|
Post by epicgordan on Oct 16, 2017 18:10:55 GMT -5
I'm currently watching L'Inferno from 1911. It's available all over the place on YouTube. I'm watching the most complete version of the film--this one having been scored by Tangerine Dreams (who worked on Ridley Scott's Legend). The other versions are either in Italian or have no accompanying music (and presumably has some missing footage for some reason).
The film is in the public domain, so this film is completely legal. It is the oldest feature length movie to have survived in its entirety. And will be the first of many, many films that I will attempt to study and marathon when I make my list of the greatest movies of all time.
L'Inferno is an adaptation of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, and the title cards take from passages from said source material. The Hellish imagery more or less is inspired by the engravings of Gustave Dore, that accompanied Dante's Divine Comedy. And it is a rather haunting film. Granted, it's pretty static; I'm guessing film editing back then basically began and ended with transitions to title cards and then back to a new scene. It is a rather primitive style of filmmaking, but it is rather haunting.
It's kind of hard to put it to words how much I'd recommend it, or rather what I would rate it. A lot about this film is primitive. Even some of the special effects would be laughably comparable to that of Ed Wood if one were to be cruel and judgmental. But it kind of works because what this film does with technique is that it doesn't really matter so much how believable these things look (although the set pieces are incredibly eerie, but in the best way), but in the way the visual effects are meant to represent. Those of a Catholic/Christian background will find this film rather haunting. And it's all the more reason why no one should want to ever find themselves going to Hell.
There really isn't much else there as far as script or acting; the film is shot in a way that is meant to encompass as much in a single frame as possible. As a result, acting isn't relevant because we can't really make out their performances all that well; the film itself will turn 107 years old come March, and while I can see the film and it's imagery just fine, you can definitely tell that age has effected the quality of the film, in spite our best efforts to restore and preserve the film. Which is a shame because it is an important film that absolutely needs to be preserved and restored however possible.
The script is merely the passages from the book that appear in the title cards over the course of the film; the rest is in the overall visuals. So for those who have a negative view when it comes to style over substance in films, I think this film is proof positive that sometimes style alone can provide a great deal of substance and value to a film that would otherwise feel like a slog to get through.
I'm not ready to give this film a rating yet--my lack of experience when it comes to Silent films kind of hampers my objectivity here. But based on my own emotional and subjective taste, I think I kind of love this movie. Quite a bit. And yes, it took a while for the Tangerine Dream score to kind of grow on me; it seemed off hearing a bit of singing in the background, but the overall feeling it provokes is that of a haunting dream--one that doesn't spring you awake in fright but rather lulls into a sleep-like trance. It kind of works in conjunction with the ending--Dante awakens from his metaphorical dream, as his journey through the Inferno has come to an end.
Go ahead and watch it. I inserted a link to the movie on YouTube--the version I watched, though there are many other versions of the film on that channel as well. It's in the Public Domain too, so it's totally legal to do so. But if you do see it, and you enjoy it immensely, then consider possibly buying a copy of the film on DVD--that's the version that happens to feature the Tangerine Dream score, by the way. There is also an Italian restoration on DVD which features a musical score that more closely follows the kind of music that would be featured with a film like this, but they use the original Italian Intertitles instead of the English ones. So there's my recommendation.
Love it.
|
|
|
Post by epicgordan on Oct 16, 2017 21:00:24 GMT -5
Watching another silent feature from 1911--the second oldest feature film that currently exists in its entirety, that being Defense of Sevastopol.
In stark contrast, this film did not interest me in the least. I don't think the film was necessarily there yet for a film of such a topic to interest me. The piano score kind of feels like a somber, sentimentality-type propaganda piece from Russia, when conjoined with the imagery shown. However, the music simply stops 32 minutes into the film. So you get absolutely no sound from this film whatsoever--and I've seen this movie on two different YouTube channels, and they appear to be identical to one another--but there isn't even any film static in the background. Not just in the score and lack thereof past the halfway point, but in the fact that the intertitles are entirely in Russia. As such, I have no idea what is going on, and frankly don't care. There aren't even any real characters to follow in this film.
Maybe this is a disqualifying trait for me. Maybe it's a disqualifying trait for the film. Like L'Inferno, it's in the public domain. And it looks like its age has shown itself far more than that of L'Inferno. But if you really want to check it out out of morbid curiosity, go ahead. I'll leave you a link to the movie. At least it's just under an hour long, and my lack of interest had resulted in me paying attention to other things instead. Meh.
Edit: I figured out how to change the video size for YouTube videos to convert over here. Just don't settle for Default or Large. I haven't tried out Medium yet, but I will with the next movie.
|
|
|
Post by epicgordan on Oct 16, 2017 22:50:11 GMT -5
Cleopatra (1912)
This film literally has no sound in it. Not even the sound of film static or a projector. Just pure silence. I'm really having trouble getting used to utter silence in a silent movie. But considering that L'Inferno and Defense Sevastopol both were given soundtracks more or less, I was at least anticipating the inclusion of one in this version of the film. It strikes me more and more that the greatest invention in the history of film was the inclusion of sound--both in the music and in the background.
The other big innovation that I personally cannot wait to witness in the early history of filmmaking is editing. And perhaps even better framing.
Since this film is nearly 90 minutes long, it's a hard investment to sit through. Still, here's the video for those who wish to check it out. Do be sure to play some accompanying music in the background though to keep you invested. Hard to give a proper review because it's kind of a chore to invest any of my attention towards.
|
|
stevign
New Member
Well hello there......
Posts: 25
|
Post by stevign on Oct 22, 2017 3:03:32 GMT -5
stevign: I haven't figured out how to widen the borders. I am not sure that one can. You would have to ask Proboards on their Q & A page.
|
|
|
Post by William Smith on Oct 28, 2017 21:54:59 GMT -5
Gordo: How interesting to start a discussion of the first decade of the feature film (1910-1919), a very significant period in which film evolves much of its vocabulary. It certainly can be trying to watch pre-sound films without some sort of musical accompaniment, which was always the practice when they were first exhibited. I've not seen the three you've mentions--Inferno is one that particularly interests me because of my long-standing interest in Dante. In this period, you will want to take a look at Cabiria, 1911. In this period, I am particularly fond of the French serials like Fantomas.
|
|
|
Post by epicgordan on Oct 28, 2017 22:12:28 GMT -5
WAS: Go ahead and check out my 1910's in Film thread for more. You can go ahead too and watch L'Inferno, the oldest and by far my personal favorite of the feature films I've seen from that decade thus far (I'm still going through the 1913 features, and thus have yet to visit the Fantomas films, or Cabiria for that matter, which was released in 1914 rather than 1911).
I've also just caught Battleship Potemkin on TCM, and while it is yet another silent feature, it is amazing just how many light years ahead of the 1910's films that it was. Talk about the power of editing, cinematography, and visual imagery right there that was otherwise largely in its infancy stage in the 1910's. It's basically the equivalent of an infant that doesn't even know how to walk, and yet by the time he's 5 years old, he's already getting his Ph.D in nuclear engineering. It's just stunning how much the cinematic language had changed and evolved in just a few short years.
What am I kidding? I might as well be looking forward to films like Fantomas, Cabiria, Birth of a Nation, and Intolerance. I'm not expecting quite as huge a leap in quality as I did going from films like The Defense at Sevastopol and The Adventures of Lieutenant Petrosino all the way to Battleship Potemkin. But at the very least, I'm hoping for something at least halfway. For one thing, Battleship Potemkin was only 90 minutes long.
|
|
|
Post by William Smith on Oct 29, 2017 13:52:20 GMT -5
Gordo: Cabiria is interesting, and has some striking moments, but it is hampered by a script that has dated badly. This is a problem, at least for me, for many silent films. When watching both Intolerance and Birth Of A Nation, which are both often technically brilliant, you almost have to shut down your brain about the script. It's more of a problem with American films of the period--often technically brilliant, but rather brain-dead--than with German or Russian films. With a very few exceptions, I can't watch silent comedies.
Another film which you may not have seen as yet that represents an extraordinary exercise in technique is Dziga Vertov's The Man With A Movie Camera, 1929. Also, if you are looking for other exercises in technique, there are the two Bunuel / Dali films, Un Chien Andalou and L'Age D'Or, and the surrealist films of Man Ray.
|
|
|
Post by epicgordan on Oct 30, 2017 0:18:49 GMT -5
WAS: I just got done watching a Richard Wagner biopic, as well as an Indian film called Raja Harishchandra. The former actually had a live orchestral score synchronized with the film itself. And while I don't consider it rather striking, I do consider it rather compelling. The latter film? Well, I watched the whole thing carefully to make sure there wasn't any repeat footage. And there wasn't. But instead, it felt more like somebody took a bunch of early films that had little to do with one another and strung them together into a feature film.
It feels rather contradictory; on the one hand, there's information about the 1913 rendition of the film as being a mostly lost film. But on the other hand, without much evidence to dismiss the movie, I'm not quite sure to count it as a feature film at all. There is supposedly a remake of the film made a couple years later, but since I have no idea what is even in it, I have no idea if that's where much of the later footage was taken from.
Either way, what we ultimately got of the surviving copy of the film is an incoherent mess. Which seems more the fault of the person who combined these films together rather than the fault of the actual films.
Also, I highly doubt propaganda films necessarily need intellectually compelling scripts. Since Birth of a Nation, that's never really been the objective. I may need to come up with a couple of essays tackling some of this subject matter in greater detail. The rest of this weeks is looking to be rather busy though.
|
|
|
Post by William Smith on Oct 30, 2017 13:59:11 GMT -5
Well, Birth Of A Nation isn't a propaganda film, like Triumph Of The Will. It expresses a point of view that, to say the least, is out of fashion, but that does not make it propaganda. Actually, Battleship Potemkin is to a degree propaganda--all of the Soviet films are to a greater or lesser degree--but it's a great film in any case.
And when I talk about scripts, I'm including not just DW Griffith, but the vast majority of American films of the teens and twenties.
|
|
cmac
New Member
Posts: 16
|
Post by cmac on Oct 30, 2017 20:59:34 GMT -5
epicgordan-
If you are checking into Fantomas (a very good serial) then don't miss Les Vampires from 1916 by Rene Feuillade. It is marvelous. Judex also from 1916 & by Feuillade is a fine justice/revenge serial too. There is a 1963 version of Judex that is from Criterion & it is worth seeing if only for the color masquerade/ballroom scene. The three of them, Fantomas, Les Vampires & Judex qualify as the finest set of serials ever made in my opinion. I own them all. If you should decide to purchase a set of Les Vampires be sure to get the one from Artificial Eye. Happy viewing!
|
|
|
Post by William Smith on Nov 1, 2017 15:31:22 GMT -5
One of the most interesting things to show up on TMC last month was a series of early films by the Austrian actress Romy Schneider. The earliest, The Story Of Vickie (in German Mädchenjahre einer Königin), directed by Austrian director Ernst Marischka, is what I would call a charming curiosity--a film about the first year or so of Queen Victoria's reign as a kind of Viennese operetta. Schneider is perfectly charming as the young Victoria, and in some respects--notably in making Lord Melbourne the right age--it is a truer portrait than the recent British series.
The three films about the Austrian empress Elisabeth--Sissi, Sissi: The Young Empress, and Sissi: The Fateful Years Of An Empress--are not well known in the US, although well loved, and an annual Christmas television tradition, in the German speaking world. The three films, also directed by Ernst Marischka, beautifully restored (and now available in a Blu-Ray set), present a highly romanticized and historically somewhat muddled view of the wife of Franz Joseph. They are also beautifully filmed, sumptuously mounted, and great fun to watch. Schneider turned down a fourth installment, saying she was rather tired of the character, but returned to her much later in her career, playing a wiser and very politically savvy Sissi in Visconti's Ludwig--another film well worth one's time.
With the understanding that one cannot take these films as history lessons, I'm giving them an 8 out of 10, and recommending them highly. They are all sunny and cheerful, full of the quality of geműtlichkeit so characteristic of southern Germany and Austria.
|
|
cmac
New Member
Posts: 16
|
Post by cmac on Nov 2, 2017 18:54:24 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by William Smith on Nov 2, 2017 23:36:42 GMT -5
|
|
cmac
New Member
Posts: 16
|
Post by cmac on Nov 3, 2017 20:16:18 GMT -5
The price of the Blu-ray becomes cheap when you consider they are getting $39.99 for the Sissi film by itself. I believe this is the type of movie I'll enjoy & my wife will love. Thanks. The Judex remake I mentioned earlier has a masquerade scene that is worth the price of the film for the same costume & setting reasons.
|
|
|
Post by epicgordan on Nov 3, 2017 23:58:27 GMT -5
I just saw Thor: Ragnarok earlier today. Nowhere near as bad as Kingsmen: The Golden Circle, but far more disappointing all the same. I'll elaborate more as soon as I have some time off work.
|
|