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In Reply to: Highly recommended: American silent movie DVDs & DVD collections posted by Audiophilander on March 18, 2004 at 15:04:00:

You know, I never really paid attention to silent films until a few years ago, when I saw a Buster Keaton film (sorry, can't remember which one) at the Castro Theater here in San Francisco. The Castro has a Wurlitzer, and the Keaton film was accompanied by a very, very old organist who had played with silent movies back when they were new. Both the film and the organist were amazing. The film was far more modern than I expected it to be. There were tons of chases, and the filmmakers made the limited technology go a very, very long way. Keaton was quite an athlete, performing many daring stunts without assistance.
Since the Keaton film was such a great experience, I made sure I saw "It" when I had a chance. That was great, too. Then a few weeks ago I saw "Picadilly" (a British silent) with Anna May Wong, which was also great.
I think silent films are the purest form of cinema. The story is told in pictures. The score helps, as do the title cards, but if you took them away, the story would still be there. Actually, I think you can tell whether or not a film is good cinema by turning the sound off. It's pretty easy to tell what's going on in films by good directors such as Hitchcock and Ozu just by watching the images, edits and camerawork.
Jeffery

Follow Ups:

Re: Silent films - rico 09:22:14 03/19/04 (4)
Try "Sunrise" and "Greed" and the two Keaton films I cite aboove.
I consider most of "2001: A Space Odyssey" a silent fim. And of course there Mel Brooks' hilarious "Sielent Movie".
- Totally agree! - Audiophilander 09:47:51 03/19/04 (3)
  I meant to add Sunrise, but decided to wait until I do my next recommended listing which will include German silents. BTW, I'm hopeful that the Brownlow Greed restoration, which has been shown on TCM a couple of times, will one day find it's way to DVD.
  AuPh
  - Re: Greed - rico 11:54:39 03/19/04 (2)
    I have "Greed" on laserdisc but it is not that version. The TCM I have not seen and I have been anxiously waiting for the DVD. I use parts of "Greed" to demonstarte to "talkie" folks how powerful silent
    film can be.
    - Brownlow uses the technique he employed in restoring Abel Gance's Napoleon, which is also unavailable... - Audiophilander 15:46:55 03/19/04 (1)
      ... thanks to Francis Ford Coppola owning the rights in this country and his insistance on using the butchered Zoetrope version because it has Carmen Coppola's orchestral score. BTW, Brownlow's technique uses stills and script to replace lost, partially damaged or destroyed film segments that were in the original Director's version. It may sound distracting from my description, but it really isn't; it's the next best thing to a complete full-length restoration, IMHO.
      AuPh
      - Re: Brownlow uses the technique he employed in restoring Abel Gance's Napoleon, which is also unavailable... - rico 19:46:37 03/19/04 (0)
        
        In Reply to: Brownlow uses the technique he employed in restoring Abel Gance's Napoleon, which is also unavailable... posted by Audiophilander on March 19, 2004 at 15:46:55:
        
        Would that the original 8-9 hours COULD be found and restored!

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