Silent Films

Before today, I had never viewed a silent film in its entirety. I had seen bits of old Charlie Chaplain movies, and of course had seen shorter clips on documentary type programs, but never before had the chance to view a silent film all the way through. The three we viewed today were an interesting look into early cinema: how it was filmed, the story lines used, the acting, and even the types of movements the actor's made. Although today, because we are, in fact, in Russian cinema, the three films were three Russian silent films. The first was the story of a young peasant woman and the rich man who falls in love with her. As the movie progresses, the woman begins to change, not only her appearance but also her attitude and really her whole manner of acting. The wife slowly becomes disillusioned with the husband and becomes more and more addicted to her new lifestyle. The husband pleads with her to live a more moderate lifestyle with him, and she in turn rejects his proposal. The sad, dramatic tone of these silent films really shows us the style of cinema at the time. The long, sometimes almost drawn out, story lines, are always dramatic and usually end tragically. Such is the case with "The Dying Swan". The macabre, disturbing ending with the painter murdering the Ballerina in the pursuit of true death. This sad ending leaves the viewer with an empty feeling when the film ends, leading us to believe cinema, in Russia at this time at least, the focus was more on the creation of dramatic art than the creation of entertainment in the defintion we know it as now.