Members DAMfan Posted October 23, 2011 Members Share Posted October 23, 2011 Anyone seen the silent movie classic The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) - Carl Th. Dreyer - saw it this week in my film class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members DAMfan Posted October 24, 2011 Author Members Share Posted October 24, 2011 TPOJOA film is shown on YouTube in eight parts - including Joan being burnt at the stake [part 8]. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLBn9KK2Ss0&feature=youtube_gdata_player Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members quartermainefan Posted October 25, 2011 Members Share Posted October 25, 2011 I never saw this, but have you seen Ben Hur? That was a great silent movie (better than the sound version I think). Aside from that, my silent film experience is pretty limited to Lon Chaney. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted October 25, 2011 Members Share Posted October 25, 2011 I've seen it but not since Junior High--when I was silent film obsessed ad tyheir ued to be a week long festival at a theatre here every year (I also saw Ben Hur there which I rmember being long but good--interesting early colour scenes too) It's always amazing how the silent films of the 20s--particularly by key directors like Murnau (Nosferatu, etc) were far more sophisticated in how they used visuals than the first five or so year of sound film which really regressed and were static. I mean compare a masterpiece like Murnau's Sunshine from 28 with a sound film from the next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members quartermainefan Posted October 25, 2011 Members Share Posted October 25, 2011 The silent films often borrowed from german expressionism to get their point across visually, and then when sound came in they didn't have to work so hard and could just have the actors say it. I love silent films. Nosferatu is great, but I also love the big and small films of Lon Chaney. Phantom and Hunchback I guess are the ones most have heard of, but I also enjoy his obscure melodramas from director Tod Browning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted October 25, 2011 Members Share Posted October 25, 2011 Yes, and of course many (Murnau, Lan, etc) were German--there wasn't the ;language barrier sound film would create as only the inter titles, obviously had to be changed. Of course too early sound films, particularly the first two years, had such trouble wioth microphones, etc, that the camera wasn't allowed to move much at all. I've only seen Phantom of the Opera of Chaney's films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bright Eyes Posted October 25, 2011 Members Share Posted October 25, 2011 I'm a huge classic film movie and star fan, silents included. I watched Passion of Joan around 2007 sometime. quartermainefan, bringing up Tod Browning, please tell me you have seen Freaks (1931). If not, stop wasting your life. LoL My personal favourite silent has to be Broken Blossoms, starring my favourite actor ever, Richard Barthelmess, and the one and only Lillian Gish. And strangely enough, I just watched Ben Hur for a second time a few weeks ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members EricMontreal22 Posted October 26, 2011 Members Share Posted October 26, 2011 Freaks is on TCM several times this month for Halloween (I think even this final week...) It's great. I actually think Browning's early talkies suffer in just the way I mentioned--he took a while to adjust. His Dracula is iconic and (don't hit me) deadly dull, though it does work a bit better with music (Phil Glass did a score for it some years back), but even comparing that to Nosferatu of ten or so years earlier--no comparison. But by the time James Whale did Frankenstein they really ahd found their footing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members quartermainefan Posted October 26, 2011 Members Share Posted October 26, 2011 I recommend a movie called The Unknown. starring Chaney and Joan Crawford. I just wish there was a copy on YT with the original music, not this reissue with new music <iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/yEBhPFYQ3tE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> It's about an hour long so not a huge investment in time, and it does showcase Chaney's physical skills and he gets a great scene where you can see him go insane before your eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bright Eyes Posted October 26, 2011 Members Share Posted October 26, 2011 Joan Crawford credits Lon Chaney with teaching her how to truly act. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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