Simpsons director Mark Kirkland made a side project.
He used old equipment to make his own "Ode to Silent Films"
I love when modern day Hollywood shows reverence for the early days of cinema
I wanted to share that video with you.
Also it has Weird Al in it, so how could you go wrong
Most movie viewers identify Charlie Chaplin as "The Tramp", not as Charles Spencer Chaplin. This shows us how developed a Character "The Tramp" was. Here are four films that showcase The Tramp and the way Chaplin used the character to display turmoil, happiness, naivete, loneliness, and love from his own personal life.
Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)
His development of the character of "The Tramp" was showcased in this early film. You see the Tramps desire to be in the spotlight despite the reactions of the cameraman and racers in the background. This is Chaplin and the Tramp introducing themselves to the movie viewers.
The Kid (1921)
The Tramp has honed his place in Chaplin's storytelling by the time this film is released. He shows compassion for humanity in taking in an abandoned child. He raises the kid to survive despite the hardships they endure. Chaplin uses his own experiences as a child of poverty on the streets of London to display the agony and despair that both the Tramp and kid encounter.
Modern Times (1936)
In this late "silent" film you see Chaplin proving to the viewer that silent films are not completely irrelevant. The machines (both mechanically and socially) are the only subjects in the film that create sound, or noise to the Tramp. The Tramp in this film has become the every man, the victim of the Great Depression and of the abuse that the "machines"and the "bosses" of the time were, to the desperate. In this film Chaplin becomes a true Renaissance man by acting as composer, actor, director, producer and writer. He was in complete control of how the Tramp was to be viewed.
Limelight (1952)
By this stage of Chaplin's career, the Tramp has become a faded memory in Silver Screen history. Though Calvero speaks, Chaplin uses situations that call for physical emotions. The character is a renown mime who is now lurking in the shadows of a new set of actors (dancers in this movie's case). Chaplin wanted to use his expertise playing the Tramp to create a self realization for his current place in movie making. Chaplin was the king of pantomime and was a maverick in creating a character without sound. Between the films Modern Times and Limelight, he was competing with characters who displayed emotions physically and vocally. He felt his candle was fading in this ever developing medium.
In these four films the viewer can see quite literally the development from beginning to end of the character of the Tramp. Not only the most iconic screen character of all time but from the mind of our most iconic actor all time.
When the “Jazz Singer”
debuted in theaters, October 6th 1927 it was not the immediate hit with
critics that modern day cinephiles would think that a historic movie of its
caliber would generate. Here is an excerpt from Time Magazine
In 1927, TIME was less than
impressed byThe Jazz Singer. What was
important about it, the review in the Oct. 17, 1927, issue stated, was that it
was Al Jolson’s first movie, and that it was noteworthy that his singing voice
could be preserved. “The Vitaphone permits him to talk and sing his way through
the sentimental mazes of the movie adaptation,” the reviewer noted. No mention
whatsoever of the real historic value of the movie.But 1920s cinemaphiles could be forgiven for missing the point.
As a matter of fact, most of them would have missed the sound entirely. Within
just a few years, it was eminently clear that the movie was more important than
its star — but there had been a serious technical hindrance to moviegoers
realizing as much when it first came out. As TIME’s 1933 review of the Jolson
pictureHallelujah, I’m a Bumexplained:Jolson and
his career will be remembered becauseThe Jazz Singerwas the first sound picture ever made.
It cost $500,000 and when it was released in Manhattan on Oct. 6, 1927, there
were less than 100 theatres in the world equipped to show it. The success ofThe Jazz Singerdefinitely
ended Hollywood’s happiest era, launched the fortunes of Warner Brothers who
produced it, established Al Jolson for a short time as the greatest personality
in the amusement business.Jolson’s
later pictures have been less successful but he still has most of the
$2,000,000 which made him a few years ago reputedly the third richest actor in
the world.
Even though "The Jazz Singer" was not
the first film to use sound, it proved to be the first one to use spoken
dialogue as part of the dramatic action. The combination of Jolson,
America's most popular singer, and the new medium of sound helped to produce a
profit of $3.5 million, causing Warner Bros. to begin its rule as one of Hollywood's
top studios.
So it was not well received by critics, but audiences
loved it. And now is seen as a historical cinema marker of progress, and it
ushered in many copy cats which led to sound pictures to be the norm from then
on.
Then there is “The Artist”
Released January 20th 2012 was met with immediate
praise from critics, and while the movie goers didn't exactly run away from the
theaters, the movie was not quite the commercial hit that a Best Picture winner
would normally generate and it has definitely not started a string of copycats,
leading to the re-emergence of silent film.
Definitely two groundbreaking films, but on two ends of the
spectrum, and are opposite as much as they are the same.
There’s a scene fairly early in “The Artist” where sound is
introduced into the movie. A drinking glass landing on a table. The wind in the
palms. A dog barking, a phone ringing, women laughing.
By then though, the movie should have you fully in its thrall.
And so you will wish, deeply, that it will revert back to silence, that
beautiful, evocative silence. Not to worry, it does.
But it goes beyond imitation or gentle spoofing: The Director is all in,
for all the romance and glamor and pathos of his story, and so are his
extraordinary stars, who are up for the challenge.
The movie is inventive, strangely enough in its un-inventiveness. More
than just simple nostalgia, since most all viewers of this movie weren’t alive
when silent films were the standard on the big screen. But somehow, using the
old tricks of the trade, they have managed to create something new. Sure, it is
actually something old, but that is where the beauty in its ability to
re-create what captured the imaginations, many generations before lies.
If it is a good story well executed people will love it, whether it has sound
or not.
