Silent movies often get pigeonholed as either zany slapstick with exaggerated acting or serious, dark, depressing art films. In reality, the silent period covers vast amounts of genres, topics, sensibilities, and filmmaking styles and came from countries all around the world. From the invention of projected cinema in the 1890s to the final films shot without synchronized dialogue in the early 1930s, filmmakers found inventive ways to use a nascent art form without ever needing any synchronized dialogue.
On The Everyday Cinephile, I’ve sought to cull together a wide variety of information from throughout the silent period to highlight the artistic power and beauty of numerous filmmakers. My hope is that this collection of information related to silent movies will break down many common misconceptions in an engaging, informative fashion so that the newest newcomers and the most experienced silent movies fanatic alike will dive into something new and spectacular from the era.
Browsing through my selection of silent movies-related posts and articles, you will find everything from rankings of Harold Lloyd films to introduction guides to silent cinema to deep dives into a single silent film. Make sure to use the search bar located on the top right of the site or on the left side widget to search for silent film terms, filmmakers, and performers you’d like to learn more about. Feel free to reach out to me to suggest topics you’d like to see covered or any specific films or filmmakers you’d like to learn more about.
Legend has it that Ernest Hemingway once won a bet writing a devasting six-word short story. For sale: baby shoes. Never worn. As a silent film fan, I can think of an even shorter heartwrenching tale. Silent film. No Prints Extant.
According to a 2013 …
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For each of the past two classic film reading challenges, I read a Zane Grey Western that had been adapted into multiple classic Hollywood films: Riders of the Purple Sage and Heritage of the Desert. Earlier this year when I saw a book covering …
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Since 1989 the Library of Congress selects 25 American films deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant to add to their official National Film Registry. Not meant to be merely a best-of-list, the National Film Registry signals to studios, copyright holders, archivists, and other moving image …
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Homer Croy’s 1918 book How Motion Pictures Are Made has the best case for the earliest attempt at providing a comprehensive history and survey of the film industry to a general audience. Written several years before Hollywood studios solidified a working business model and hierarchal …
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1916 marked the 300th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. Naturally, motion picture studios celebrated the occasion by releasing a flurry of Shakespeare adaptations from The Merchant of Venice to Macbeth.
In the case of Romeo and Juliet, two adaptations were released the very …
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Over eighty years after his death, Cecil B. DeMille remains one of the most recognizable classic Hollywood figures. In large part due to The Ten Commandments airing on ABC Easter weekend every year for the past half a century, Cecil B. DeMille stands as a …
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