Cinematograph 2
By Stephen Mayerson
Going to the movies can be like stepping into a time machine. I recently heard a young person say that it was hard for them to watch a film from 1965. I understood what he was saying. Through the magic of film, we can be whisked to another time and culture, and the older a film is the more challenging it can become. Silent films are as different from modern films as hip-hop is from Gregorian Chant, but fans of silent films do not think of them as hard to watch. In fact, silent films are appealing because they are unique to their time.
During the teens and twenties, movies became the first mass-entertainment media. Anyone with a dime could be transported into this cinematic wonderland. This mass popularity made movie studios wealthy. They, in turn, invested their wealth into opulent Movie Palaces in most major cities. Even the smaller cinemas of the day were custom designed and fabulous. Theatres featured architectural flights of fantasy and crystal chandeliers. They exuded a feeling of luxury, of exoticism. One of the nicest I’ve ever seen is the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle. A giant three-dimensional dragon coils around the ceiling and it holds a huge flaming pearl chandelier in its mouth. It is breathtaking.
It was in such a setting that silent films were seen. It follows that the mansions of the stars should rival the glories of the movie palace. The larger theatres had permanent in-house orchestras as well as sound effects machines. At the premier of Phantom of the Opera (1925) the musicians put down their instruments and applauded when the onscreen audience did. Even small theatres had piano players. Most important pictures arrived at theatres with scores written to accompany the films. Films without a score were accompanied by talented accompanists well versed in the art of adding music to the films. It was only in the smallest theatres that a phonograph played music that had no correspondence with what was going on onscreen.
Dialogue was limited by the fact that it had to be written out, but as Norma says “we didn’t need dialogue, we had faces…I can say anything with my eyes.” Silent film actors employed an expressive form of acting that came from the stage. Expressions and movements on stage had to be big and unsubtle so that customers in the balcony could understand what was going on. Silent filmmakers had not yet realized that everyone in a cinema was not only in the front row but also on stage with the actors.
The difference in acting styles between silent and talking films is used to great effect in Sunset Boulevard a film-noir masterpiece made in 1950, starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden and Eric von Stroheim. It is in glorious black and white and has a slower pace than modern films. Gloria Swanson plays a faded movie Queen by the name of Norma Desmond. Her servant Max comments that “she [Norma] was the greatest of them all. You wouldn't know, you're too young. In one week she received seventeen thousand fan letters.” Fans of this film know that in it, ‘art imitates life’ because Gloria Swanson, now almost forgotten, was at one time one of the most famous movie stars on the planet.
While all the other actors in the film employ a modern acting style, only Gloria uses the exaggerated style of the silents. In this way she shows that Norma is not only living in the past but has confused film and reality. Norma rants “those idiot producers, have they forgotten what a star looks like? ...they took the idols and smashed them. The Fairbanks, the Gilberts, the Valentinos. And what do we have now - some nobodies…” I do disagree with Norma on this point. We do have stars. Johnny Depp and Jack Nicholson spring to mind, but in the years before the nineteen sixties, film stars were not like you and I. They were STARS. You never saw photographs of them unless they look every inch the star. It was in their contracts. They had to appear larger than life and more glamorous than everyone else. They cultivated a mythological aura that modern actors can’t come close to capturing.
Go rent Sunset Boulevard. Thrill when Gloria utters those famous words; ”I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Demille". Then check out one of her silent pictures. You may find yourself quoting Norma: ”Still wonderful isn’t it? And no dialogue…”
Going to the movies can be like stepping into a time machine. I recently heard a young person say that it was hard for them to watch a film from 1965. I understood what he was saying. Through the magic of film, we can be whisked to another time and culture, and the older a film is the more challenging it can become. Silent films are as different from modern films as hip-hop is from Gregorian Chant, but fans of silent films do not think of them as hard to watch. In fact, silent films are appealing because they are unique to their time.
During the teens and twenties, movies became the first mass-entertainment media. Anyone with a dime could be transported into this cinematic wonderland. This mass popularity made movie studios wealthy. They, in turn, invested their wealth into opulent Movie Palaces in most major cities. Even the smaller cinemas of the day were custom designed and fabulous. Theatres featured architectural flights of fantasy and crystal chandeliers. They exuded a feeling of luxury, of exoticism. One of the nicest I’ve ever seen is the Fifth Avenue Theatre in Seattle. A giant three-dimensional dragon coils around the ceiling and it holds a huge flaming pearl chandelier in its mouth. It is breathtaking.
It was in such a setting that silent films were seen. It follows that the mansions of the stars should rival the glories of the movie palace. The larger theatres had permanent in-house orchestras as well as sound effects machines. At the premier of Phantom of the Opera (1925) the musicians put down their instruments and applauded when the onscreen audience did. Even small theatres had piano players. Most important pictures arrived at theatres with scores written to accompany the films. Films without a score were accompanied by talented accompanists well versed in the art of adding music to the films. It was only in the smallest theatres that a phonograph played music that had no correspondence with what was going on onscreen.
Dialogue was limited by the fact that it had to be written out, but as Norma says “we didn’t need dialogue, we had faces…I can say anything with my eyes.” Silent film actors employed an expressive form of acting that came from the stage. Expressions and movements on stage had to be big and unsubtle so that customers in the balcony could understand what was going on. Silent filmmakers had not yet realized that everyone in a cinema was not only in the front row but also on stage with the actors.
The difference in acting styles between silent and talking films is used to great effect in Sunset Boulevard a film-noir masterpiece made in 1950, starring Gloria Swanson, William Holden and Eric von Stroheim. It is in glorious black and white and has a slower pace than modern films. Gloria Swanson plays a faded movie Queen by the name of Norma Desmond. Her servant Max comments that “she [Norma] was the greatest of them all. You wouldn't know, you're too young. In one week she received seventeen thousand fan letters.” Fans of this film know that in it, ‘art imitates life’ because Gloria Swanson, now almost forgotten, was at one time one of the most famous movie stars on the planet.
While all the other actors in the film employ a modern acting style, only Gloria uses the exaggerated style of the silents. In this way she shows that Norma is not only living in the past but has confused film and reality. Norma rants “those idiot producers, have they forgotten what a star looks like? ...they took the idols and smashed them. The Fairbanks, the Gilberts, the Valentinos. And what do we have now - some nobodies…” I do disagree with Norma on this point. We do have stars. Johnny Depp and Jack Nicholson spring to mind, but in the years before the nineteen sixties, film stars were not like you and I. They were STARS. You never saw photographs of them unless they look every inch the star. It was in their contracts. They had to appear larger than life and more glamorous than everyone else. They cultivated a mythological aura that modern actors can’t come close to capturing.
Go rent Sunset Boulevard. Thrill when Gloria utters those famous words; ”I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Demille". Then check out one of her silent pictures. You may find yourself quoting Norma: ”Still wonderful isn’t it? And no dialogue…”