# I Have Become A Fan Of Silent Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 19, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389 "2009-10-19T20:51:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/41 "2009-10-22T00:17:52Z")
**a** : Me too! **Eve** always added that little “extra” needed to explain whatever questions we posed regarding the “Silver Screen” (if you’ll forgive the cliche’ please?). **Eve’s** one and only comment to one of my (many) posts was (IIRC): “Quasi, peel me a _grape_!” I liked to have _died_ that she answered me! I would have done so and brought them all to her on a silver platter!🙂 As for the other comments (and sorry I’m a newbie to silents), am I correct in my assumption that Harold and Buster did all their own stunts? The FOX Theatre here in Atlanta also has one of those organs, and my GOD could that guy _play_! I remember he also had a Baby Grande sitting over to the side, which he played from the organ keyboard! Used to just _love_ watching him rise out of the depths of The Fox and entertain us! Last time was just before the film _Kelly’s Heroes_! I will never forget it!🙂 Sorry! Sometimes the memories get the best of me!:rolleyes: Don’t get me started on The Three Stooges!🙂 Thanks! Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/42 "2009-10-22T03:55:10Z")
Bob Van Camp (the Fox keyboardist’s name) I also wanted to add that the Mel Brooks comedy “Silent Movie”, kinda “fell flat” with me? I think it may have with Mel as well (I _love_ Mel Brooks, BTW), because you just cannot “re-create” (?) something so pure/raw. Anyway, got me some _BUDS_ to watch silent movies with, and that is just as awesome as it can be! Thanks for the tips about getting into the “depth” of them! Q ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/43 "2009-10-22T17:52:51Z")
> [@bup](#): > > That train engine going in the river was the most expensive film shot up to that time. The film was apparently also impressive for being one of the most accurate in civil war soldiers’ uniforms and overall outfitting, but I wouldn’t know - I’ll defer to one of our historians. The train stayed there until WWII, also - they eventually wanted the scrap. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/44 "2009-10-22T18:35:23Z")
So what was with the hugely open eyes and overexaggerated expressions that, well, everyone seemed to use in the silents? Was that all vaudeville/burlesque stage stuff that they didn’t yet understand needed to be toned down for film? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/45 "2009-10-22T18:51:14Z")
Yes, and the self-consciousness of not being heard. So you have to sell what you mean through EMOTING. Most actors are wearing whiteface, too, to help their eyes and mouths stand out all the more. Like you’d do for stage. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/46 "2009-10-22T18:53:18Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > So what was with the hugely open eyes and overexaggerated expressions that, well, everyone seemed to use in the silents? Was that all vaudeville/burlesque stage stuff that they didn’t yet understand needed to be toned down for film? Pretty much. The earliest silent films were simply a camera set up pointed at a stage. There was no thought of doing anything on the stage differently; just recording it. It wasn’t until Pastrone and Griffith came along that filmmaking started to become “cinematic”–i.e., taking advantage of the possibilities offered by film, like camera movement, montage, depth of field, closeups, double exposure, etc. Once film became cinematic, as opposed to simply recorded theatre, acting style necessarily began to adapt to the new storytelling techniques. They’re still changing. Today’s acting style is also just a style. If you were able to show a “realistic” performance from a modern film to someone who was used to the film styles of say the forties or fifties, it probably would not seem more “right,” it would probably just be jarring, because it would be outside of what they would expect to see in that context. Just like for someone who’s never seen a film more than 10 years old tends to be jarred by exposure to other styles of acting. Film audiences of the Silent Era, even though they were surrounded, like you are, by “realistic” behavior in everyday life, would’ve seen nothing jarring in the acting styles of silent film. Film was film; life was life. In the context it did not stand out, just like today we don’t tend to disdain animated films, for example, for being “unrealistic,” we enjoy them for what they are. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/47 "2009-10-22T19:19:31Z")
[QUOTE=Paul Auster] They were like poems, like the renderings of dreams, like some intricate choreography of the spirit, and because they were dead, they probably spoke more deeply to us now than they had to the audiences of their time. We watched them across a great chasm of forgetfulness, and the very things that separated them from us were in fact what made them so arresting: their muteness, their absence of color, their fitful, speeded-up rhythms. [/QUOTE] .. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/48 "2009-10-22T20:40:02Z")
Another of my “imaginings”! No, Wakeman never did _Metropolis_, and I am sorry for my mistake! Must have been the “Moroder” version I was thinking of, although I think Rick could have taken it and run with it quite nicely! Gratifying that so many of you are also fans of the genre and I appreciate the clarifications! Those will serve to enhance my enjoyment watching them! I love this: Thanks, **lissener**! “They were like poems, like the renderings of dreams, like some intricate choreography of the spirit, and because they were dead, they probably spoke more deeply to us now than they had to the audiences of their time. We watched them across a great chasm of forgetfulness, and the very things that separated them from us were in fact what made them so arresting: their muteness, their absence of color, their fitful, speeded-up rhythms.” Thanks Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/49 "2009-10-22T22:52:41Z")
> [@Doug\_Bowe](#): > > Be at the restored Plaza Theater in downtown El Paso October 29th. 7:00 p.m. > $5 admission. Music from the mighty Wurlitzer Organ. > And if you’re into more information than you really wanted to know about silents, get “The Parade’s Gone By” by Kevin Brownlow > > [Amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/Parades-Gone-Kevin-Brownlow/dp/0520030680) Alas, I’m not going to be able to get there in time…though I assure you, I’ll be there in spirit. And further alas, out of curiosity, I checked…and it turns out it was the _Capri_ Theatre in El Paso where the “Manos” premiere took place, and it was demolished some years ago. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389/50 "2009-10-23T00:52:31Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > I really miss Eve … especially in threads like this… So do I. She had the kind of serious, educated, yet irreverent perspective on the past that only a profoundly “different” individual can ever acquire. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-become-a-fan-of-silent-movies/514389.md?page=2)