I been watchin silent movies lately. I'm really gettin into them. They don't have a lot of explosions and stuff but they're still real intense. Often I notice there is an exaggerated style of acting to make up for the lack of a dialogue. I like to watch the Sunday Midnight feature on TCM. I turn off all the lights and get into it. Silent movies require quite an attention span, which I like. I like to concentrate my mind like that. And it aint like you can run to the kitchen for a snack cause there aint no dialogue to follow if you aint lookin. Now that's intense. These films are played commercial free.
Last nights feature was Le Terre(The Earth) which was filmed in France right after WW1(filming took place between '19-'21). The film had been lost for a while, but then was somehow found and restored. As I watched the film I thought it was the most perfect marriage of vision and sound. The film was all original but the soundtrack wasn't. The original soundtrack had apparently been lost for good. Uhh, so the restorers recorded a new soundtrack which remained loyal to the classical genre. So well done. The movie itself was so old but the music sounded so young and clean, but the melding was seamless! High art.
I was fascinated by the scene. The French countryside. The old village. the ancient farming techniques that were still in use in that part of France at that time. The harvesting of the wheat by horse and a simple wooden harvester. The threshin of the wheat.
Throughout the film I couldn't help lookin into each actors face to discern what I could of their own personal history. The Great War had just ended when the filming began. I wondered as I studied their faces what they had done during the war; if any of them were vets. What incredible memories were still fresh in their minds and what influences were still upon them. I am intrigued
Dig it man. The silent scene.
