3 The Silent Era
Learning Objectives
- Understand the difference between each of the Three Ages of Cinema
- Learn about the different genres and stages included in the Silent Film Era.
- Understand the impact that each country had on the Silent Film Era.
Silent era [NEW TAB] films are not essentially “silent.” They are characteristically described as “silent” because they do not have “audible dialog.” “Silent” as such does not refer to a lack, but the nature of the production that was made possible by the available technology. Yet, the use of “live sound,” musical scores, and diegetic sound suggest that, “Silent Film,” is an incorrect description. “Silent Film,” rather, is a historical classification to distinguish the era from the subsequent development in film production. The emergence of “talkies,” “sound films,” and “talking pictures,”–whichever name one chooses to use–marked what Silent Films reveal in film narrative: characters silently performing their parts. Of course, the use of “intertitles,” which replaced interpreters of the silent actions, demystified the silence. Because they are written forms of language, the intertitles could be said to have brought some degree of linguistic sound to Silent Film. Yet, that reality has not dislodged the understanding of the Silent Film Era as a tradition of film without sound.
Merna Kennedy and Charlie Chaplin in The Circus
Many filmmakers contributed to the success of the Silent Era, the bedrock of contemporary cinema. Martin Scorsese’s uses of “silence,” in film elevates the narrative qualities of silence, for a film could catapult from a “climax of sound,” to pure silence. During the Silent Era, though, the filmmaker did not have the freedom to manipulate sound. This video shares some insight on that history: The Silent Era. [NEW TAB] This era has a vast timeline: Silent Era Timeline(1894-1929). [NEW TAB PDF] Anyone who is not familiar with the genre of Silent Film may begin with these videos: A Beginner’s Guide to Silent Cinema [NEW TAB] and A Guide to Silent Movies [NEW TAB].
Donna Kornhaber’s Silent Film: A Very Short Introduction(2020) [NEW TAB] fits the scope of what this text intends to achieve about Silent Film, especially how it is not a tradition limited to American cinema. Beyond the general description that is shared above, it is important to see how several cultures and film tradition developed and performed silent films. See Kornhaber, Silent Film as a Global Cinema[NEW TAB].
Reading Comprehension
- How did France, Italy, Germany, Russia, and other countries differ in their productions during the Silent Film Era?
- Which factors differentiate the Three Ages of Silent Film?
- What are some of the challenges in film productions during the era in the Global South as shared by Donna Kornhaber?
Additional Resources on Silent Films
Oscar Micheaux, Within Our Gates [NEW TAB]
Oscar Micheaux (Documentary) [NEW TAB]
Silent Films of Alfred Hitchcock [NEW TAB]
A Tour of Buster Keaton’s Studio[[NEW TAB PDF]
Charles Chaplin Productions, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
