


Which is a shame, because silent movies still have much to offer. Audiences had moved on to movies with audible dialogue, marking a landmark shift in filmmaking technology that forever changed the landscape of cinema. Unfortunately, many silent film stars couldn't translate their star power to "talkies" come the 1930s.Īnd by the mid-1930s, the silent film era was done. The following 15 years saw the rise of Hollywood's most memorable stars, with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Greta Garbo all launching their careers during the silent film era. From then on, film studios operated on a new level and were willing to hire filmmakers to create their visions as feature-length narratives. Griffith had proven the viability of feature-length movies in America. Griffith made The Birth of a Nation, after which the American film industry was truly born. As the first-ever feature-length movie, The Story of the Kelly Gang was received well and succeeded financially.īut it wasn't until 1915 that so-called "movies" began to catch on as a mainstream artform. The silent film era began in 1906 with Charles Tait directing The Story of the Kelly Gang in Australia.
#The silent age logo movie#
Have you ever wondered what the silent movie era was actually like? Are there any masterpiece silent films that would still be considered great if they came out today? Well, you'd be surprised how many silent films are still considered among the industry's most beloved classics.įrom Charlie Chaplin to Fritz Lang, let's revisit the beginning years of cinema and the silent films of the era that still hold up today. But practically speaking, silent films are history-"too artistic" for modern box office viewers. Sure, there have been a few motion pictures since the invention of "talkies" that have used the silent technique, such as 2011's Academy Award-winning film The Artist. The silent age has, obviously, passed beyond living memory for the most part. Who remembers the silent era of film? Nobody, pretty much.
