ENTRY #5

Fourth lecture, Part 4 of 5

Docks of New York

In this lecture the teacher presented another silent featured film, contemporary of Street Angel, Docks of New York of the director George Brancroft. They were both made in 1928. Brancroft was one of the Hollywood’s most exciting directors, because he spoke to the audience through strong and powerful images. He valued the beauty of the image over its plausibility or coherence. With this movie he proved he could have beauty and story. Although these two films were romances about two people who fell in love, experienced obstacles and then overcame them; they presented very contrasting differences. Their narratives were developed in very distinct worlds. Brancroft constructed smaller and colder worlds while Borzage’s were transcendental and artificial.  Moreover, George’s movies tended to be cruel, cynical, crowded, noisy and energetic.   Finally, another relevant disparity between these two movies was the inner time of each one; Street Angel is a story of years while Docks of New York takes place mostly in one night and in the following day.

ENTRY #4

Third lecture, part 3 of 5.

This lecture was about the movie Street Angel (1928) of the director Frank Borzage, because he characterized what was great and strange in Silent Cinema. Firstly, it is important to know that this director was truly in charge of his films; he took care of every little detail involved in the creation of his movies. He was a great artist, and an excellent representative of this genre. In addition, he is known for have made very simple stories. However, he used to record more scenes than the needed in order to have a good amount of material to work with and to select the most accurate shots when editing.  Hence, he inverted a lot of money, time and dedication in the elaboration of each film. He was so powerful that he could oversee his screenplays. Not only he knew how to give actors and characters situations they could visualize to capture the true emotion in the screen, but he had a great use of visual motifs to tell the story by visual means only. His philosophy consisted on showing externalized emotions before showing title cards. He achieved people to get attached to specific characters before the distinction between good and bad roles were made. People were not touched by the logic causes of the story but by the form, which is the image herself. The most upstanding motifs in this film were paintings; they served as repetitive symbols carriers of meaning across the story. Images were allowed to speak. Although he externalized emotion, he was not always too explicit; he let viewers imagine some facts by using poetic imaginary; he attempted to manipulate them. His world was charged with melodrama. Instead of giving what was physically right in a way, he gave what was emotionally right; what the audience needed. Both contrast between black and white, and hard light and shadow were used as significant elements that expressed messages by means of abstract composition. The casting was a vital part of Borzage’s development of ideas; he succeeded in making a very good contrast between internal and external characteristics. There was the small and thin woman which personality was strong and the big and stocky man who was humble and fragile.

Related to the general terms of this course, the teacher clarified Silent Film made in Hollywood is abstract and emotional, in contrast Sounded Film is totally the opposite. Silent film set up the coming of sound in that the former had to be the contrary of the first. Silent Cinema is about turning a world into a different one through abstracted and lifted images, and Sounded Cinema aims to generate more realistic stimulus.

The information I found the most interesting was about the actress performance on this film, which was determinant in its quality. She used the Italian way to perform, which involves lots of expressions by dint of her hand expressionistic movement. Provided that the actress controlled the scene, she had to know how to work in the screen, find the correct light and stand in it to glow.

ENTRY #3

Second Lecture, Part 2 of 5.

Silent Cinema

In this lecture the teacher pointed out that in order to understand the transition to sound from silence in cinema we first have to appreciate silent cinema. He said something I found really accurate: “Artist created art without sound effects”. It was a matter of turning internal problems into physical expression because emotions could be transmitted only through image. Moreover, light and shadow were extremely important due to the changes in image they were able to produce aimed to create certain feelings, emotions and atmospheres. He also highlighted the importance of understanding the value of silent films and cited Jeanine Basinger, a film historian, who said that in this type of cinema there was no noise to distract us from our feelings. He also referred to James Card, the author of Seductive Cinema, who declared that Silent Cinema demanded a different kind of participation from the viewers, an active one. To sum up, I have experienced this cinema and I can say it is wonderful to discover different means to communicate; sometimes I feel more touched or I get to understand much better the messages the director tried to communicate by using the actors and the scenery in a very theatrical way.