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The Sound of Silence: The Origins of Modern Movies
- Phoenix-Walker Hinds
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
PHOENIX WALKER-HINDS celebrates the birth of the movies and explores the innovations that made silent cinema so spectacular
“They’re not even speaking; they can’t make you laugh!”
Oh yes, they can. A young me who belly laughed at Charlie Chaplin at my granddad’s house can vouch for that. I remember being sat in front of the television watching Chaplin humiliate himself and fall to the ground in scenes that I couldn’t help but think must be painful and sometimes dangerous. But when I finally stopped howling with laughter - and it may sound mean - I wanted him to fall over again! These were simply moving pictures combined with music that provoked tears, stomach-clenching laughter, and sometimes even anger. Hundreds of silent film actors managed to generate all of these intense feelings without saying a single word.
Moving picture technology
Silent films were moving pictures without any synchronised sound nor audible dialogue. And they were spectacular. Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Clara Bow, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford. What did all of these talented names have in common? They were a part of what made the silent film era so special. Whether it was The Kid, Sherlock Jr, or The Phantom of the Opera, they set the early standards for what real acting was.
It all started in 1894 with the invention of the Kinetoscope, developed by William Dickson, an American apprentice for the famous inventor and businessman Thomas Edison. While this odd-looking contraption may seem quite complex, its function was simple. Through a small hole, you would view a series of pictures on 35mm film which when moved in a quick motion on cylinders, created the illusion of a moving picture. This would be impossible without its sister discovery that took the photographs you viewed - the Kinetograph.
Then a year later, the invention of the Cinématographe by French pioneers, the Lumière Brothers, was shown to the public for the first time. Building on Dickson’s concept, they allowed these moving pictures to be viewed not through a miniscule peep hole but on a big screen. The moving pictures in particular were ten short films, the very first being ‘Workers leaving the Lumière factory’ – which literally showed what the title suggested - showing workers of the pioneers’ factory leaving after a day’s work.
Thus, the silent film era was born.
Slapstick comedies like Laurel and Hardy were popular in this era - my favourites - amongst gothic horrors (e.g. Nosferatu), early literary adaptations (e.g. The Prisoner of Zenda) and love stories such as The Eagle (1925). It wasn’t long before they were on a roll and crafting daring spectacles. So what if they didn’t say anything. What they made the world feel couldn’t have been made any better with words.
Live music and caption cards
Silent films were only ‘silent’ in the sense that you couldn’t hear the actors speak. Cards known as ‘intertitles’ contained the only pieces of dialogue – the written kind – and they also provided essential background information to help contextualise each scene. These were supplemented by over-the-top expressions by the films’ talented stars to show the audience which emotions were being communicated. The music itself could not be embedded into the film, so live music accompanied each screening, ranging from just a single piano up to a small orchestra, carrying forward the old ways of theatre and their orchestra pits. The intricate improvisation of striking piano keys, violin strings and perfectly timed trumpets could accentuate the actions of specific scenes and dictate the message the film wished to convey. They could also influence the emotional response of the audience, such as a heartbreak made all the more emotional by the slow bowing of violins.
Lars Fjeldmose, a pianist and composer who has played for silent films since 1994, said in an interview with youtuber Toni’s Film Club: “I sit here and help bring the movie to life and shape the way the audience feels and experiences it.” He also stated that music is “an active part of the movie’s narration.” And right he was, with music still playing an integral part in how films are consumed today.
For instance, John Williams composed two of the most impactful scores in modern cinema history - Jaws (1975) whose music matched the tense and terrifying movements of a shark creeping up on its human prey, and Schindler’s List (1993) where music helped convey the horrors of the holocaust.
The influence of silent movies - horror and comedy
Several silent masterpieces have had significant influence on modern films.
For instance, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922), was considered the very first vampire movie.
A German production and a direct adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it follows the mysterious vampire Count Orlok and his disturbing infatuation with the wife of a real estate agent, carrying with him a plague that is unleashed upon all that cross his path. Despite having no audible dialogue, the visual artistry capturing the supernatural nature of the story would have terrified early movie audiences - Count Orlok’s rising from his coffin and the huge and his horrifying shadow on the stairs were made possible by the lighting, visual effects and camera techniques. Petrifying makeup brought the man to life from page to screen with long nails, disturbing eyes, pale skin and posture.
Transylvania was constructed using real and practical sets filmed in German streets and buildings. The expressionist techniques that generated an overwhelming sense of unease were imitated by film makers many years later. For instance, Alfred Hitchcock for borrowed the shadows and silhouettes that surrounded Anthony Perkins’ Norman Bates in Psycho (1960) specifically in shots like the famous shower scene.
Alternatively, the comedic brilliance of Buster Keaton offered a less nightmarish experience, with films like The General (1926). Set in the American civil war, a southern railroad engineer heads on a comedic journey to rescue his fiancée who is whisked away by Northern troops when they steal a train. Just one of his many classic physical comedy slapstick ventures which likely influenced characters such as Mr Bean.
Preservation
According to a Library of Congress report it was estimated as much as 75% of silent films are lost for ever, “an alarming and irretrievable loss to our nation’s cultural record” (Pierce 2013)
Made from nitrate, the high flammability of the film reels made them unpredictably dangerous, especially in the vicinity of heating or a naked flame. And they were also prone to significant decay over time, so that soon they became unusable. The introduction of talking pictures meant movie executives had no interest in the preservation of what they considered an out-of-date format from which no money could be made.
The Talkies
The launch of ‘the talkies’ (movies with audible, synchronised dialogue) was the beginning of the end for the silent era. The first commercially successful released talkie, with big shoes to fill, was The Jazz Singer (1927), which tells the story of a Jewish boy and his dream of becoming a jazz singer, controversial these days because of the use of blackface.
It was three years later in 1930 that marked the substantial decline of the silent era, when, according to Stephen Follows (2024), the number of silent films produced equalled that of their counterpart. Talkies soon surpassed silent films with less and less interest being shown by audiences and executives, marking the end of a short-lived battle between the two art forms.
But the silent film era laid the foundations for all that followed, from a box with a peep hole to an Imax screen.
I’ll leave the last words to Damien Chazelle, director of the 2022 film Babylon, which tells the story of the industry’s transition into the talkies. Talking about the power and influence of silent movies he states:
“You would have an art form that was truly, truly universal, that would play the same whether you were in London or New York or Berlin or Shanghai. This was something that could truly unite the world.”
Written by PHOENIX-WALKER HINDS (BA Creative and Professional Writing student, University of Chester, UK)