Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Silent Film shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Silent Film offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Silent Film at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Silent Film? Wrong! If the Silent Film is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Silent Film then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Silent Film? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Silent Film and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Silent Film wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Silent Film then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Silent Film site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Silent Film, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Silent Film, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

, one of the highest-grossing silent filmsA silent film is a motion picture with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue.

The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the motion picture itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, most films were silent before the late 1920s.

The silent film era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the Silver Screen".

History , the first film recorded|thumb

The first film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a two second film of people walking around in a garden, called Roundhay Garden Scene.

The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" before silent films were replaced by "Sound film" in the late 1920s. Many film scholars and buffs argue that the aesthetic quality of cinema decreased for several years until directors, actors and production staff adapted to the new "talkies".

The visual quality of silent movies — especially those produced during the 1920s — was often extremely high. However, there is a widely held misconception that these films were primitive and barely watchable by modern standards. This misconception is due to technical errors (such as films being played back at wrong speed) and due to the deteriorated condition of many silent films (many silent films exist only in second or even third generation copies which were often copied from already damaged and neglected film stock).

Intertitles Because silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen intertitles were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the movie theater audience. The title writer became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from the scenario writer who created the story. Intertitles (or titles as they were generally called at the time) often became graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decorations that commented on the action.

Live music and sound Showings of silent films almost always featured live music, starting with the pianist at the first public projection of movies by the Lumière Brothers on December 28, 1895 in Paris.Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film, 2nd edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1990. ISBN 0-393-95553-2 From the beginning, music was recognized as essential, contributing to the atmosphere and giving the audience vital emotional cues (musicians sometimes played on film sets during shooting for similar reasons). Small town and neighborhood movie theaters usually had a pianist. From the mid-teens onward, large city theaters tended to have organ (music) or entire orchestras. Massive theatrical organs such as the famous "mighty Wurlitzer" could simulate some orchestral sounds along with a number of sound effects.

The scores for silents were often more or less improvisation early in the medium's history. Once full features became commonplace, however, music was compiled from Photoplay music by the pianist, organist, orchestra conductor or the movie studio itself, which would send out a cue sheet with the film. Starting with mostly original film score composed by Joseph Carl Breil for D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking epic The Birth of a Nation (USA, 1915) it became relatively common for films to arrive at the exhibiting theater with original, specially composed scores.Eyman, Scott. The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-1930. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-81162-6

By the height of the silent era, movies were the single largest source of employment for instrumental musicians (at least in America). But the introduction of talkies, which happened simultaneously with the onset of the Great Depression, was devastating to many musicians.

Some countries devised other ways of bringing sound to silent films. The early cinema of Brazil featured fitas cantatas: filmed operettas with singers lip-synching behind the screen.Parkinson, David. History of Film. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995, pp. 69. ISBN 0-500-20277-X In Cinema of Japan, films had not only live music but also the benshi, a live narrator who provided commentary and character voices. The benshi became a central element in Japanese film form, as well as providing translation for foreign (mostly American) movies.Standish, Isolde. A New History of Japanese Cinema: A Century of Narrative Film. New York: Continuum, 2005. ISBN 0-8264-1709-4 Their popularity was one reason why silents persisted well into the 1930s in Japan.

Few film scores have survived intact from this period, and musicologists are still confronted by questions in attempting a precise reconstruction of those which remain. Scores can be distinguished as complete reconstructions of composed scores, newly composed for the occasion, assembled from already existing music libraries, or even improvised.

Critical in the development of the silent score is the theater organ designed to fill a gap between a simple piano soloist and a larger orchestra. Theater organs had a wide range of special effects, and used actual percussion.

Specialists in the art of arranging and performing silent film scores are rare today. Notable specialists include Steven Ball (of Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater); Rosa Rio (organist at the Brooklyn Fox during the silent era and now at the Tampa Theater), Ben Model, Neil Brand, Phillip C. Carli, Jon Mirsalis, Dennis James and Donald Sosin Carl Davis has created entirely new scores for silent era classics.

Acting techniques was a major star of the silent era and continued to promote the art of silent films until her deathSilent film actors emphasised body language and facial expression so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen.

Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or camp (style). For this reason, silent comedy tend to be more popular in the modern era than drama, partly because overacting is more natural in comedy.

The melodramatic acting style was in some cases a habit actors transferred from their former stage experience. The pervading presence of stage actors in film was the cause of this outburst from director Marshall Neilan in 1917: "The sooner the stage people who have come into pictures get out, the better for the pictures." In other cases, directors such as John Griffith Wray required their actors to deliver larger-than-life expressions for emphasis. As early as 1914, American viewers had begun to make known their preference for greater naturalness on screen. In any case, the large image size and unprecedented intimacy the actor enjoyed with the audience began to affect acting style, making for more subtlety of expression. Actresses such as Mary Pickford in all her films, Eleanora Duse in the Italian film Cenere (1916), Janet Gaynor in Sunrise (film), Priscilla Dean in The Dice Woman and Lillian Gish in most of her performances made restraint and easy naturalism in acting a virtue. Directors such as Albert Capellani (a French import who directed several Alla Nazimova films) and Maurice Tourneur insisted on naturalism in their films; Tourneur had been just such a minimalist in his prior stage productions. Many mid-20s American silent films were quite thoughtfully acted, though as late as 1927 such patently overacted movies such as Metropolis (film) were still being released. Some viewers liked the flamboyant acting for its escape value, and some countries were later than the United States in embracing naturalness in their films. Just like today, a film's success depended upon the setting, the mood, the script, the skills of the director and the overall talent of the cast.Brownlow, Kevin. The Parade's Gone By..., Borzoi Book, Alfred Knopf, 1968

Projection speed Up until around 1925, most silent films were shot at slower speeds (or "frame rates") than sound films, typically at 16 to 23 frames per second depending on the year and studio, rather than 24 frames per second. Unless carefully shown at their original speeds they can appear unnaturally fast and jerky, which reinforces their alien appearance to modern viewers. At the same time, some scenes were intentionally fast motion during shooting in order to accelerate the action, particularly in the case of slapstick comedies. The intended frame rate of a silent film can be ambiguous and since they were usually hand cranked there can even be variation within one film. Film speed is often a vexed issue among scholars and film buffs in the presentation of silents today, especially when it comes to DVD releases of film restoration films; the 2002 restoration of Metropolis (1927 film) (Germany, 1927) may be the most fiercely debated example.

Projectionists frequently showed silent films at speeds which were slightly faster than the rate at which they were shot. Most films seem to have been shown at 18 fps or higher - some even faster than what would become sound film speed (24 fps). Even if shot at 16 fps (often cited as "silent speed"), the projection of a nitrate base 35mm film at such a slow speed carried a considerable risk of fire. Often projectionists would receive instructions from the distributors as to how fast particular reels or scenes should be projected on the musical director's cue sheet. Theaters also sometimes varied their projection speeds depending on the time of day or popularity of a film in order to maximize profit.

==Top grossing silent films==The following are the films that earned the highest ever gross income in film history, according to Variety (magazine) magazine in 1932. The dollar amounts are not adjusted for inflation, and the values were calculated in 1932.
  • The Birth of a Nation (1915) - $10,000,000
  • The Big Parade (1925) - $6,400,000
  • Ben-Hur (1925 film) (1925) - $5,500,000
  • Way Down East (1920) - $5,000,000
  • The Gold Rush (1925) - $4,250,000
  • The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film) (1921) - $4,000,000
  • The Circus (silent film) (1928) - $3,800,000
  • The Covered Wagon (1923) - $3,800,000
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923 film) (1923) - $3,500,000
  • The Ten Commandments (1923 film) (1923) - $3,400,000
  • Orphans of the Storm (1921) - $3,000,000
  • For Heaven's Sake (1926) - $2,600,000
  • Seventh Heaven (film) (1926) - $2,400,000
  • Abie's Irish Rose (1928) - $1,500,000


    • Silent films in the sound era Silent gives way to sound Although attempts to create sync-sound motion pictures go back to the Edison lab in 1896, the technology became well-developed only in the early 1920s. The next few years saw a race to design, implement, and market several rival sound-on-disc and sound-on-film sound formats. Although The Jazz Singer (1927 film)'s release in 1927 marked the first commercially successful sound film, silent films formed the majority of features produced in both 1927 and 1928. Thus the modern sound film era may be regarded as coming to dominance beginning in 1929.

    Silent films in the early sound era For a listing of notable silent era films, see list of years in film for the years between the beginning of film and 1928. The following list includes only films produced in the sound era with the specific artistic intention of being silent.



    Later homages Several filmmakers have paid homage to the comedies of the silent era, including Jacques Tati with his Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953) and Mel Brooks with Silent Movie (1976). Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's acclaimed drama Three Times (2005) is silent during its middle third, complete with intertitles; Stanley Tucci's The Impostors has an opening silent sequence in the style of early silent comedies. Writer / Director Michael Pleckaitis puts his own twist on the genre with Silent (2007). Reminiscent of Pleasantville (1998), it's done in the vein of a silent movie from the earliest days of cinema.

    The 1999 German film Tuvalu (film) is mostly silent; the small amount of dialog is an odd mix of European languages, increasing the film's universality. Guy Maddin won awards for his homage to Soviet era silent films with his short The Heart of the World after which he made a feature-length silent, Brand Upon the Brain! (2006), incorporating live Foley artists, narration and orchestra at select showings. Shadow of the Vampire (2000) is a highly fictionalized depiction of the filming of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's classic silent vampire movie Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922). Werner Herzog honored the same film in his own version, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979). Some films draw a direct contrast between the silent film era and the era of talkies. Sunset Boulevard (1950 film) shows the disconnect between the two eras in the character of Norma Desmond, played by silent film star Gloria Swanson.

    In 1999, the famous Finland filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki produced Juha which captures the style of a silent film, using intertitles in place of spoken dialogue.

    In India, the 1988 film Pushpak, starring Kamal Hassan, was a black comedy entirely devoid of dialog.

    At least two stage plays have drawn upon silent film styles and sources. Actor/writers Billy Van Zandt & Jane Milmore staged their Off-Broadway slapstick comedy Silent Laughter as a live action tribute to the silent screen era.http://silentlaughter.com/about/ Silent Laughter] Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford created and starred in All Wear Bowlers (2004) which started as an homage to Laurel and Hardy then evolved to incorporate life-sized silent film sequences of Sobelle and Lyford who jump back and forth between live action and the silver screen. All Wear Bowlers

    Preservation and lost films Many early motion pictures are lost because the Nitrocellulose#Nitrate film used in that era was extremely unstable and flammable. Additionally, many films were deliberately destroyed because they had little value in the era before home video. It has often been claimed that around 75% of silent films have been lost, though these estimates may be inaccurate due to a lack of numerical data.http://books.google.com/books?id=HZIq5-_hu5cC&pg=PA5&dq=silent+films+lost+nitrate&sig=xIkqwQlz-U-5ZWDrFryCZSvu1zk Major silent films presumed lost include Saved From the Titanic (1912); El Apóstol, the world's first List of animated feature films (1917); Cleopatra (1917 film) (1917);Thompson, op cit, pp. 68-78. Arirang_%281926_film%29 (1926); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (lost film) (1927);Thompson, op cit, pp. 186-200. The Great Gatsby (1926 film) (1926); and London After Midnight (film) (1927). Though most lost silent films will never be recovered, List of recovered silent films previously believed lost in film archives or private collections.

    In 1978 in Dawson City, Yukon, a bulldozer uncovered buried reels of nitrate film during excavation of a landfill. Dawson City used to be the end of the distribution line for many films, and the titles were stored at the local library until 1929 when the flammable nitrate was used as landfill in a condemned swimming pool. Stored for 50 years under the permafrost of the Yukon, the films turned out to be extremely well preserved. Included in this treasure trove were films by Pearl White, Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, and Lon Chaney. These films are now housed at the Library of Congress.Slide, Anthony. Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States 2000, p. 99. ISBN: 0-786-40836-7

    The degradation of old film stock can be slowed through proper archiving, or digitization can preserve films. Silent film preservation has been a high priority among movie historians.

    See also

    Notes

    External links

    , one of the highest-grossing silent filmsA silent film is a motion picture with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue.

    The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as the motion picture itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, most films were silent before the late 1920s.

    The silent film era is sometimes referred to as the "Age of the Silver Screen".

    History , the first film recorded|thumb

    The first film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a two second film of people walking around in a garden, called Roundhay Garden Scene.

    The art of motion pictures grew into full maturity in the "silent era" before silent films were replaced by "Sound film" in the late 1920s. Many film scholars and buffs argue that the aesthetic quality of cinema decreased for several years until directors, actors and production staff adapted to the new "talkies".

    The visual quality of silent movies — especially those produced during the 1920s — was often extremely high. However, there is a widely held misconception that these films were primitive and barely watchable by modern standards. This misconception is due to technical errors (such as films being played back at wrong speed) and due to the deteriorated condition of many silent films (many silent films exist only in second or even third generation copies which were often copied from already damaged and neglected film stock).

    Intertitles Because silent films had no synchronized sound for dialogue, onscreen intertitles were used to narrate story points, present key dialogue and sometimes even comment on the action for the movie theater audience. The title writer became a key professional in silent film and was often separate from the scenario writer who created the story. Intertitles (or titles as they were generally called at the time) often became graphic elements themselves, featuring illustrations or abstract decorations that commented on the action.

    Live music and sound Showings of silent films almost always featured live music, starting with the pianist at the first public projection of movies by the Lumière Brothers on December 28, 1895 in Paris.Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film, 2nd edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 1990. ISBN 0-393-95553-2 From the beginning, music was recognized as essential, contributing to the atmosphere and giving the audience vital emotional cues (musicians sometimes played on film sets during shooting for similar reasons). Small town and neighborhood movie theaters usually had a pianist. From the mid-teens onward, large city theaters tended to have organ (music) or entire orchestras. Massive theatrical organs such as the famous "mighty Wurlitzer" could simulate some orchestral sounds along with a number of sound effects.

    The scores for silents were often more or less improvisation early in the medium's history. Once full features became commonplace, however, music was compiled from Photoplay music by the pianist, organist, orchestra conductor or the movie studio itself, which would send out a cue sheet with the film. Starting with mostly original film score composed by Joseph Carl Breil for D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking epic The Birth of a Nation (USA, 1915) it became relatively common for films to arrive at the exhibiting theater with original, specially composed scores.Eyman, Scott. The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926-1930. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-81162-6

    By the height of the silent era, movies were the single largest source of employment for instrumental musicians (at least in America). But the introduction of talkies, which happened simultaneously with the onset of the Great Depression, was devastating to many musicians.

    Some countries devised other ways of bringing sound to silent films. The early cinema of Brazil featured fitas cantatas: filmed operettas with singers lip-synching behind the screen.Parkinson, David. History of Film. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995, pp. 69. ISBN 0-500-20277-X In Cinema of Japan, films had not only live music but also the benshi, a live narrator who provided commentary and character voices. The benshi became a central element in Japanese film form, as well as providing translation for foreign (mostly American) movies.Standish, Isolde. A New History of Japanese Cinema: A Century of Narrative Film. New York: Continuum, 2005. ISBN 0-8264-1709-4 Their popularity was one reason why silents persisted well into the 1930s in Japan.

    Few film scores have survived intact from this period, and musicologists are still confronted by questions in attempting a precise reconstruction of those which remain. Scores can be distinguished as complete reconstructions of composed scores, newly composed for the occasion, assembled from already existing music libraries, or even improvised.

    Critical in the development of the silent score is the theater organ designed to fill a gap between a simple piano soloist and a larger orchestra. Theater organs had a wide range of special effects, and used actual percussion.

    Specialists in the art of arranging and performing silent film scores are rare today. Notable specialists include Steven Ball (of Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater); Rosa Rio (organist at the Brooklyn Fox during the silent era and now at the Tampa Theater), Ben Model, Neil Brand, Phillip C. Carli, Jon Mirsalis, Dennis James and Donald Sosin Carl Davis has created entirely new scores for silent era classics.

    Acting techniques was a major star of the silent era and continued to promote the art of silent films until her deathSilent film actors emphasised body language and facial expression so that the audience could better understand what an actor was feeling and portraying on screen.

    Much silent film acting is apt to strike modern-day audiences as simplistic or camp (style). For this reason, silent comedy tend to be more popular in the modern era than drama, partly because overacting is more natural in comedy.

    The melodramatic acting style was in some cases a habit actors transferred from their former stage experience. The pervading presence of stage actors in film was the cause of this outburst from director Marshall Neilan in 1917: "The sooner the stage people who have come into pictures get out, the better for the pictures." In other cases, directors such as John Griffith Wray required their actors to deliver larger-than-life expressions for emphasis. As early as 1914, American viewers had begun to make known their preference for greater naturalness on screen. In any case, the large image size and unprecedented intimacy the actor enjoyed with the audience began to affect acting style, making for more subtlety of expression. Actresses such as Mary Pickford in all her films, Eleanora Duse in the Italian film Cenere (1916), Janet Gaynor in Sunrise (film), Priscilla Dean in The Dice Woman and Lillian Gish in most of her performances made restraint and easy naturalism in acting a virtue. Directors such as Albert Capellani (a French import who directed several Alla Nazimova films) and Maurice Tourneur insisted on naturalism in their films; Tourneur had been just such a minimalist in his prior stage productions. Many mid-20s American silent films were quite thoughtfully acted, though as late as 1927 such patently overacted movies such as Metropolis (film) were still being released. Some viewers liked the flamboyant acting for its escape value, and some countries were later than the United States in embracing naturalness in their films. Just like today, a film's success depended upon the setting, the mood, the script, the skills of the director and the overall talent of the cast.Brownlow, Kevin. The Parade's Gone By..., Borzoi Book, Alfred Knopf, 1968

    Projection speed Up until around 1925, most silent films were shot at slower speeds (or "frame rates") than sound films, typically at 16 to 23 frames per second depending on the year and studio, rather than 24 frames per second. Unless carefully shown at their original speeds they can appear unnaturally fast and jerky, which reinforces their alien appearance to modern viewers. At the same time, some scenes were intentionally fast motion during shooting in order to accelerate the action, particularly in the case of slapstick comedies. The intended frame rate of a silent film can be ambiguous and since they were usually hand cranked there can even be variation within one film. Film speed is often a vexed issue among scholars and film buffs in the presentation of silents today, especially when it comes to DVD releases of film restoration films; the 2002 restoration of Metropolis (1927 film) (Germany, 1927) may be the most fiercely debated example.

    Projectionists frequently showed silent films at speeds which were slightly faster than the rate at which they were shot. Most films seem to have been shown at 18 fps or higher - some even faster than what would become sound film speed (24 fps). Even if shot at 16 fps (often cited as "silent speed"), the projection of a nitrate base 35mm film at such a slow speed carried a considerable risk of fire. Often projectionists would receive instructions from the distributors as to how fast particular reels or scenes should be projected on the musical director's cue sheet. Theaters also sometimes varied their projection speeds depending on the time of day or popularity of a film in order to maximize profit.

    ==Top grossing silent films==The following are the films that earned the highest ever gross income in film history, according to Variety (magazine) magazine in 1932. The dollar amounts are not adjusted for inflation, and the values were calculated in 1932.
  • The Birth of a Nation (1915) - $10,000,000
  • The Big Parade (1925) - $6,400,000
  • Ben-Hur (1925 film) (1925) - $5,500,000
  • Way Down East (1920) - $5,000,000
  • The Gold Rush (1925) - $4,250,000
  • The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (film) (1921) - $4,000,000
  • The Circus (silent film) (1928) - $3,800,000
  • The Covered Wagon (1923) - $3,800,000
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923 film) (1923) - $3,500,000
  • The Ten Commandments (1923 film) (1923) - $3,400,000
  • Orphans of the Storm (1921) - $3,000,000
  • For Heaven's Sake (1926) - $2,600,000
  • Seventh Heaven (film) (1926) - $2,400,000
  • Abie's Irish Rose (1928) - $1,500,000


    • Silent films in the sound era Silent gives way to sound Although attempts to create sync-sound motion pictures go back to the Edison lab in 1896, the technology became well-developed only in the early 1920s. The next few years saw a race to design, implement, and market several rival sound-on-disc and sound-on-film sound formats. Although The Jazz Singer (1927 film)'s release in 1927 marked the first commercially successful sound film, silent films formed the majority of features produced in both 1927 and 1928. Thus the modern sound film era may be regarded as coming to dominance beginning in 1929.

    Silent films in the early sound era For a listing of notable silent era films, see list of years in film for the years between the beginning of film and 1928. The following list includes only films produced in the sound era with the specific artistic intention of being silent.



    Later homages Several filmmakers have paid homage to the comedies of the silent era, including Jacques Tati with his Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953) and Mel Brooks with Silent Movie (1976). Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien's acclaimed drama Three Times (2005) is silent during its middle third, complete with intertitles; Stanley Tucci's The Impostors has an opening silent sequence in the style of early silent comedies. Writer / Director Michael Pleckaitis puts his own twist on the genre with Silent (2007). Reminiscent of Pleasantville (1998), it's done in the vein of a silent movie from the earliest days of cinema.

    The 1999 German film Tuvalu (film) is mostly silent; the small amount of dialog is an odd mix of European languages, increasing the film's universality. Guy Maddin won awards for his homage to Soviet era silent films with his short The Heart of the World after which he made a feature-length silent, Brand Upon the Brain! (2006), incorporating live Foley artists, narration and orchestra at select showings. Shadow of the Vampire (2000) is a highly fictionalized depiction of the filming of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's classic silent vampire movie Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922). Werner Herzog honored the same film in his own version, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979). Some films draw a direct contrast between the silent film era and the era of talkies. Sunset Boulevard (1950 film) shows the disconnect between the two eras in the character of Norma Desmond, played by silent film star Gloria Swanson.

    In 1999, the famous Finland filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki produced Juha which captures the style of a silent film, using intertitles in place of spoken dialogue.

    In India, the 1988 film Pushpak, starring Kamal Hassan, was a black comedy entirely devoid of dialog.

    At least two stage plays have drawn upon silent film styles and sources. Actor/writers Billy Van Zandt & Jane Milmore staged their Off-Broadway slapstick comedy Silent Laughter as a live action tribute to the silent screen era.http://silentlaughter.com/about/ Silent Laughter] Geoff Sobelle and Trey Lyford created and starred in All Wear Bowlers (2004) which started as an homage to Laurel and Hardy then evolved to incorporate life-sized silent film sequences of Sobelle and Lyford who jump back and forth between live action and the silver screen. All Wear Bowlers

    Preservation and lost films Many early motion pictures are lost because the Nitrocellulose#Nitrate film used in that era was extremely unstable and flammable. Additionally, many films were deliberately destroyed because they had little value in the era before home video. It has often been claimed that around 75% of silent films have been lost, though these estimates may be inaccurate due to a lack of numerical data.http://books.google.com/books?id=HZIq5-_hu5cC&pg=PA5&dq=silent+films+lost+nitrate&sig=xIkqwQlz-U-5ZWDrFryCZSvu1zk Major silent films presumed lost include Saved From the Titanic (1912); El Apóstol, the world's first List of animated feature films (1917); Cleopatra (1917 film) (1917);Thompson, op cit, pp. 68-78. Arirang_%281926_film%29 (1926); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (lost film) (1927);Thompson, op cit, pp. 186-200. The Great Gatsby (1926 film) (1926); and London After Midnight (film) (1927). Though most lost silent films will never be recovered, List of recovered silent films previously believed lost in film archives or private collections.

    In 1978 in Dawson City, Yukon, a bulldozer uncovered buried reels of nitrate film during excavation of a landfill. Dawson City used to be the end of the distribution line for many films, and the titles were stored at the local library until 1929 when the flammable nitrate was used as landfill in a condemned swimming pool. Stored for 50 years under the permafrost of the Yukon, the films turned out to be extremely well preserved. Included in this treasure trove were films by Pearl White, Harold Lloyd, Douglas Fairbanks, and Lon Chaney. These films are now housed at the Library of Congress.Slide, Anthony. Nitrate Won't Wait: A History of Film Preservation in the United States 2000, p. 99. ISBN: 0-786-40836-7

    The degradation of old film stock can be slowed through proper archiving, or digitization can preserve films. Silent film preservation has been a high priority among movie historians.

    See also

    Notes

    External links



    Barbican - Silent Film & Live Music Series
    Barbican - Silent Film & Live Music Series ... Buster Keaton classic comedy shorts (U) + live piano accompaniment by Neil Brand

    Barbican - Silent Film & Live Music Series
    Barbican - Silent Film & Live Music Series ... From much-loved classics, to newly re-discovered gems and rarely-seen masterpieces, from improvised accompaniments by talented ...

    Silent film - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself ...

    Silent Film Catalogue on DVD - Movie Mail UK
    Browse our Silent Film Catalogue on DVD of independent, arthouse, cult, silent and classic DVDs with Moviemail UK, offering extensive Silent Film Catalogue on DVD

    Bristol Silents > Silent Film History
    Local silent film enthusiasts Chris Daniels and Norman Taylor formed Bristol Silents in August 2000 to promote and celebrate Silent Cinema nationally.

    Bristol Silents > Celebrating Silent Film > Links to Silent Film Stars ...
    An exhaustitive silent film website, featuring information on films, people, theaters, book reviews, and much more. Go to the 'Silent Era' website

    BBC - Glastonbury 2007 - A Silent Film
    Photos, reviews and information on the Glastonbury 2007 performance by A Silent Film ... A Silent Film. The music is colossal and the vibe cinematic. Grown from classical ...

    Film Street: Silent Film?
    Silent films were not really silent at all. They had no dialogue or sound effects but live music would be played when they were shown at the cinema.

    The San Francisco Silent Film Festival
    Nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting silent film as an art form. Presents an annual festival of silent films accompanied by live music at a 1920s movie palace.

    Amazon.co.uk: Silent Film Sound (Film and Culture Series): R Altman ...
    Amazon.co.uk: Silent Film Sound (Film and Culture Series): R Altman: Books ... Silent Film Sound (Film and Culture Series) (Hardcover) by R Altman (Author) "It has never been easy ...

     

    Silent Film



     
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