Silent Film: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #671

by Donna Kornhaber

Encompassing the thirty-five year span between the initial development of film technology in the mid-1890s and the adoption of synchronized sound in the late 1920s, the cinema's silent era is both one of the most important epochs of film history and one of the most misunderstood within the popular imagination. In this brief and readable account, these formative decades come vividly to life.

Covering the full scope of the silent era-from the invention of motion pictures to the rise of the Hollywood studios-and touching on films and filmmakers from every corner of the globe, Silent Film: A Very Short Introduction offers a window into film's first years as a worldwide entertainment phenomenon. From groundbreaking early shorts to the masterpieces of the cinema's classical era, from street-corner nickelodeons to grand movie palaces, from slapstick to the avant-garde, the silent era's artistic abundance and global variety are here put on full display. In the story of silent film, we see not just the origins of a new culture industry but also a legacy of imagination and innovation that continues to profoundly influence the cinema even to this day.

ABOUT THE SERIES:
The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Art, History, Audiobook

143 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2020

Reviews

[Андрій Резніченко · Rating 5 out of 5]

Перевіряю звук, щоб подякувати ЗСУ та усім, хто допомагає ЗСУ.

Далі буде про німе кіно, невелику книжечку про яке прочитав в оксфордській серії «Дуже короткий вступ».

Купив електронну копію і читав переважно у дорозі, а в другій половині книжки скористався порадою Алекса Роулінгза з книжки «Заговори вже!» і позначав жовтим незнайомі англійські слова не зупиняючись у читанні, опісля прочитання абзацу чи розділу дивився значення слів і прочитував ще раз.

До цього з цієї серії «Very Short Introduction» прочитав про Голлівуд, і цей вступ підготував мене до фільму «Вавилон» Дам'єна Шазелла, який в основному про німе кіно, а також про перехід до звукового кіно. Це як, наприклад, читати Бартелмі, коли є невеликий бекграунд з філософії. Так само у «Вавилоні» – нікелодеон, «Вітаграф», «Jazz Singer»!

«Вавилон» посприяв обрати наступну книжку саме про німе кіно. Це далека епоха, і нібито звукове кіно цікавіше, а дивитися на рухомі картинки без звука – то знудитись можна, навіть якщо ви не прихильник усім відомого твору французького екзистенціаліста.

Окрім розширення загального контексту про історію кіно, стали більшими чи меншими відкриттями такі моменти:

● Часто, коли натрапляємо на записи з німого кіно, наприклад, на ютубі, то бачимо, що це картинка з шумами, кольору, наприклад, сепії. А ще персонажі часто неприродньо швидко рухаються. Раніше, коли фільми демонстровувалися на екранах, чи-то 10-ті роки, чи то 20-ті роки двадцятого століття, то це була надзвичайно висока якість зображення зі сріблястими відливами. Спеціальна людина в залежності від динаміки тієї чи тієї сцени змінювала частоту кадрів, скажімо, від 15 до 24 за секунду. Фільми нерідко демонструвалися на великих екранах у театрах, як-от фільм «Аннет» в одеському музичному театрі на кінофестивалі у 2021 році, і сприймалися такі покази з благоговійним захватом. Але через особливості нітратної будови і неналежне зберігання німі фільми мають той вигляд, як ми їх бачимо зараз.

● Вдалося подивитися не так багато фільмів, про які йдеться у книжці. А от французький експериментальний фільм 1928 року «La Coquille et le clergyman» («Seashell and the Clergyman») вдалося. Приємно здивувало те, що сценаристом був Антонен Арто (читав «Театр і його Двійник» і планую «Геліоґабал»). Музика магнетична, а кадри ніби взяті зі сновидіння – сюрреалізм. Режисер «La Coquille et le clergyman» Герман Дюлак був адептом «pure cinema», представники якої вважали, що кінематограф може і має бути відділеним від інших видів мистецтва, таких як література, живопис, музика.

● Приблизно у той само час у «Жовтні» показували сеанс «Людини з кіноапаратом» Дзиґи Вертова з діджейським сетом. Дзиґа Вертов на той момент також був прихильником «pure cinema», а на початку стрічки у титрах зазначається, що у стрічці спроба використовувати кіномову як таку. У книжці трохи ріже вухо «soviet» filmmaker. І так, німе кіно ніколи не було власне німим, а його, як правило, супроводжувала «жива музика». Сприйняття зовсім інше.

● Вибрана фільмографія наприкінці книжки починається з «Dickson Greeting» (dir. William Heise, United States, 1891), а завершується The Tribe (dir. Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi, Ukraine, 2014).

● Про прийоми німого кіно, які сучасні режисери використовують зараз. Вес Андерсон використовує засоби німого кіно – наприклад, тонування (tinting), а у Пола Томаса Андерсона часто у фільмах довгі сцени без залучення основного діалогу.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating, and written in such an engaging way that never felt stuffy or dry. I could feel how much the author enjoys and cares about silent film while I read and it made me want to watch many of the films mentioned in the book!

[Tore · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's very short all right - too short for me. I was hoping for a _little_ more than I got, but there is a bibliography, so maybe I'll find something there.

[Zachary Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really helpful introduction, covering key eras, movements, features, and names. Super organized and clear.

My two favorite things about the book:
1. A substantial section devoted to global cinema where the author runs through various countries and their relationship to silent film.

2. Kornhaber highlights the incredible (and surprising) diversity and inclusion of early cinema. Knowing Hollywood has had a sordid relationship to people of color and women, it was refreshing to hear that it was a little bit of a different story early on, especially with women. Before they were even allowed to vote, many women were prominent players in various parts of the film industry, from acting and directing to writing and producing (I love Lois Weber’s innovative film, ‘Suspense’).

This treatment helped bring some much-needed context to my previous impression of silent film and early Hollywood, which was marred by the legacy of films like The Birth of a Nation and studios’ obsession with the marketability of a film and not its artistic possibilities.

This is a great readable introduction to silent film. Kornhaber did exactly what was needed with a book like this.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great overview of the silent era in film history! I was glad to see it encompass a global understanding of the period, as well as an intersectional perspective, primarily highlighting women filmmakers but also people of color and queer people. I was fascinated to learn how prominent women were in the industry at the time, much closer to today than I thought, and better in some ways. I was saddened to hear that their involvement was curtailed when talkies became the norm.

I learned many things: the progression of film technology, its use as a medium of narrative storytelling, movements in different countries and where they were in comparison to others at the time... I enjoyed how they discussed the state of each country, setting a context in which to examine why and how film was prevalent or not. I also got plenty of recommendations for films and directors to watch! Although this is a part of Oxford's "Brief Introduction" series, I would have read it far longer if there was more to read.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot think of a better short introduction to the first four decades of film production before spoken language was added to image. Kornhaber treats silent film as a 'gestalt' phenomenon - an industry, an experience, an art form, a global phenomenon and as very distinct from its 'sound' form.

Kornhaber has a point that cinema is not a medium of language but of images and that we can generally get something from good cinema (if not precisely what was intended) by turning off the sound and sub-titles even today - if we have the patience.

She also points out that 'silent' film is a misnomer. Film was always accompanied by sound. The origins of the modern film score lie in musical accompaniment in the 'picture palaces'. Sometimes (as in Japan) stories were accompanied by commentary.

What we mean by silent is that language was restricted to intertitles and external commentary. Everything had to be explained on screen through imagery leading to a great deal of artistic creativity in techniques of editing (such as montage) and direction with external music suggesting mood.

The book also gives us a strong sense of silent film being a global phenomenon precisely because it was not in language that divides - a point cleverly made in the nonsense song of Charlie Chaplin at the end of his last 'silent' film (1936) that laid the great clown character to rest.

An Italian epic of the 1910s or German expressionist drama of the 1920s could be watched world wide and be influential (as both were) alongside anything produced by D W Griffiths or Buster Keaton because of this 'silence'. The flow of memes and ideas was truly international.

Kornhaber argues that silence in film still has some life in it amongst 'art' films (although the examples are few) and, rightly, that the removal of language (rather than sound) can have tactical benefits that Hollywood will sometimes deploy even now. Silence is part of the cinematic tool kit.

One of the virtues of the book is that, while it is good at telling us how silent film could be an 'art' and how that art could be expressed in many different cultures (notably the Japanese), she moves our understanding far from high culture towards that social and economic 'gestalt'.

The book is (as advertised) very short so we will have to go elsewhere for more in-depth coverage of many aspects of the case - why Charlie Chaplin was so important to cinema, how genres and stories emerged and more detail of the stages of cinematic development.

However, there is enough here for us to have a far better understanding of the phenomenon. We will not now fall into the trap of thinking silent film is simply a canon of approved movies, a lesser experience (it was not) or distant from other forms of capitalist enterprise.

The last is important. We have stories of early technology promotion, failed attempts at market protection, global distribution and attempts to counteract American 'dumping', the benefits of inflation in helping to create a vibrant German industry and how tickets were priced.

Perhaps most interesting is the original weak interest in sound because of the inertial effect of existing investment but its rather rapid introduction to the major studios with surprisingly little disruption. It is a case study in effective capitalist appropriation of a disruptive technology.

According to Kornhaber, there is very little change in the personnel of the industry before and after sound despite stories of actors with squeaky voices being jettisoned except that another round of consolidation in Hollywood appears to have severely limited the role of women going forward.

The overwhelming impression is of the first forty years of cinema being vigorous with impressive achievements to its credit that we may find hard to appreciate with so much of its product now destroyed or poorly exhibited and the 'atmosphere' of exhibition having been lost.

The 'atmosphere' remains in an attenuated form in the dying multiplexes but film has long since ceased to be much of a mass social event. Watching the original 'Nosferatu' in a BFI print at home alone is a great experience but it is not the same experience of over a century ago.

We have also lost a sense of the sheer scale of production where thousands of theatres ranging from the 'palaces' with high ticket prices to the famed 'nickolodeons' and community halls all needed feeding with product. Most of this material was destroyed as no longer profitable or simply decayed.

A major film could be a significant investment that required careful management from idea to exploitation so that, by the 1920s, we have a total industry in Hollywood that outplayed rivals globally by both fair means (high production values) and foul (dumping).

Four countries initially led with the technology. Politics comes into the story. France should have led but was crushed by war. The US became undisputed leader through a free market response to an attempt at oligopoly, shifting production from the East to West Coast. Germany emerged post-war.

The sad story of the English industry is typical of British decline. From early innovative beginnings, it never achieved the ability to attract capital in a country of high labour costs. It became an industry of distributors of largely foreign (mostly American) product moderated by bad 'quota quickies'.

Hitchcock whose career started with a secondment to the German film industry was a bright exception as silence turned to sound but, of course, where did he end up? Where so much British talent ends up. In Hollywood, of course.

The Soviet experiment is also placed in its context as a valiant attempt after the revolution to 'mend and make do' with artistic genius (soon managed into proletarian moderation) and what was to hand. The Japanese industry stuck to silent production for longer than elsewhere for cultural reasons

The only gap in the book may be discussion of celebrity and the almost omni-present 'star' but otherwise Kornhaber gives us a good sense of just how revolutionary film was as it emerged in the 1890s through to what she calls the 'classical' period of Hollywood production (1920s).

Of course, being written by an evidently feminist American academic in the second decade of the twenty-first century, there is an evident if relatively mild over-playing of the diversity agenda but she manages to stop us from being drawn too far into the black hole of identity politics. Just.

And she does make a good point about the strong female involvement in the entrepreneurial phase of the American silent film industry before it ossified into the concentrated studio system of the subsequent sound era as well as the evident importance of women as consumers in this early period.

My grandmother in her old age would speak of Rudolph Valentino in the same tones that the youngest generations today speak of K-Pop idols. Silent film was the escape valve for many working class teenagers like her. It may have been more powerful than sound in its social effects.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author manages to condense a big topic into a very short and very enjoyable book. For example she allots one paragraph each to Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, and Charlie Chaplin‘s silent work, yet manages to convey their unique sensibilities efficiently.

Even more impressively, she includes a lot of material unfamiliar to people who are already familiar with silent film history. Her coverage of women directors in silent film, her coverage of the film industry in various countries, and her chapter on how silent films were exhibited all contain a lot of new material. This is a very impressive short book.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay this was really interesting. I often found myself re-reading certain sections just to make sure I remembered stuff. I love the whole topic of silent film, and this book was picked full of history. My fun fact telling abilities have just increased tenfold.

[Beelzefuzz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview. I did not know about the live explainers who dramatically narrated silent films, or most of these histories from other countries.

[Simon Barraclough · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic little book. Does exactly what it says on the (film) can. Great links, resources and bibliography included too.

[Steve Wiggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting the notice from Goodreads that the year’s tallies are about ready always makes me grab a short book to make sure that I get at least one more in under the wire. For nonfiction readers, Very Short Introduction series books are a great way to learn something and score another book for the year. Besides, I’m very interested in Silent Film. This is a great introduction to the early days of cinema, and those who would like to know more about an often forgotten recent era will find this book a rewarding experience. At least I did.

Only five chapters long, and none of those chapters too extensive, the book flies. The lengthiest chapter is about global cinema and how what we now take for granted at the movies was a process of learning from international experience. The process was interrupted by the First World War, and Hollywood developed a system that ensured American films would be in demand worldwide. I’ve noticed in my own life that people watch movies when things are bad, and that tells me that understanding film is important.

For those of us who aren’t specialists in cinema, this little book has lots of surprises. It doesn’t focus on the technical aspects, and it’s well written for those who haven’t studied cinematography in any formal way. As I note in my blog post on the book (Sects and Violence in the Ancient World) much of what we expect when we go to the movies, or even stream them, was established early on. If you’re interested in movie history this is a great little book.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable short introduction to silent cinema: nuanced and interesting intro to the different eras of silent cinema, its global productions, and coverage both of classics like Sunrise and Charlie Chaplin, to niche directors and films. Apparently Japanese silent cinema was very popular, with narrators alongside and Japanese audiences found the transition to talkie cinema tough. The Soviets ended up not screening their best directors for many years afterwards, as Dziga Vertov was forced to make more boring films and Eisenstein was forced to criticise his great early work. Also there were films made in response to Birth of a Nation from African American directors. Interesting throughout.

[Audrey Kalman]

(aud1obook)

Really solid. Chapters about early filmmaking in Italy, Germany, and the Soviet Union were very interesting--a lot of advancements in the interwar years that then regressed during and after WWII.

Mentioned the 1960 Japanese film "The Naked Island" where a family is "so in tune with each other they never need to speak out loud" which sounds very cool. Also interesting that the first feature length movie was shown in Australia in 1906.

Ended with an explicit argument that film is about visuals and not sound. Not sure how I feel about that.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very interesting details about the early film industry and the making of movies.

[Ben]

Great quick overview!

[Rachel Moyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I added 22 movies to my Letterboxd watchlist and also learned a lot ! Fun!

[Doxie]

good comprehensive intro to silent film but I felt like it was hard to listen to because the narrator had a very rigid lecture voice

[Alistair Leadbetter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently readable introduction to the wonders of silent film and the ongoing, but generally unmentioned, influence of the form.

[David Klingenberger · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much more information could have been included if she just halved the amount of space she devoted to explaining and decrying the lack of diversity in the silent film industry.

[C Lyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about silent film that is short. I mean it gives exactly what it says it will.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short is right. It was too brief for me, but it was interesting to learn the names of some of the innovators in early film outside of the United States and France.