Search

Silent Film - Other Works

group12cmp
Feb 24, 2016
2 min read

Each one of the films below depicts a meeting of two people who may or may not end up together as a romantic couple. This is also the core of our film, a woman trying to find the contact with the man she thinks fancies her, but ends up in a disappointment. The main inspiration point for our Rush Hour Crush film is that modern day London commuters and old silent films are connected by the randomness of missed connections and the light heartedness of that fairly innocent wish of finding love in this way. In a way the stories are timeless because they tell a story of random occurrences and disappointment, just like in the old films era and in modern films too.

One of the most poetic and romantic silent era films is the Sunrise (1927) by F.W Murnau. It is a love story of a farmer who fell in love with a woman he encountered in the city. This film has not got much of a connection to ours other than the fact that it is a romantic masterpiece. It does not follow the characters in comedic way but more of a tragic but uplifting way.

Our direction of style is more of a humorous approach and therefore researching the comedy side of silent films is vital. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were some of the groundbreakers in the era. One of the first silent comedies was directed by Louis Lumiére, it is called L’arroseur a’rrosé (1985), it is also one of the first fully-staged fictional films as well. A modern classic Artist (2011), directed by Michel Hazanavicius, is also a silent film, first shot in colour then turned to black and white in post-production. It is a tribute to the melodramatic silent film era. The makers of the film avoided using too many inter-titles by researching the silent film era in order to build an understandable story and structure. Another romantic piece is True Heart Susie (1919) by D.W Griffith, a film about a young woman who sacrifices her own happiness for the handsome neighbour boy. It is very much in juxtaposition with our piece since, in our work the woman is lost the chance to get to know the man, but in a way she accepts it and moves on, even with spite. The woman is not sacrificing herself in any way to get closer to the man, even though disappointment is a clear reaction.

From a guys point of view, there is a movie called Girl Shy (1924) by Fred C. Newmayer, it's a story about a guy who is too shy to talk to women and ends up writing a book for other bachelors of how to find a girlfriend. Eventually he falls in love with a rich girl but after a while even that romance encounters many obstacles. It is an inspiring piece in it’s light hearted nature, showing the similar struggle and feelings through a man’s point of view. It (1927) starring Clara Bow and directed by Clarence Badger, is a story of a young socialite with the “it appeal” who falls in love with a playboy. In silent films, the actors ability to convey emotions was the challenge and Clara Bow embodied that level of skill in her films. Even her performance as a young lower class girl is astonishing. She has starred in many other romantic silent films but without this era of innovation and story telling via music and text, her emotions wouldn’t be enough to tell the whole story. It is a good contrast of playing with the light and shadows, music and inter-titles.

References: http://www.imdb.com/ http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/10-silent-movies-sure-to-please-the-skeptics.html/?a=viewall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4MOQSRC_bM http://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/dec/08/artist-silent-film-michel-hazanavicius http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/06/the-100-best-silent-films-of-all-time.html?a=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsB1VGu5Lls http://staticmass.net/early-films-and-cinema/girl-shy-movie-1924-review/