I have, I would say, much more than the layman’s knowledge of this genre but not a tiny fraction as much as I would like to have. What are the essential must reads and must watches about it?
Be sure to read the “Hollywood Babylon” books…
OW! Eve, stop hitting me!
For behind the scenes from the pre-history to the later successes of projected film you might scout out a copy of “Billy Bitzer, His Story.”
Cameraman G. W. “Billy” Bitzer was there at the very beginning. He would become chief cameraman for D. W. Griffith. His one and only book (handwritten on legal pads shortly before his death in 1944) is a good read with a lot of trivial first-hand information that an early silent-film student should find enjoyable.
His book was last published in 1972 and is currently out of print, but I’ve seen used copies of it offered online for prices ranging from $15 to $40 so it pays to shop around.
There was a 13part documentary series called HOLLYWOOD: a celebration of the american silent film. made by Thames Television in 1980. Written,directed and produced by David gill and Kevin Brownlow. I recommend highly . It was available on VHS.
Look for Colleen Moore’s autobiography.
She gives an insider’s view, without the trash-talking that a petty-er person would serve up.
Walter Kerr’s book The Silent Clowns is probably the best book on comedians in silent films. And an excellent book for any reason.
Kevin Brownlow’s The Parade’s Gone By, written in 1968 as a sort of “nostalgia” book (a lotta silent stars were still alive then, and plenty of people who were going to the movies pre-1928) was the first popular big book on silent cinema that I read as a kid, and it was compelling enough to make me a snivelling devotee.
This in combination with Stu Levin’s “Golden Age of Cinema” on Cleveland’s PBS teevee station, which allowed me to wallow in silent classics every Sunday night during the early 1970s.
I’ll second the recommendation for the Hollywood video series. It’s an amazing documentary with interviews from people who worked in the business and great clips from numerous silent films.
As for must reads, I’ll recommend the book Golden Images and allow someone else a chance to retain her demure modesty. It’s an excellent collection of short biographies of a number of silent film stars.
Yeeeessssssss…
Kenneth Anger is your friend, and an excellent researcher to boot.
hides before Eve finds him
Naw! The first maker of silent films was Elmer Fudd, who said, “Now, be vewwy vewwy quiet!”
Don’t hurt me! I couldn’t help myself!
Watch the movie Metropolis, many of the special effects still beat the best Hollywood serves up today. Also, you might want to read Mr. Laurel and Mr. Hardy a biography about one of the most successful comedy duos of all time.
Second the nomination of Brownlow’s *Parade* as absolutely essential, though the emphasis is largely on American silent film. The History of the American Cinema series (volumes 2 and 3) are also very informative. Other good books: Film Before Griffith (ed. John L. Fell) and Silent Film (ed. Richard Abel) are good collections of essays on diverse issues & topics of the era. For something much headier & academic, but interesting, try *Babylon & Babel*.
Essential films. Wow, too many to discuss, but if I had to recommend 20 as a comprehensive introduction, I’d start with:
Comedy: The Gold Rush (Chaplin), The Freshman (Harold Lloyd), The General & Sherlock Jr. (Keaton), The Italian Straw Hat (Rene Clair)
German: Metropolis (Lang), Pandora’s Box (Pabst) & Nosferatu (Murnau)
Japanese: A Page of Madness (Kinugasa) & I Was Born, But… (Ozu)
French: Les Vampires (Feuillade), Napoleon (Gance) & The Lighthouse Keepers (Gremillon)
Russian: The Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov), Potemkin (Eisenstein), & Earth (Dovzhenko)
American: The Birth of a Nation (Griffith), Greed (von Stroheim), Sunrise (Murnau), The Wind & He Who Gets Slapped (Seastrom)
[blushes prettily]
Well, I will second the Kevin Brownlow documentary series, the best ever on silent films. It not only gives you a good factual background, but is so entertaining and moving that it is good entertainment itself.
I won’t give you a to-see list, as everyone’s taste is different. Just because it’s silent doesn’t make it good, and just because it’s a “classic” doesnt mean you’ll like it. I’d say to start with Brownlow’s Hollywood and use that as a launching pad to decide what films, and what kind, you’d like to see.
In renting or buying silent film on DVD, you want to get tyhe Kino Video releases.
Their release of Metropolis is the 2002 restored version that was touring the country in recent times.
There are many poor/shoddy releases of silent film on DVD because of an elapsed copyright and lazy companies that don’t care to put out a good product.
While you can find copies of the Cabinet of Dr. Calagari, the Phantom of the Opera, or Metropolis for $4.99 - you aren’t going to get a clean or complete version at that cost.
Since in reviewing the thread no one’s mentioned it, I’ll note Turner Classic Movies’ “Silent Sunday Night” programs. Every Sunday at 11:00 PM (Central) TCM shows a silent film (sometimes two if they’re short). Many of the films shown there are American or world premieres of restored films, and host Robert Osborne always offers up some interesting tidbits about the films and/or the performers. I must confess that I am not that great of a silent film fan (I think they were wrecked for me at an early age by being made to endure one too many Keaton films projected at the wrong speed) but I tape them most every week for a friend of mine who’s a big fan. See www.turnerclassicmovies.com for scheduling information, also a searchable database for particular films (silent or talkies) to see if/when TCM is scheduled to air them.
Also, although it’s mentioned in another active thread, I’ll put in a plug for a book called Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara. Some chick named Golden wrote it. I hear this Golden woman can be a bit of a crank in real life but the book is pretty good.
Another excellent documentary is Cinema Europe. The only problem is that it does not really cover Russian films except for a brief mention of *Battleship Potemkin (sp?) *, otherwise an excellent overview of early European films.
The documentary that TBC produced for the 100th annoiversary of film (I forget the name) was wonderful! I made an inquirey about it, bas as of a few years ago, you could not buy it!
The first thing that comes to my mind is my recent lovely and educational experience reading Eve Golden’s Vamp, her biography of Theda Bara. The detailed background information was my most entertaining foray into the history of the silent film era. I recommend it highly.
I also recommend The Crowd, King Vidor’s silent masterpiece. It’s a silent that’s not–get this–a melodrama.
Well, having just screened a print of The Crowd at this year’s Silent Film Festival last weekend, I’d have to say it most decidedly is a melodrama. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s not (a) better than most and (b) a surprisingly progressive film for the time, particular in its social commentary and feminist perspective. But in both its narrative trajectory and its incidental details, it conforms quite suitably to the melodrama genre (while also stretching its boundaries at times). Certainly a worthwhile film, though not on par (IMHO) of the 20 I listed.
I’ve never seen the TV series by Brownlow (though I have met the man; nice guy), nor read Eve’s book, so it looks like there are a few new things I have to unearth.
Kevin Brownlow is a doll. I had lunch with him in London in 1992 and mentioned that I was going to do a book on Theda Bara—and he photocopied and handed over to me his whole file on her, without my even asking!