the classical hollywood silent era 1908-1927 in the beginning… as an art movement, the silent era...
TRANSCRIPT
The Classical Hollywood Silent
Era1908-1927
In the beginning…
As an art movement, The Silent Era follows…
• Early Experimental Cinema 1893-1903 (the inventors) in the US and France
•The Brighton School 1896-1905 in England
In the beginning…• Filmmaking was still in its infancy as an art—
films were more money-making ventures and technological experiments
• Directors were not encouraged to be artists—they were thought of as factory workers
Early Edison Films
Sandow, 1894
The Kiss, 1896
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
• First Western• First to use editing as a
storytelling technique• One of the first to use
panning and close-ups• Moved from documentary to
narrative• Based on a true robbery by
Butch Cassidy
The Silent Era as Art• The Classical Hollywood Silent era is marked
by the films that emerged with the first film studios
• Silent films began to take on a narrative structure and use filmmaking conventions
• D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation set the stage for modern cinematic storytelling
Birth of a Nation (1915)• Based Thomas Dixon Jr.'s anti-
black, bigoted play, The Clansman • Its release set up a major
censorship battle over its vicious, extremist depiction of African Americans. Unbelievably, the film is still used today as a recruitment piece for Klan membership.
Birth of a Nation (1915)• It was one of the biggest box-office
money-makers in the history of film, due to its charge of $2 per ticket. It made $18 million by the start of the talkies.
• Riots in Boston and Philadelphia. Chicago, Denver, St. Louis and other major cities refuse to show it
Birth of a Nation (1915)• Film scholars agree, however, that
it is the single most important and key film of all time in American movie history
• Introduces & refines camera angles, traveling shots, artificial lighting, realistic sets, flashbacks, split screens, soft focus, dissolves, fades, and irises.
Stars of the Silent Screen
Florence LawrenceAmerica’s 1st Movie Star
Mary PickfordAmerica’s Sweetheart
Charlie Chaplin
Harold Lloyd
Buster Keaton
Fatty Arbuckle
Keystone Kops
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.The King of Silent Hollywood
Clara BowThe “It” Girl
Rudolph Valentino
Dorothy & Lillian Gish
Theda Bara
Lon ChaneyThe Man of a Thousand Faces
Tom Mix
Greta Garbo
Meanwhile, over in Europe…
German Expressionism
1919-1926
German Expressionism
• WWI creates an isolated Germany in financial ruin
• The new and booming film industry promises financial rewards
• Germany can’t compete with the glamour of Hollywood
German Expressionism• External representation of internal emotion –
this means that if the main character is in a “dark place” emotionally, then the setting must reflect that
• Insanity/Obsession as a theme
• Crime or the criminal underworld
German Expressionism
• Urban settings—but in a studio!
• Twisted architecture – such as spiral staircases and ominous arches
• Chiaroscuro – heavily contrasted black and white, whether with paint, or light and shadow