Scott Lord on the Silent Film of Greta Garbo, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, John Brunius, Gustaf Molander - the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film........Lost Films in Found Magazines, among them Victor Seastrom directing John Gilbert and Lon Chaney, the printed word offering clues to deteriorated celluloid, extratextual discourse illustrating how novels were adapted to the screen; the photoplay as a literature;how it was reviewed, audience reception perhaps actor to actor.
Greta Garbo
Monday, January 30, 2023
Scott Lord Silent Film: The Eclipse (Georges Melies, 1907)
Stanely J Solomon, in his volume The Film Idea, attribures George Melies with being a film pioneer, "The following film techniques were popularized- and some perhaps invented by Melies: double exposure, stop motion, fast motion, slow motion, animation, fades and dissolves."
Silent Film
Geroge Melies, A Trip the the Moon
Saturday, January 28, 2023
Scott Lord Silent Film: A Romance of Happy Valley (D. W. Griffith, 1919)
One specific use of technique Griffith uses in the film to depict narrative is a cut back and forth within the scene to an inserted close shot to reveal the character’s thoughts of another person. Lillian Gish is seen in close up during the flashback soliloquy insert.
Silent Film
D.W. Griffith
Scott Lord Silent Film: True Heart Susie (D. W. Griffith, 1919)
Author Anthony Slide perpiscaciously introduces D. W. Griffith actress Clarine Seymour by noting that both Seymour actor Robert Harron, who had appeared together in both "The Girl Who Stayed Home" and "True Heart Susie" during 1919, had died early during 1920.
After directing “True Heart Susie” in 1919, to end the year, D.W. Griffith directed Lillian Gish in the film “The Greatest Question” (six reels), photographed by G.W. Bitzer.
The films "A Romance of Happy Valley", starring Lillian Gish, and "Scarlet Days", both directed by D.W. Griffith, were thought to be lost and donated to the Modern Museum of Art by Russia when rediscovered. Silent Film D.W. Griffith
Scottt Lord Silent Film: Dream Street (D. W. Griffith, 1921)
"There is nothing of interest I can tell you about myself." A year later, Photoplay Magazine caught up with Carol Dempster and she purportedly used the exact same words, "There is nothing of interest I can tell you about myself.". Photoplay Magazine deigned her to be The Mystery Girl of the Movies. Photoplay journalist Dorothy Herzog quotes D.W. Griffith as having said that Dempster was vast in he film "Dream Street" for her dancing ability, "Anyone with the poise and grace to necome such a potentiality as a dancer undoubtedly had the ability to rise to similiar heights in an allied art if properly developed."
D. W. Griffith
D.W. Griffith
D.W. Griffith D.W. Griffith D.W. Griffith
Scott Lord Silent Film: LIllian GIsh in Orphans Of The Storm (D.W. Griffith, 1921)
The photographer of the film was Hendrik Sartov. When seen by Norwegian director Tancred Ibsen, "Orphans of the Storm" was one of the films included in is decision to go to Hollywood, albeit none of the scripts he wrote while there were realized.
William Everson, in his volume American Silent Film, perhaps sees the significance of "Orphans of the Storm" lying perhaps in tits improtance to us more than as a steppingstone for D.W. Griffith. He writes, "While it did well, Orphans of the Storm was not the box-office blockbuster that Griffith expected and needed badly. Because it was neither a financial landmark nor an aesthetic advance over his previous films, it is usually dismissed by historians (even the few responsible one's) as representing 'Griffith in Decline'." Everson reports that after the premiere, which he spoke at and which was attended by Lillian and Dorothy Gish, Griffith cut "the more harrowing scenes" from the film, including close-ups of vermin crawling over Dorothy Gish and shots from the execution scene. And yet, Everson is certainly correct that the film showcases the directorial skills of D.W. Griffith. Everson continues, "The detail shots in battle scenes (troops moving into formation, close ups of pistols being loaded and and fixed) gave them a documentary quality which mde them explicable as well as ezciting."
D.W. Griffith
Silent Film
Intolerance
Scott Lord Silent Film: The Love Flower (D.W. Griffith, 1920)
Writer Anthony Slide provides biographical entries on one hundread Silent Film stars without avoiding both ones that he met personally and more prominent choices in a section titled "Legends". About D. W. Griffith's star Carol Dempster, Slide writes "Carol Dempster's hysterical running around in 'The Love Flower' is nothing more than pure melodrama." After having starred in the seven reel silent film “The Love Flower”, directed by D.W. Griffith in 1920, actress Carol Dempster went on to star in the 1921 film “Dream Street”, again directed by D. W. Griffith. Author Anthony Slide calls both films "impersonations" of Griffith's better leading ladies.
Silent Film D.W. Griffith
Scott Lord Silent Film: America (D.W. Griffith, 1924)
Silent Film
D.W. Griffith D. W. Griffith
Scott Lord Silent Film: The White Rose (D.W. Griffith, 1923)
After directing “The White Rose” in 1923, D. W. Griffith in 1924 directed the film “America” and “Isn’t Life Wonderful” during 1924.
D.W. Griffith
Silent Film
Scott Lord Silent Film: One Exciting Night (D. W. Griffith, 1922)
The photographer to the film “One Exciting Night” was Hendrik Sartov.
After having directed Carol Dempster in “One Exciting Night” (Eleven reels), D.W. Griffith, by then having become a producer for United Artists, followed in 1922 by directing Dempster in the film “The White Rose” (twelve reels) with actress Mae Marsh.
Silent Film
Silent Film
Silent Film
Silent Film
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