Reel Adventures 11 - Talk (Part 2 of 2)

Here's Part 2 of the talk I gave for Reel Adventures 11, The Kid:

Why then are so many people dismissive when it comes to silent films?

Is it because they’re different?

I think that’s probably the reputation of them and most people’s immediate response when they first watch one. I mean the actors mouths are moving but we can’t hear what they’re saying.

It’s long been my feeling that certain art is delicate. It requires the proper introduction, the proper entry point for someone to open up to forming a new relationship with a previous foreign object. In other words, if I’m trying to get someone interested in watching a silent film, I’m probably not going to choose a five-hour period film as the first thing to show them. I’m going to try to find something that I think is a good place to start and then incrementally begin introducing more challenging works.

I chose The Kid because I thought it was one of the great starting points for people who may never have seen a silent film before. And I believe, and I’m sure most of you will attest to this after watching The Kid - within minutes you forget the differences and relate to it like any other film and are moved by the characters and their experiences.

So the lesson to be learned from that?

That silent films aren’t so foreign or unfamiliar. You just have to start with the right one.

So now that I have you watching and actually enjoying a silent film, where do we go from here?

Well let me say a few things about why I feel silent film is important:

1. It shows us what film was when it started, what the medium originally looked and felt like. You watch The Kid and your view of what film can be and has been is enlarged.

2. Silent film is an endangered species. Many estimate that more than 75% of silent films are lost forever, the largest cause being intentional destruction. You watch The Kid and hopefully it makes you curious to see other silent films. It’s people watching and talking about silent films that helps protect this part of film’s endangered history.

3. It’s a window into our history and culture. Silent films show us what people looked and acted like at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Like #1, as we begin to form a relationship with silent film, our perspective becomes widened and enlarged.

4. Silent film is its own language. It’s a film language, among other things, with uniquely emotive faces, intertitles, rhythms, iris shots and tints that communicate to us in a way that is different than talking pictures. You watch The Kid and then other silent films and you begin learning this new language. You broaden your knowledge of film and your ability to understand it, in more of its different forms and styles.

Let’s look at a few examples of some of silent cinema’s unique language.

• Intertitles

I showed this clip:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x_b4I-YJi5jYzUr000684IqLgQDSenAi/view

• Iris shots

I showed this clip:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h3Rq8yPKf982hMYnoiy9NUfBJiovp7UB/view

And mentioned that directors use iris shots for several different reasons - to transition into a scene, to transition out of scene, or to focus the audience's attention during certain scenes.

• Emotive close-up

I showed this clip:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MXcDmVltAXiTpE-NNA_PasaQMGrjmDYC/view

So my hope is that you’ll leave here tonight and periodically seek out other Chaplin films and more silent films in general. That 70 years from now, as the cinema turns 200, people will still be watching and enjoying silent cinema - keeping it alive as the birthplace of film.

Thank you.