Silent Film

Definition

A film that lacks synced recorded sound is considered silent. While story and emotion are mostly communicated visually in silent films, intertitle cards can also be used to emphasize important conversation passages or other plot points as needed.

The phrase  silent film is a bit misleading because these movies were nearly always soundtracked with live audio. Films would frequently be accompanied by music played by a pianist, theater organist, or even a small orchestra in big cities during the silent era, which lasted from the mid-1890s through the late 1920s. Organists and pianists might perform improvisationally or from written music. The inter-title cards would occasionally even be read aloud to the audience by someone. Despite the lack of technology at the time to sync sound with the picture, music was considered a crucial component of the cinematic experience. The term silent film refers to a period of cinema history that preceded the development of synchronized sound, but it can also refer to sound-era films like The Artist, Modern Times, Silent Movie, and City Lights that have a dialogue-free soundtrack.

The term  Silent Film is a retronym, a name applied to something in the past to set it apart from subsequent advancements. Talkies, Sound Films, or talking pictures were some of the terms used to refer to the first sound movies, which began with The Jazz Singer in 1927.

The concept of fusing motion pictures with recorded sound predates film by some experiments, in which the projectionist would manually alter the frame rate to match the sound. However, due to the technical difficulties involved, synchronized dialogue was not made possible until the late 1920s with the development of the Vitaphone system and the improvement of the Audion amplifier tube.

Period of Silent Film

The silent era in cinema (1894  – 1929) saw the full development of the motion picture art. The height of the silent era was a very productive and innovative creative time, spanning from the early 1910s through the late 1920s in film. During this time, the French Impressionist films, German Expressionism films, Soviet Montage films, and Classical Hollywood films trends were born. Almost every kind and genre of filmmaking from the 20th and 21st centuries has its aesthetic origins in the silent era.

From a technological perspective, the silent film  period was equally revolutionary. Long before "talking pictures" or "talkies" took the place of silent films in the late 1920s, techniques including three-point lighting, close-ups, long shots, panning, and  continuity editing became commonplace.

Inter-Titles In Silent Films:

A substitute for the in-house translator who would explain portions of the film to the audience was required as motion films steadily become longer. Onscreen intertitles were employed to display important dialogue, explain plot elements, and occasionally even offer audience commentary during  silent films as there was no synchronized sound for conversation. In silent films, the title writer emerged as a crucial expert and was frequently distinct from the scenario writer who crafted the narrative. Intertitles were frequently visual components in and of themselves, with pictures or abstract ornaments that made observations about the action.

Live Music and Additional Audio Support in Silent Films:

Live music was a staple of silent cinema screenings, dating back to the Lumière brothers' first public movie projection in Paris on December 28, 1895. Music was acknowledged early on as being key, setting the mood and providing the audience with important emotional clues. Similar motivations have led musicians to perform on movie sets. However, the magnitude of the musical accompaniment may vary significantly depending on the size of the display place. There was generally a pianist at small-town and neighborhood movie theaters. Large city theaters started to feature organists or musical ensembles in the middle of the 1910s.

Several nations came up with different strategies to add sound to silent movies. For instance, early Brazilian cinema had operettas on film with singers performing behind the screen, known as fitas cantatas. In Japan, live narrators who gave character voices and commentary for films were known as benshi, in addition to live music. The benshi became an essential component of Japanese cinema and served as a translation tool for largely American international films.

Many silent films have had their music composed and collected by renowned orchestra conductors like Carl Davis and Robert Israel; many of them have been shown on Turner Classic Movies or have been available on DVD. For great silent dramas like Flesh and the Devil (1926) and The Big Parade (1926), Davis has written new compositions. Israel has composed music mostly for silent comedies, including Charley Chase, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and others. In addition to writing original music, Timothy Brock has restored a great deal of Charlie Chaplin's compositions.

By utilizing a variety of musical genres and techniques, contemporary music groups are assisting in the greater distribution of vintage silent cinema screenings. While some musicians use conventional musical instruments to produce new compositions, others improve the watching experience by including electronic sounds, contemporary harmonies, rhythms, improvisation, and sound design aspects.

Acting Style in Silent Films

Actors in silent films placed a strong emphasis on their facial expressions and body language to help the viewer better comprehend the emotions and characters they were playing. A lot of silent cinema acting tends to look basic or  campy to spectators nowadays. In several instances, actors adopted the melodramatic acting style as a habit from their previous theater work.

As the distinctions between stage and screen became clear in the mid-1910s, silent films lost their vaudevillian quality. Film directors like D. W. Griffith's work helped to make  cinematography less theatrical and more realistic by developing close-up shots that allowed for subtle but genuine acting.

Some Most Popular Silent Films of all Time

City Lights (1931) by Charlie Chaplin

Earth (1930) by Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Battleship Potemkin (1925) by Sergei Eisenstein

The General (1926) by Buster Keaton

Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) by Robert Wiene

Le Giornate del cinema muto (Pordenone Silent Film Festival) is the first and largest international film festival dedicated to the preservation, dispersion, and study of silent film which is held annually in Pordenone, Italy.