When a scene is shot without recording audio, it’s called ‘MOS’, from the apocryphal German director who would tell his Hollywood crew the take would be Mit-out Sprechen. There have been many films, from educational ones, to industrial ones, to ones meant for general release in theatres, that were shot MOS. Music, sound effects, and narration were added later.
Excluding films made during the silent era, which films that were shot without sound would you call ‘Required viewing’? Or at least, ‘Recommended viewing’?
Kon-Tiki (1950). I’m cheating a little, because there is an introduction that was filmed with synchronous sound; but the film itself was shot on a wind-up Bolex camera and synch-sound was not possible.
The Endless Summer (1964 - initial release). This one was also shot with a spring-motor Bolex H16.
I’m not sure if I should include The Call Of Cthulhu (2005). It was made almost 80 years after the silent era, but it was made to ‘duplicate’ a movie made in 1926.
There’s a scene in my favourite “bring-to-bad-movie-night” movie, Robot Jox, that depicts a brief battle in space when Achilles launches the Matsumoto XIV into orbit, and Alexander pursues him there. Unlike just about every sci-fi movie since the introduction of talkies, the exterior shots in this scene are completely without sound… just like they would have been in real life!
Does The Creeping Terror count? They didn’t plan to shoot it without sound, but the sound got ruined anyway. An MST3K favorite.
How about Le Dernier Combat – low-budget black and white French science fiction film. (It’s Luc Besson’s first feature) It has sound, and was shot with it. But there’s not a single word of dialogue. You don’t need subtitles.
I strongly recommend Blancanieves, a silent version of Snow White were Snow White and the dwarves are bullfighters, and the evil stepmother is into kink.
Hm… I hadn’t considered intending to record audio and then just dubbing (ADR). I’m thinking that in the spirit of the thread, it wouldn’t count. Let’s hear what the judges say…
Anyway, it reminds me of The Beast Of Yucca Flats (1961). It was filmed without audio, and when characters speak, they are offscreen, have their backs to the camera, in darkness, far away, etc. In this case, the filmmaker did intend to shoot MOS and add the narration, dialogue, and sounds in post…
That should definitely be on the list. I’ve never seen it. I don’t know if I’d like it or not. But I remember the buzz back when it came out (or thereabouts), and it sounded like an important film for its day.
Weren’t the spaghetti westerns generally shot without sound, with the voice tracks dubbed in later for the appropriate language for the country in which the print was to be distributed? I once heard that the actors just counted from one to ten, to give plausible lip movement that nobody bothered to synch.