Lost in the Movies: Dance of the Silents 1912 - 1926 • "32 Days of Movies" Day 1

Dance of the Silents 1912 - 1926 • "32 Days of Movies" Day 1


The first chapter of "32 Days of Movies", an audiovisual tour through 366 films.
(2015 update - includes Vimeo embed after the jump)


View "Chapter 1: Dance of the Silents"


Dance of the Silents 

In the early days, everything was difficult and anything was possible. Ingenuity and technical know-how were prerequisites, but all was new so imagination was unhampered by exhaustion or familiarity. Vampires glided into bedrooms, Babylonians paraded down colossal stairways, abstract forms danced across the screen, and bugs spied on one another's sex lives. There are quite a few masters in this first chapter, yet most of the films seem to have, alongside their boundless creative energy, a sort of elemental simplicity. Styles will grow more complicated, visions more elaborate in the next chapter, but at first, the wonder of the moving image seemed magic enough.



I have covered a film in this chapter here.

Tomorrow: Jazz Age Visions

*(h/t: Jaime Grijalba who suggested the title for this chapter/added 2:33pm)

There are no spoilers to speak of in this installment (unless you've never seen what a certain opera aficianado looks like underneath his mask). There is brief nudity between 1:30 and 1:40 if you're watching at work or school.

For now I have two versions of the video available, as you will see when you click above - one which maximizes size and the other which is smaller but has better quality, although unfortunately the resolution is rather pixelated on both. Titles at the end are a little fast, but you can pause the video if you want to linger; I couldn't make them any longer as I am already pushing upload capacity.

8 comments:

shahn said...

Looks great, Joel! This'll be a fun month.

Joel Bocko said...

Thanks shahn, I hope so!

Jason Bellamy said...

I don't have any comments on this specific piece, except to say that I vow to watch all 32 montages. Looking forward to it!

Joel Bocko said...

Thanks Jason, I hope I can hold up my end of the bargain and make it worth your while.

Anonymous said...

GREAT selection of stuff (though the pedant in me cannot help but note that The Cameraman's Revenge is Russian, not Polish).

Joel Bocko said...

Thanks, James. Will fix the Cameraman thing (apparently it was also 1912, not 1913).

Perhaps it's the part-Pole in me that wanted to claim Starewicz as one of our own (take that, Polish jokes...) Apparently though he was Lithuanian. Oh well, still a great movie.

rod butcher said...

Gosh, this looks great! Where would the world be without people with passion and knowledge for their subject, like you? Thanks

Joel Bocko said...

Too kind, Rod. I hope you enjoy the series.

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