Silent Cinema

Chaplin


Charles Spencer Chaplin,  (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977), known as Charlie Chaplin, was an English comic actor, film director and composer best-known for his work during the silent film era.He became one of the most famous film stars in the world before the end of the First World War. Chaplin used mime, slapstick and other visual comedy routines, and continued well into the era of the talkies, though his films decreased in frequency from the end of the 1920s.



Ince Thomas


Ince directed over 100 films but is better known as a producer who in 1912 founded Inceville, the first modern Hollywood studio. Ince established firm hierarchies, supervising all aspects of production and retaining authority over the final cut of all films. The studio used five self-contained shooting stages, production units each headed by a different director, and detailed shooting scripts with strict timetables that planned out production shot-by-shot. Inceville became the model for Hollywood’s industrial mode of film production.


Georges Méliès


While the Lumière brothers demonstrated cinema’s documentary function, Méliès is considered the first to explore the medium’s potential for fictional storytelling. In films such as A Trip to the Moon (1902), Méliès created whimsical adventure stories that were shot on elaborate stage sets and that became popular for their sight gags and otherworldly imagery. Méliès was a pioneer in the use of optical effects, editing, mise-en-scène, and lighting design. His inventive and fantastical films revealed the medium’s ability to convey artistic creativity and imagination.


Oscar Micheaux


Micheaux was one of the most important American independent filmmakers of the silent era. He established the Micheaux film company and, between 1918 and 1948, wrote, directed, produced, and distributed more than 30 films. An African-American, Micheaux made films with black casts targeted at black audiences, seeking to counter the prejudiced, historically inaccurate, and disempowering representations of racial minorities in the Hollywood cinema of the period.


Carl Theodor Dreyer


The danish director Dreyer directed what many consider to be the greatest silent film ever made, The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), a triumph of realism and spiritual expressiveness. Depicting the trial of Joan of Arc, the film’s courtroom scenes are shot almost exclusively in close-up, situating all the film’s meaning and drama in the slightest movements of its protagonist’s face. Dreyer continued to investigate the power of faith in a world of skepticism and hardship and the connection between the material and spiritual realms in acclaimed sound films such as Day of Wrath (1943) and Ordet (1954).


Silent Film’s Influence on Contemporary Cinema


Starting with names such as Cecil B. De Mille and Charles Chaplin movie making was revolutionized. They also opened up the way for future filmmakers such as Brian DePalma, Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, and many others. Technology has also evolved in ways far beyond their wildest imaginations, yet the basic rules of filmmaking set back then are still around.


Cecil B. De Mille was the first man to shoot in Hollywood, and he set a precedent that would make this area world famous and synonymous with moviemaking. The first style of movies were called “Melodramas”, since they were simply plays that could have taken place on any stage (Drama) and had a melody, usually piano music, to it . At that moment music wasn’t recorded, so the music was played at the theatre. Early films usually contained few to no dialogue and were usually physically based comedies. It wasn’t until Charles Chaplin that moviemaking was taken to a higher notch of professionalism.



This new era of film gave birth to stars such as Carry Grant (whose real name is Archibald Leach) and James Stewart, also to one of the greatest movies ever made: “Citizen Kane” by Orson Welles. This movie was so groundbreaking, that most of its techniques are still used today (such as the angles, the play with shadows, etc.) It jumbles around in chronological order and shows the main character (who dies in the opening shot) from the different points of views of his friends. This delivers a mixed image and leaves the viewer completely on their own.


Another future star was Alfred Hitchcock. Starting with the first “The man who knew too much” which catapulted him to the status he was famous for he continually added to moviemaking. One of his most revolutionary films, “Rope” is shot in a steady-cam movement, which means it’s almost one shot. Hitchcock’s intention with this was to bring acting back to the stage.


Buster Keaton


The Three Keatons: Buster, his father Joe Keaton and mother Myra Keaton acts are one of the most dangerous in vaudeville, was about how to discipline a prankster child. Buster was thrown all over the stage and even into the audience. By age 21 his father was so alcoholic the stunts became too. After returning from ten months with the U.S. Army (40th Infantry Division) in France. His first full-length feature, The Saphead (1920), established him as a star in his own right. By the middle of 1921 he had his own production company--Buster Keaton Productions-and was writing, directing and starring in his own films. His first film for MGM The Cameraman (1928). His creativity becoming increasingly stifled, he began to drink excessively. His films around 1930 were his most successful. His drinking led to a disregard for schedules and erratic behavior on the MGM lot, and a disastrous confrontation with Louis Mayer resulted in him being fired. By 1932 he was a divorced alcoholic, getting work where he could, mostly in short comedies. In 1935 he entered a mental hospital. MGM rehired him in 1937 earning $100 a week. In 1947 his career rebounded with a live appearance at Cirque Medrano in Paris. In 1952 James Mason, found a secret store of presumably lost nitrate stock of many of Buster's early films; film historian and archivist Raymond Rohauer began preservations of Buster's work. In 1959 he received an Oscar for his life work in comedy. He died at 70 years of age.


End of the silent cinema


By 1929, "silent film" reached its peak - it was the international language If the movie is filmed, for example, in Germany, then it could understand, feel and experience in America, Britain, Italy, France. This did not happen immediately. For a while, "silent movies" have existed in parallel with the "talking".


Lilian Hill Davis was a great silent film actress, when she lost her job, then committed suicide by cutting his throat in France, the victims were sound, mostly Russian immigrants Shahatunin barely spoke French and had become a make-up artist Ivan Mazhuhin lost its popularity, but he continued.


The Jazz Singer

"The Jazz Singer" (1927), America came talkies in Europe, the film was originally shown in a silent version to its voice system was used Vitapfone - sound on a separate disc was synchronized with the image George Pearson. But the "silent films" were never silent - their show is always accompanied by live music.


The story is about Jakie Rabinowitz defying the traditions of his devout Jewish family by singing in a beer hall. Punished by his father, a cantor, Jakie runs away from home. Some years later, now calling himself Jack Robin, he has become a talented jazz singer. He attempts to build a career as an entertainer, but his professional ambitions ultimately come into conflict with the demands of his home and heritage.The silent movie was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888.

The first time ever that people actually paid money to see a movie was at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in New York City was on the 20 April, 1896.


Birth of a nation

The Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman) is a 1915 American silent film co-written (with Frank E. Woods), co-produced (with Harry Aitken), and directed by D. W. Griffith and based on the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon, Jr. It was originally released on February 8, 1915. The film was originally presented in two parts, separated by an intermission.


The film chronicles the relationship of two families in Civil War and Reconstruction-era America: the pro-Union northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy southern Camerons over the course of several years. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized.


According to Variety, The Birth of a Nation, estimated $110,000, is the highest-grossing film of the silent film era, with earnings of approximately $10 million and has been praised for its technical innovations.


The film is also credited as one of the events which inspired the formation of the "second era" Ku Klux Klan at Stone Mountain, Georgia in the same year. Indeed, The Birth of a Nation was used as a recruiting tool for the KKK.

Modern adaptation

"Austin Powers" inspired by "The Great Dictator". We can see a connection between Chaplin’s character and the evil character from Austin Powers. They are both crazy and want to be the owners of the world.Produced by Warner Bros. With its Vitapfone sound-on-disc system, the movie stars Al Jolson. Directed by Alan Crosland, it is based on a play by Samson Raphaelson.

Here is a scene of the movie "The Great Dictator". That it was the first movie in which Chaplin speaks.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOuoyoMhj8