Silent Films

[Starbeast]

Silent Film: The Call of Cthulhu

Thanks for linking to that The Call of Cthulhu. As JD has said: delightful.

You're both welcome. The film is only 47 minutes long, and after I saw it the first time, I wanted more. Perhaps with the success of this movie the filmmakers may make another one.

 

[j d worthington]

Re: Silent Film: The Call of Cthulhu

You're both welcome. The film is only 47 minutes long, and after I saw it the first time, I wanted more. Perhaps with the success of this movie the filmmakers may make another one.

Well.....

YouTube - The Whisperer in Darkness - Trailer 1

The earlier "teaser" trailer:

YouTube - The Whisperer in Darkness

According to one of their notes in the first link, they are hoping this one will be finished and ready by October of this year. While it looks like they've taken some serious liberties with it, it also looks as if they are still maintaining their serious approach to doing Lovecraft for the screen (big or small)... so this should be a very interesting addition...

 

[Starbeast]

More Lovecraft

According to one of their notes in the first link, they are hoping this one will be finished and ready by October of this year. While it looks like they've taken some serious liberties with it, it also looks as if they are still maintaining their serious approach to doing Lovecraft for the screen (big or small)... so this should be a very interesting addition...

Thank you so much J.D. Worthington for the info, you've made my millennium.

 

[j d worthington]

As a great admirer of Lovecraft's work, I am more than happy to oblige.

And now, back to the topic of silent films in general.....

Has anyone here heard anything more of that restoration of the missing parts of Metropolis....?

 

[Foxbat]

This is almost a year old but perhaps worth reading to regain some hope on the subject.

The Latest on the 'Metropolis' Restoration - Cinematical

 

[Foxbat]

Hold the front page! Stop the Presses! Haud me back!

This site is definitely worth a visit

Kino International: The Best in World Cinema

 

[j d worthington]

Hold the front page! Stop the Presses! Haud me back!

This site is definitely worth a visit

Kino International: The Best in World Cinema

WOO-HOO! YIPPEE! YAY! (and other similar exclamations)

That's wonderful news... Now, if I can only manage to get a day off to see the bloody thing!!!!! And, of course, I'll have to pick it up once it's out on DVD as well.....

Thank you very, very much for bringing that in, Foxbat! This is great news indeed!!!!!

 

[Foxbat]

Looks like I'll have to wait for the DVD but as long as I get a copy, I will be as happy as a pig amongst the proverbial

 

[ravenus]

Saw this 1920 silent film called The Golem - how he came into being. The titular Golem is played by an actor making stiff moments so it's not exactly stunning but this 67-min long movie has some creative set design and some very good visual moments. Not in the same league as Nosferatu or Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, though.

 

[j d worthington]

Saw this 1920 silent film called The Golem - how he came into being. The titular Golem is played by an actor making stiff moments so it's not exactly stunning but this 67-min long movie has some creative set design and some very good visual moments. Not in the same league as Nosferatu or Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, though.

Can't quite agree with you on that score. I think those "stiff movements" are very well suited to the idea of the artificial life of the monster made of clay. (Incidentally, the actor in question is Paul Wegener, who also co-wrote and directed the film.) It is a bit slow paced at points, but in many ways I'd say it is a brilliant film. Certainly, it was highly influential, especially on such things as James Whale's Frankenstein (1931) and the like....

 

[ravenus]

To me it's less effective than using something like stop-motion animation. What they have doesn't do enough to mask the human being under the outfit, unlike say the rubber suits used in the Japanese monster movies. At least the golem could have been kept expressionless to project a little "inhumanity" if I may call it that. But no, he comes off more as a big lug in a funny outfit. IMO.

 

[j d worthington]

To me it's less effective than using something like stop-motion animation. What they have doesn't do enough to mask the human being under the outfit, unlike say the rubber suits used in the Japanese monster movies. At least the golem could have been kept expressionless to project a little "inhumanity" if I may call it that. But no, he comes off more as a big lug in a funny outfit. IMO.

I can see your point; I just think we are coming at it from different perspectives. To me, the fact that Rabbi Loew gave him a face (recall that the figure did not originally have one), and that the Golem's expressions mirror the changes in him from simply a mindless, soulless automaton to something which becomes both increasingly human and increasingly Satanic, enhances some of the layers of meaning in the tale. His growing scorn for the humans around him, coupled with his own naïveté, prove his own Achilles' heel just as the insular thinking of both the Jews of the Ghetto and their supposed "betters" bring them all to the brink. Yet the Golem does not lose all sympathy, either, being fascinated by and, even in the midst of his most dangerous actions, unwilling or unable to harm the innocent child.

In all, I find it to be a quite effective, if sometimes flawed, piece of filmmaking, well deserving its place in cinema history, and especially in the history of fantastic cinema....

 

[Foxbat]

Just watched F. W. Murnau's Faust - a very good film with fine special effects for its time...but what really stood out for me was Emil Janning's darkly humorous and yet majestic portrayal of Mephisto.

Definitely one to add to the silent film collection

 

[clovis-man]

A question from the thoroughly unenlightened:

What's the difference between this :

Amazon.com: The Complete Metropolis: Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Gustav Frohlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Lang: Movies & TV

and this:

Amazon.com: Metropolis (Restored Authorized Edition): Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos, Erwin Biswanger, Heinrich George, Fritz Alberti, Grete Berger, Olly Boeheim, Max Dietze, Günther Rittau,

 

[Riselka]

A question from the thoroughly unenlightened:

What's the difference between this :

Amazon.com: The Complete Metropolis: Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Gustav Frohlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Lang: Movies & TV

and this:

Amazon.com: Metropolis (Restored Authorized Edition): Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Fritz Rasp, Theodor Loos, Erwin Biswanger, Heinrich George, Fritz Alberti, Grete Berger, Olly Boeheim, Max Dietze, Günther Rittau,

The Complete Metropolis is the newest, and most complete version of the film available. Even though amazon seems to have the Restored Authorized Version listed as being longer in length, The Complete Metropolis is actually about 25 minutes longer.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis - Official Website

 

[clovis-man]

The Complete Metropolis is the newest, and most complete version of the film available. Even though amazon seems to have the Restored Authorized Version listed as being longer in length, The Complete Metropolis is actually about 25 minutes longer.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis - Official Website

Thanks. Amazon has been know to get details wrong before.

 

[Riselka]

clovis-man,

Here's a review of the new BluRay of The Complete Metropolis:

Blu-ray Review - The Complete Metropolis

 

[AE35Unit]

I saw a copy of Metropolis a couple of years ago, and it had a horrible Georgio Moroder soundtrack over-dub which spolied it for me!
Which is the original version?

 

[Riselka]

I saw a copy of Metropolis a couple of years ago, and it had a horrible Georgio Moroder soundtrack over-dub which spolied it for me!
Which is the original version?

Not the Giorgio Moroder version. I can only guess that Moroder liked some of the visuals in the original, and decided to colour wash some of the scenes, and add what was current music at the time. His version does not include some of the scenes that were currently available at the time.

I own the Authorized Version that Kino released a few years ago. At the time, it was the closest to Fritz Lang's original concept available. The new Complete Version now trumps that.

I'm thinking of investing in it, but will keep the version I already have, due to the special features available on the disc.

But, like the writer of the review I linked to said, if the Moroder version was included in some kind of box set in the future, I'd definitely be interested. I've seen it, and feel that it was a very well done homage to the film.

But it will never come close to Fritz Lang's version of the film.

 

[Who?]

I don't know if anybody's already meantioned this but the 1902 film 'A Trip To The Moon' is quite brilliant in its own way. I don't usually go for silent films but this is quite charming.