William the Silent

“real music”; the appeal of black and white films is the fantasy of a simpler time of flapper dresses and men laying their coats down for women to walk over. It is for this nostalgic reason that Charlin Chaplin’s City Lights has survived as a classic silent film for over eighty years. Released in 1931, City Lights is a romantic comedy that follows the story of the Tramp, a clumsy man with a humorous mustache, who develops an…

almost feel the vibration from how loud it is. Chaplin was able to produce and star in silent films and he still was able to get his point across. Today when people watch a movie, there are multiple colors and sounds. It would be weird to people if it was how it used to be because people are used to the new changes. Life on the streets influenced Charlie Chaplin, his character “The Tramp” helped him become a silent film star, and Chaplin’s style was adored by to the public for his sense of humor…

actor to a diligent director. Two films he participated, The Thief of Bagdad and Don Q, Son of Zorro, which brought the idea of swashbuckling into Hollywood for the first time and was continued to carry on by acting and directing, are landmarks in silent film industry. While I was amazed by his vividly-portrayed swashbuckling characters and his athletic charisma, I was also curious about the man behind his mask on the screen. What was his story? The early 20th century was the beginning of the…

remembered more today as the woman who challenged the notion that humans could obtain mastery over nature by chemicals, bombs and space travel than for her studies of ocean life. (The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson) "There is no question...that SILENT SPRING promoted the Federal Government to take action against water and pollution- as well as against the misuse of pesticides- several years before it otherwise might have moved." "Carson's most direct legacy in the environmental movement was…

I. Introduction a. Background information parathion and use of pesticides in the 1950-1960s b. Information about the environmental movement that happened after the book was published THESIS: In the excerpt from Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, she states that the use of spraying pesticides is not worth the damage done because of the poison's widespread damage to nature and farmers' ignorance to the dangerous effects parathion has on humans and their worker's lives. II. Body Paragraph 1 a. Carson…

D. W. Griffith is one of the most well-known individuals in the silent film era. According to Jon Lewis, his movies are mostly about intransigent racism or miscegenation. However, because the nature of racism in some of his work, it is understandably hard to appreciate the man for his craft. D. W. Griffith’s silent films are often Victorian melodramas with full of innovations to shot types in combination with editing to create compelling sequences. One of D. W. Griffith’s more recognized works…

live orchestra to the silent film “The Mark of Zorro” directed by Fred Niblo made the film more thrilling. The bold music brought on a new approach to the humorous silent film. After viewing it, I now believe that all silent films should be viewed accompanying a performing orchestra or band of some sort. I loved how it offered an alternate source of not only entertainment, but information synchronized with moving images. Without the exhilarating background music, silent films seem tedious…

Directed by F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror, and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, are silent films originated from the 1920's. Throughout Sunrise, two young lovers rekindle their romance while Nosferatu is a horror adaptation of Bram Stoker’s, Dracula. While they differ in genre, both are similar in that they consist of a young couple who encounter a threatening situation. The element of space becomes an interesting aspect relevant to both films as it helps to foresee the events of…

Gene Kelly’s and Stanley Donen’s 1952 American musical comedy film that changed and made a mark in film history for his film techniques and is one of the greatest films of the sound era. It is a classic film for its joyous and cheerful musical numbers that burst with energy. The film blends a variety of genres such as musical, period and historical, romance, family, drama and comedy all into one. The storyline really captivates the audience’s attention and wins it way into your heart with it…

most part identifies their contributions to Chaplin’s move towards producing his artistically significant works. The institutional aspects of film history are integrated into the movie that is supposedly an aesthetic film history of Chaplin and the Silent Era. Indeed, the film’s identification of Chaplin’s economically deprived background at the late nineteenth century and the immigration towards the United States during America’s Progressive Era cover state institutions and their influence in…