A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially spoken dialogue. The idea of combining motion pictures with recorded sound is nearly as old as film itself, but because of the technical challenges involved, synchronized dialogue was only made possible in the late 1920s with the introduction of the Vitaphone system.
Considered one of the most important films in the history of silent pictures, as well as possibly Eisenstein's greatest work, Battleship Potemkin brought Eisenstein's theories of cinema art to the world in a powerful showcase; his emphasis on montage, his stress of intellectual contact, and his treatment of the mass instead of the individual as the protagonist. The film tells the story of the mutiny on the Russian ship Prince Potemkin during the 1905 uprising.
Thomas Edison summary: The picture opens with the interior of a cell in an insane asylum. The inmate, who imagines himself to be Napoleon the Great, is seated at a table dressed in the costume of that world renowned general. A keeper enters with a bowl of soup. "Napoleon" tastes the soup and then dashes the contents of the bowl into the keeper's face. A fierce fight follows with "Napoleon" getting the better of it until two more keepers rush in and the three beat him unmercifully and leave him insensible on the floor. After the keepers leave, "Napoleon" gets up, smashes the table and pries off the bars of his cell with one of the table legs and escapes through the window. The second scene shows "Napoleon" escaping through the woods, pursued by the three keepers, and succeeding scenes following in rapid succession show the most exciting and ludicrous situations. In his flight "Napoleon" discovers an empty barrel, crawls into it and rolls to the bottom of the hill, and thus eludes his pursuers for a time. He next reaches a large tree. The first limbs are high above the ground, but "Napoleon" jumps and easily reaches one of the branches. The three keepers follow and disappear into the tree. A panoramic effect shows "Napoleon" descending from another tree, followed closely by the three keepers. A haystack is now reached. A tramp is sleeping at the foot with a gun beside him. "Napoleon" takes his gun and paces back and forth as a sentinel on guard. The keepers soon discover him and the chase continues. Finally "Napoleon" gets back to the asylum, climbs up to his cell window, and when the tired and worn out keepers return they are dumbfounded at finding "Napoleon" seated at a table reading a paper. At each change of scene "Napoleon" stops to pose in characteristic attitude, producing a highly amusing effect.
After becoming infatuated with a pretty office worker for MGM Newsreels, Buster Keaton trades in his tintype operation for a movie camera and sets out to impress the girl (and MGM) with his work.
Silent film ( very silent. No mix ) in which a girl joins a wealthy sorority and soon finds herself unable to keep up with their free-spending ways.
Fictional story of a country boy ( played by Babe Ruth ) who can't get the hang of playing baseball and is the butt of jokes in his small town. But one day he gets mad and knocks a towering home run. Suddenly he is off and running to fame in the big leagues. When he returns to his home town, everyone sees that he is the same loveable fellow he was before.
Early aviation barnstormer Al Wilson became an action star in silent movies with films like this, using a simple adventure story about stolen diamonds in Africa to support loads of bi-plane action.
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