While I'm working through the films of 1916 in preparation for my next Silent Oscars essay, here's one of the short comedies Charlie Chaplin made that year while working at Mutual. In Behind The Screen, Chaplin plays a stagehand at a film studio, a story inspired by his experiences working for Mack Sennett.
This particular print is rather beat up, but it's available free through the courtesy of the Internet Movie Database.
Now this I'd like to see. According to the article, The Artist is a brand new movie set in Hollywood around the time of The Jazz Singer and follows the career of an aging matinee idol as sound renders him irrelevant.
The more I get into silent movies (around 680 at this point), the more I find myself wishing silent films were a current-day option. "Why are they talking so much? Shut up, and get on with the movie!"
Named for Katie-Bar-The-Door, the Katies are "alternate Oscars"—who should have been nominated, who should have won—but really they're just an excuse to write a history of the movies from the Silent Era to the present day.
To see a list of nominees and winners by decade, as well as links to my essays about them, click the highlighted links:
Remember: There are no wrong answers, only movies you haven't seen yet.
The Silent Oscars
And don't forget to check out the Silent Oscars—my year-by-year choices for best picture, director and all four acting categories for the pre-Oscar years, 1902-1927.
Look at me—Joe College, with a touch of arthritis. Are my eyes really brown? Uh, no, they're green. Would we have the nerve to dive into the icy water and save a person from drowning? That's a key question. I, of course, can't swim, so I never have to face it. Say, haven't you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions?
2 comments:
I read that a 2011 silent movie was a huge success at Cannes.
Now this I'd like to see. According to the article, The Artist is a brand new movie set in Hollywood around the time of The Jazz Singer and follows the career of an aging matinee idol as sound renders him irrelevant.
The more I get into silent movies (around 680 at this point), the more I find myself wishing silent films were a current-day option. "Why are they talking so much? Shut up, and get on with the movie!"
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