As we watched the 3 silent films, A Child of the Big City, Ruse and The Dying Swan there was some amazing first time effects in these films. In the first film there was zooming, dreams that were on screen with the actress and also moving camera shots. The second film had a minor, but yet interesting effect with the sight of looking through the key hole. As for the third, The Dying Swan there was extremely suspenseful music, fading lights, color on the picture as the screen is all in shades of both blue and purple. In that film there is also fading as well as a storm with lighting.
The Silent films were interesting in that fact that you had to use your own perspectives to determine what exactly was going on. The silent films however, all though they are the first films, had AWFUL acting. The actors and actresses were over dramtic, but some people might just need the over exaggeration to figure out what is going on.
One other note is that most of the movies involved bad, cruel and evil people. The first and second film had disonest women and made women look like bad people in general, lower than men and also sleazy women. The third the man was just crazy about death.
Last of all in the 1st movie I noticed that the dancers name was _____ Bauer and in the 2nd movie the wife was _____ Bauer. Professor Isham said that the second was really his wife and there was a relation. What about the first? Hmm?
Emma was Bauer's sister...so as you can see, he did a pretty good job of getting his family involved in his work, didn't he?! :>)
ReplyDeleteI agree that these silent films leave the viewer lots of room for interpretation--and don't force your hand down a single track as to guessing what they are talking about at all times. And yes, the visual effects in The Dying Swan are quite striking.
Death was a very prominent theme in the Age of Decadence--so Count Glinsky is sort of an exaggeration of what many artists, poets and writers were fascinated with at the time.