Sunday, December 20, 2020

Ms. Hen reviews her Silent Saturdays


 

Ms. Hen created an event this past fall in which she watched silent films, mostly from the 1920s every Saturday. She calls this Silent Saturday. 

She did this because she wanted to learn about the history of these films by watching them. She thinks it's fascinating to see how people lived one hundred years ago, the hairstyles they had, the clothes they wore, and the way they moved, the visual aspects and even the attitudes of the people were so different from the way we are now.

The following is a list of most of the films Ms. Hen watched. She may have missed a couple.

INTOLERANCE 1916

THE LITTLE AMERICAN 1917

BIRTH OF A NATION 1915

TARZAN OF THE APES 1918

ARIZONA 1918

THE HOMESTEADER 1919

DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE 1920

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA 1925

NOSFERATU 1922

THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME 1923

THE KID 1921

A WOMAN OF PARIS 1923

THE GOLD RUSH 1925

THE TRAMP 1915

THE FIREMAN 1916

WORK 1915

ASPHALT 1929

FAUST 1926

DIE PUPPE "THE DOLL" 1919

SHERLOCK JUNIOR 1929

ALICE IN WONDERLAND 1915

METROPOLIS 1927


Ms. Hen enjoyed watching all these films, and she studied them along the way. She initially watched them sequentially by year, but it became October and she watched Halloween movies such as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, also THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME and NOSFERATU, which she learned is the same story as DRACULA, but the name were changed. The people who made NOSFERATU were sued by the Bram Stoker estate and told to destroy all copies of the film, but they didn't.

The people who made these films didn't have a lot of special effects available, but Ms. Hen noticed while watching the horror movies that a lot of shadows are employed for dramatic effect, which Ms. Hen thinks are not used much anymore in film.

Ms. Hen watched a smattering of Charlie Chaplin films, which she thinks is necessary, since she believes he is the only person who worked in silent film whose name is still a household word. She enjoyed THE KID, and thought it was charming, but the short comedies are a little too punchy for her. The characters are always setting themselves on fire, falling into water buckets, and poking each other with pitchforks. Ms. Hen knows that this style of comedy is derived from vaudeville, and it reminds her of the cartoons she watched as a child, such as TOM AND JERRY and THE ROADRUNNER, which undoubtedly were inspired by these films.

Ms. Hen watched a handful of German films, which she enjoyed. She had seen THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI a few times before and didn't watch that. She liked FAUST and thought it was scary enough, and the special effects were advanced for the time. DIE PUPPE is like nothing she's ever seen, and though it's short, it pops out with its creativity and charm.

As for ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Ms. Hen thinks it's wonderful, but she was disappointed there is no Mad Hatter's tea party scene. She decided to end her Silent Saturdays with METROPOLIS. Ms. Hen had seen it before, but she thinks the first time she wasn't ready. It is one of the first science fiction films, and is exactly what Ms. Hen likes.

Ms. Hen enjoys watching silent films because to her, they are a window to the past. Ms. Hen is taking a break from Silent Saturdays for a while. She might start watching them again at the end of January. She's taking a type of winter break. 

All these films are available free on Youtube.



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