I cannont begin to fathom Maxim Gorky's response to the first silent film. He is overly critical of the films drawbacks and doesn't seem to have faith in what the silent film could generate. I can relate to his negative feelings towards the "gray, silent, bleak, and dismal life" that the silent film portrays, however, film is considerably more capable of capturing people, places, and things than photographs ever were. I believe some of apprehensive feelings towards the silent film is due to his misconception that many directors were trying to document major cities and capture some of thier essence not "compress its multi-storied buildings from their roof-tops to their foundations to minute size." Also, directors did not wish to "compress the people to correspond, depriving them of the power of speech", it was just that the technology was not present in 1895.
Contradictory to Gorky, I found myself inthralled by the silent film. The fact that the angles and lighting in which a director choose had a huge impact made the film much more interesting. It was also fundamental the the director choose a filming topic that would appeal to various age groups and social classes. Each of the silent films had an artistic aspect whether they choose to film the Kremlin, various planes of action, or were demonstrating the new era of industrialization. This was key to silent film because it was necessary for the film to be visually pleasing.
Silent films are great because they allow the viewer to put together the various parts of the story that are not clearly stated by the directors' written diction. This allows the viewer to be in control of much more of the inticacies of the plot compared to "talkie" films. I find that I pay much closer attention to facial expressions, especially in the earlier silent films, as well as actions that are going on around the characters who are in focus at a given time. These viewing strategies allow for a fuller understanding of characters varying feelings and of other side relations that may be evolving.
I found The 1002nd Ruse to be the most interesting film we watched today. Although the husband tried to manipulate his wife it was her who got the last laugh. The fact that they portrayed the woman as slightly promiscuous seemed quite scandalous fo 1915. I also enjoyed the arrogant man did not find his wife's secret lover because I believe that was empowering for her and women who watched the film during that time.
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Though keep in mind that the concept of a "film director" still hadn't come into existence at the time Gorky was watching these very first films. I can't help but think that his assessments of Bauer would have been more positive.
ReplyDeleteI too wonder whether the nature of silent films allows for multiple interpretations of what's taking place--and whether the directors of such films intended such an ambiguity when they made them.
I would only imagine that that people who were making the film, such as Bauer or Eisenstein, knew it was essential for them to make large footsteps in the early stages of film. Although they were not technically the "director" of the film, they analyzed the various aspects of film just as critically as any other director now a days would have.
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