ORPHANS OF THE STORM
For Friday a silent film classic, Orphans of the Storm (D. W. Griffith, 1921) is scheduled.
For Friday a silent film classic, Orphans of the Storm (D. W. Griffith, 1921) is scheduled.
Movies were silent until the onset of sound in 1927. This does not make Silent Cinema an inferior art. In fact some critics, such as Rudolph Arnheim, believe that films lost whatever artistic value they had with the addition of sound. That's because sound, according to these critics, weakened the artistic independence of the image, the way that talking would destroy classical ballet!
Few critics would agree with this view today. But it's a useful counterbalance for viewers--especially young viewers--who believe that any film made more than twenty years ago is unworthy of appreciation! Some young viewers, for example, can't believe that even a black-and-white film (much less a silent film) is worth seeing.
In point of fact, few films today equal the great films of the 1930s-50s, when most films were made in black-and-white and had short runtimes (usually under two hours, though many averaged 90 minutes). Directors quickly mastered the art of sound and image together, scripts were well edited, preproduction values were high, studio contracts insured that actors would be always ready for the next role without delay, and contract composers guaranteeed a solid musical score no matter what period the film was set in.
But the Silent Era may pose problems even for film lovers. The main problem may simply be runtime. There was no standard electrical projection speed in the Silent Era as in the Sound cinema. Obviously the projection speed had to be standardized in sound films or actors' voices would change pitch with even a light variety or warble of projection speed. Thus sound speed was standardized at 24 fps (24 frames per second).
But the Silent Cinema was filmed and projected by hand cranking. Though this varied, depending on filmmaker and projectionist, the standard speed was 16 fps. Still a projectionist might slow down a romantic scene and speed up comedy, though that was often done in the camera as well. For example, a cameraman might undercrank a comic scene knowing it would be speeded up at standard 16 fps projection speed. (To undercrank means to crank more slowly; hence when shown at normal speed, the action goes faster; and vice versa, to overcrank means the action will go more slowly at normal speed.)
Now Orphans of the Storm has a runtime of just under 120 minutes on the standard DVD release. But the official runtime, listed on IMDB (the International Movie Database) is 150 minutes! Therefore the actors will move faster and more comically, making Griffith's direction seem inept. Students should keep this in mind when viewing the film. You can also view at least part of the film at under 1X in the forward option on your DVD player menu.
When viewing an old, especially a silent film, the student is faced with the issue of whether there is progress in the cinema. No rational person would argue for progress in the arts! For example, few would place Shakespeare above the great Greek playwrights, or a modern dramatist above Shakespeare. Few would put a musical by Andrew Lloyd-Webber above the classic Broadway musicals. And electric blues singers are not superior to acoustic blues singers of an earlier period.
Yet some viewers find it hard to appreciate a black and white film. The case is even more of an issue for silent films.
But few comic films today equal the comic classics of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, and, of course, Charlie Chaplin. These films suffer even less from variation in runtime because comedies seem even funnier at faster speeds.
There are great beauties in the silent classics. And in the realm of art, technology should not matter. Great Spanish acoustic guitar music (Tarrega, Turina, Torroba, among many others) is not inferior to electric guitar music of today and usually superior.
Still it takes some education to ignore the technological differences and try to experience the work of art in terms of form and content rather than technology. Studiously watching Orphans of the Storm might help. We'll see other silent films in this class, or at least parts of them. But this may be your only chance to seriously study a silent film classic.
D. W. Griffith is usually credited with inventing modern film grammar, in terms of shot and scale, as we know it today. Certainly editing is the basis of Griffith's art, and almost every scene in his films is, to some degree, shaped by the grammar of editing, usually intercutting or cross-cutting within or between scenes.
Scale was also an important innovation in Griffith's films. Whether he should be credited as the inventor of scale for dramatic effect is another issue; he certainly systematized scaled shots for maximum effect throughout a film, alternating long shots, medium shots, and close-ups with unfailing dramatic instinct. And Griffith was above all else a storyteller!
Besides this, and despite today's runtimes that speed up his films and obscure his directorial skills with actors, Griffith's performances (especially that of his main actress, Lillian Gish) usually rank with the best performances of the screen.
One final word on silent films: before color, directors often tinted their films for special effects. For example, blue would be for night scenes, sepia for indoor scenes, red for heightened emotions, etc. The print we'll see of Orphans of the Storm does not use contrastive tinting in this way, but is tinted sepia throughout.
Few critics would agree with this view today. But it's a useful counterbalance for viewers--especially young viewers--who believe that any film made more than twenty years ago is unworthy of appreciation! Some young viewers, for example, can't believe that even a black-and-white film (much less a silent film) is worth seeing.
In point of fact, few films today equal the great films of the 1930s-50s, when most films were made in black-and-white and had short runtimes (usually under two hours, though many averaged 90 minutes). Directors quickly mastered the art of sound and image together, scripts were well edited, preproduction values were high, studio contracts insured that actors would be always ready for the next role without delay, and contract composers guaranteeed a solid musical score no matter what period the film was set in.
But the Silent Era may pose problems even for film lovers. The main problem may simply be runtime. There was no standard electrical projection speed in the Silent Era as in the Sound cinema. Obviously the projection speed had to be standardized in sound films or actors' voices would change pitch with even a light variety or warble of projection speed. Thus sound speed was standardized at 24 fps (24 frames per second).
But the Silent Cinema was filmed and projected by hand cranking. Though this varied, depending on filmmaker and projectionist, the standard speed was 16 fps. Still a projectionist might slow down a romantic scene and speed up comedy, though that was often done in the camera as well. For example, a cameraman might undercrank a comic scene knowing it would be speeded up at standard 16 fps projection speed. (To undercrank means to crank more slowly; hence when shown at normal speed, the action goes faster; and vice versa, to overcrank means the action will go more slowly at normal speed.)
Now Orphans of the Storm has a runtime of just under 120 minutes on the standard DVD release. But the official runtime, listed on IMDB (the International Movie Database) is 150 minutes! Therefore the actors will move faster and more comically, making Griffith's direction seem inept. Students should keep this in mind when viewing the film. You can also view at least part of the film at under 1X in the forward option on your DVD player menu.
When viewing an old, especially a silent film, the student is faced with the issue of whether there is progress in the cinema. No rational person would argue for progress in the arts! For example, few would place Shakespeare above the great Greek playwrights, or a modern dramatist above Shakespeare. Few would put a musical by Andrew Lloyd-Webber above the classic Broadway musicals. And electric blues singers are not superior to acoustic blues singers of an earlier period.
Yet some viewers find it hard to appreciate a black and white film. The case is even more of an issue for silent films.
But few comic films today equal the comic classics of Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, and, of course, Charlie Chaplin. These films suffer even less from variation in runtime because comedies seem even funnier at faster speeds.
There are great beauties in the silent classics. And in the realm of art, technology should not matter. Great Spanish acoustic guitar music (Tarrega, Turina, Torroba, among many others) is not inferior to electric guitar music of today and usually superior.
Still it takes some education to ignore the technological differences and try to experience the work of art in terms of form and content rather than technology. Studiously watching Orphans of the Storm might help. We'll see other silent films in this class, or at least parts of them. But this may be your only chance to seriously study a silent film classic.
D. W. Griffith is usually credited with inventing modern film grammar, in terms of shot and scale, as we know it today. Certainly editing is the basis of Griffith's art, and almost every scene in his films is, to some degree, shaped by the grammar of editing, usually intercutting or cross-cutting within or between scenes.
Scale was also an important innovation in Griffith's films. Whether he should be credited as the inventor of scale for dramatic effect is another issue; he certainly systematized scaled shots for maximum effect throughout a film, alternating long shots, medium shots, and close-ups with unfailing dramatic instinct. And Griffith was above all else a storyteller!
Besides this, and despite today's runtimes that speed up his films and obscure his directorial skills with actors, Griffith's performances (especially that of his main actress, Lillian Gish) usually rank with the best performances of the screen.
One final word on silent films: before color, directors often tinted their films for special effects. For example, blue would be for night scenes, sepia for indoor scenes, red for heightened emotions, etc. The print we'll see of Orphans of the Storm does not use contrastive tinting in this way, but is tinted sepia throughout.
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