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Which is the most silent silent movie ???

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Bruno Beam

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Dec 13, 2004, 9:03:50 PM12/13/04
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I heard some silent movies are more silent than others.

Is that true?

danel...@yahoo.com

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Dec 13, 2004, 9:29:37 PM12/13/04
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It's difficult to know what you mean. But perhaps you are referring to
the fact that the earliest silent films had NO soundtrack of any kind,
while some of those made in the late 1920s did have music and/or effect
tracks.

I'm thinking, for example, of John Barrymore's "Don Juan" (1926), the
Farrell-Gaynor romance "Lucky Star" (1929), and of course the Chaplin
classic "City Lights" (1931). All of these had music tracks, though no
dialogue was heard.

Dan N.

Ja50nch3a5er

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Dec 14, 2004, 9:09:11 AM12/14/04
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>Which is the most silent silent movie ???

The one that you buy from a PD video vender without a soundtrack.

Stephen Cooke

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Dec 14, 2004, 9:34:11 AM12/14/04
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On 14 Dec 2004, Ja50nch3a5er wrote:

> >Which is the most silent silent movie ???
>
> The one that you buy from a PD video vender without a soundtrack.

Or the Charlie Bowers shorts that are presented in what I like to call
"Project-O-Sound"

swac
*rattlerattle*

William Hooper

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Dec 14, 2004, 3:51:30 PM12/14/04
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>Which is the most silent silent movie ???

"A what? I've never heard of a silent movie. They ALL make a lot of ra
cket going throught the projector."
- stolen from Ed Jurich

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Bob Tiernan

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Dec 14, 2004, 7:48:56 PM12/14/04
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Bruno Beam wrote:

> I heard some silent movies are more silent than others.
>
> Is that true?

The Last Laugh, for example.

Bob T

rod...@mont-alto.com

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Dec 14, 2004, 9:32:04 AM12/14/04
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For a "silent film more silent than others" I'd have to go with Samuel
Beckett's FILM, starring Buster Keaton. It's sound-track consists of a
couple of people saying SHHH at one point -- making it technically a
sound film for which you shouldn't have a live musical score -- but the
rest of the movie has no soundtrack at all, so you really have complete
silence in the auditorium (except where a couple of Keaton-inspired
gags make the audience chuckle nervously).

Then there's THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC whose director said it should
be run without music. But the vast majority of silent movie directors
would be as horrified by having their films shown "silent" as modern
directors would be about publicly screening their films without the
music and effects track. I've heard an anecdote that von Stroheim, in
1940, was asked to help with a reconstruction of THE WEDDING MARCH. He
asked whether the Zamecnik discs were still available because "Without
the music it will be the crap!"
Rodney Sauer
Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra
www.mont-alto.com

mikeg...@gmail.com

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Dec 14, 2004, 5:54:55 PM12/14/04
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I think it's that one-man film that Olaf Fonss stars in, since he has
no one to talk to in the whole movie.

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