The Glorious Silent Era

We're progressing nicely in our Art & Technology course, making the sensible move from the origin of moving pictures and film to the first silent movies. This is especially exciting for me, as about two years ago, I started purchasing various silent films on DVD, and have really enjoyed most of them. Among those that I've seen are The Golem, a famed 1920 seudo-horror film of German origin (I was a bit let down by the ending.), Nosferatu, the orginal horror classic, and The Lost World, a real showcase of the stop-motion special effects of the day. In fact, one of my favorite movies of all time is the silent film The Thief of Bagdad. Its overall atmosphere and special effects make it stand out clearly among other films of its era, and even make it somewhat comparable to modern films. (It was one of the most expensive movies ever made, costing around $2 million, which in the '20s was unheard of.) Watching clips in class also reminded me of how much I really want to see Metropolis, the first true sci-fi film. Sadly, I've never seen a copy in stores, and haven't gotten around to looking for it online. It's been my experience that many people find that silent movies just don't grab their attention, due to the dirth of dialogue, but I've been surprisingly compelled by most of them. It seems that musical scores and acting (Which was then a necessity, and now, not so much.) more than make up for the lack of dialogue, aside from the odd text blurb here or there. So, needless to say, this particular class topic is extremely enjoyable to me.


And I almost forgot to mention that we watched A Trip to the Moon, a movie I'd long waited to see. For many years, I've known the iconic image of the man in the moon with a bullet-like object in his eye, but did not know from what movie it originated. Now, not only do I know its origin, but I have had the pleasure of watching the movie with English commentary, and enjoyed it immensely.