Wars<\/em>, which seems to be the oldest film most people will watch.\u00a0 I refer to these as the \u201cHoly Quintet\u201d of classic films. (See the end of this article for the list of the \u201cHoly Quintet,\u201d just in case you\u2019re wondering.)<\/p>\n

Silent films suffer even more in popular culture, They were often copied poorly, causing them to have that blown-out over-white look, and they were often transferred at speeds that were completely incorrect.\u00a0 This only hurts the whole of silent film, because originally all the prints were lovely and they were all projected at reasonable speeds.<\/p>\n

Most articles that I see trot out the same few silent films, often with a dismissive swish that these are flickery and sped-up, not understanding the basic idea of what silents were about.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been reading about The Artist, <\/em>then you\u2019ve seen these articles, too.\u00a0 Everyone wants you to see Sunrise<\/em>, Passion of Joan of Arc<\/em>, City Lights<\/em>, Metropolis, <\/em>and Intolerance<\/em>.\u00a0 These are becoming the clich\u00e9d \u201csee these after you\u2019ve seen The Artist<\/em>\u201d list.<\/p>\n

The problem that I have with this list is that they are not terribly accessible.\u00a0 Not in a strict sense of availability\u2013these films can all be found on video, and often downloaded.\u00a0 The problem is that these are not films I\u2019d recommend for newbies.\u00a0 It\u2019s the equivalent of handing Beowulf <\/em>to a kid who\u2019s just finished Green Eggs and Ham<\/em>.\u00a0 Sure, Beowulf <\/em>is great, but the poor kid is probably going to be put off a lot of literature because this is just too much for him.<\/p>\n

All of the films in the \u201csee these after you\u2019ve seen The Artist\u201d <\/em>list are films I\u2019ve seen, and one of the things that they share is that they tend to be rather broad-sweeping epics.\u00a0 They tackle big issues, they\u2019re big and ponderous, and they\u2019re \u201carty.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing wrong with that\u2013I like these pictures<\/em>\u2013but I fear that the won\u2019t play well for viewers who are new to the medium.\u00a0 Worse still, these are all films that demand a great deal of concentration and play infinitely better on a large screen with an audience.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got to face the fact that I need to hook new viewers by finding films that will play well on an iPhone. Then I slowly must convince them that the theatrical experience is far superior especially for silents!<\/em><\/p>\n

I need\u00a0 to emphasize once again that silents are fundamentally different from talkies.\u00a0 You can watch Transformers 3 <\/em>and walk into the kitchen, come back, and you\u2019ve heard all the explosions and dialogue that you need to follow the story.\u00a0 We can\u2019t do that with silents.\u00a0 If you miss two or three minutes, then you may be lost.\u00a0 More importantly, there are things we can do in talkies that we can\u2019t do in silents, but there are things that we can do in silents that we can\u2019t do in talkies.<\/p>\n

Ben Model frequently points out (and accurately), that one of the things we can do in silents is to have large, noisy objects sneak up behind the protagonist while he is unaware of them.\u00a0 In Buster Keaton pictures, this is often a train.\u00a0 When Buster\u2019s back is to the train, even if we can see it, we\u2019re somehow able to believe that Buster can\u2019t hear it.\u00a0 We don\u2019t hear it either.\u00a0 Once he sees it, then he is aware of its existence.\u00a0 Sight is the only sense we have in a silent film.<\/p>\n

The other thing that many have already gleaned from me is that I tend to veer off the mainstream, so I figure that you can find all the big, epic silents you need.\u00a0 I\u2019ve prepared a list of ten silent films that I hope will encourage you to see more.<\/p>\n

These are not what I think are the ten best silent films.\u00a0 I hate lists like that.\u00a0 These are not my favorite silent films.\u00a0 I hate lists like that.\u00a0 These are not even what I consider a balanced overview of what silent films represented.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure I could do that with just ten.<\/p>\n

Here are the criteria I used\u2013<\/p>\n