Silent Cinema

The Silent Film Era 1895-1929

No synchronised recorded sound and no audible dialogue- often title cards and music was played live.
The height of the silent era (from the early 1910s in film to the late 1920s) is considered a period of artistic innovation.
The film movements of Classical Hollywood, French Impressionism, German Expressionism, and Soviet Montage began in this period.
Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style and genre of film-making of the 20th and 21st centuries has its artistic roots in the silent era.
A time of pioneering one from a technical point of view – three-point lighting, the close-up, long shot, panning, and continuity editing, as well as film theory, originated in this era.

Main Film Movements from the Silent Era:

Soviet Montage Cinema– early years

Tsarist government
Soviet cinema was very limited due to strict censorship
Yakov Protazanov was leading the way for Soviet filmmakers- made soviet war films
After the revolution in October 1917 Russia transitioned into a communist state- ideologically opposed to capitalism.
Vladimir Lenin (the new leader of Russia) stated that cinema was “the most important of the arts” in educating the masses as it could communicate without the need for literacy skill.
Cinema spoke to all classes- lower/ working class and higher classes
Film schools were set up in Moscow and Petrograd in 1918 and the film industry was nationalised (under state control).
In the 1920s, Soviet cinema became the most artistically exciting and experimental in the world

Soviet Montage Cinema– early 20’s

Lev Kuleshov- the first filmmaker to take advantage of the national interest in the art-form of cinema and became one of the first film theorists.
Kuleshov’s first feature film was a satire about American ignorance – The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (1924)
The Kuleshov Effect – Structuring a film by montage using cutting and editing of film and the juxtaposing of the images. It was seen as the most important aspect of filmmaking – two shots edited together are more powerful than a shot in isolation.

Soviet Montage Cinema– mid-late 20’s

During mid to late 1920s Soviet Montage cinema was at its most powerful and fruitful
The Soviet Montage filmmakers made revolutionary films that depicted the upheavals leading to the revolution of 1917
All the directors had a slightly different approach to and interpretation of montage.
Eisenstein focused on montage being used as a propaganda tool and an alternative to the continuity editing of typical Hollywood cinema.
It was typical that characters may appear as stock types who represent particular social classes in Soviet society.
Characters or ‘types’ were often performed by non-professional actors- known as typage.
In Strike the workers are presented as a collective unit, upholding the Communist values of people working together for the state, the mass or collective as heroes contrasts with Hollywood, typified by the main hero played by an individual star – used to sell the film.

Examples of Soviet Montage Cinema in 1920’s:

Sergei Eisenstein:

Dziga Vertov:

Documentary films
Echos Lenin’s plee
Supporter of Lenin
Films included propaganda
Influenced British documentary movemnts
Influenced documentary makers
Influenced French new wave
Vertov (director) was part of a group of Soviet film makers called the ‘Kinoks’ who rejected all staged cinema (including sets, actors or a pre-determined story)- in favour of capturing real life

Vsevolod Pudovkin:

Experimental cinema
Made 3 highly regarded films (Mother, The End of Saint Petersburg, Storm over Asia)
Adapted renounced Russian literature in films
Focuses on Russian and Asian history

Alexander Dovzhenko:

German Expressionism:

German-expressionism-cinema Download

French Impressionism cinema:

French-impressionism-cinema Download

Classical Hollywood:

Classical-hollywood-cinema-1 Download