Musical moments and numbers in Austrian silent cinema

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Tieber ◽  
Anna K. Windisch
Keyword(s):  
Sound Source ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
General Level ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
Musical Performances ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Sound Film ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Silent Era

Although the film musical as a genre came into its own with the sound film technologies of the late 1920s and early 1930s, several characteristic features did not originate solely with the sound film. The ‘musical number’ as the epitome of the genre, can already be found in different forms and shapes in silent films. This article looks at two Austrian silent films, Sonnige Träume (1921) and Seine Hoheit, der Eintänzer (1926), as case studies for how music is represented without a fixed sound source, highlighting the differences and similarities of musical numbers in silent and sound films. The chosen films are analysed in the contexts of their historical exhibition and accompaniment practices, Austria’s film industry as well as the country’s cultural-political situation after the end of the monarchy. These two examples demonstrate that several characteristics of the film musical are based on the creative endeavours made by filmmakers during the silent era, who struggled, failed and succeeded in ‘visualizing’ music and musical performances in the so-called ‘silent’ films. In reconstructing their problems and analysing their solutions, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of musical numbers during the silent era and on a more general level.

‘Dead as the wooden battleship’: The Fate of Silent British Features in the Transition to Sound

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-171
Author(s):  
Geoff Brown
Keyword(s):  
Half Life ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Transition To Sound ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Magic Lantern ◽  
Sound Technology

Dead as the wooden battleship, dead as the magic lantern: such were the similes used in 1929 by some in the British film industry to describe the fate of silent cinema in the new talkie era. Other voices predicted a lingering half-life. Either way, most film companies faced a common problem: what to do in 1929 with their stock of silent films which were completed but unreleased. Foregrounding the activities of British International Pictures, Gainsborough Pictures and the distributors Equity British, this article explores the aesthetic, practical and technical problems in exhibiting and sonically titivating silent product as the industry adjusted to sound technology. Topics include the problems generated by the Cinematograph Films Act 1927; the damage caused by awkwardly dubbed voices; the perils of management divisions; the re-release of older silent films; audience and critical dissatisfaction; and the output of young film-makers such as John F. Argyle, who made his last silent feature, The Final Reckoning, in September 1931. British silent cinema's death, it turns out, was neither quick nor painless.

Dimitri Kirsanoff: The Elusive Estonian

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Dirk Hoyer
Keyword(s):  
Film Industry ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Sound Film ◽  
World Cinema ◽  
The World ◽  
Early Use ◽  
Final Confirmation

Abstract This article investigates the contradictory information about the Estonian identity of the filmmaker Dimitri Kirsanoff (1899–1957) and examines the archival material that provides final confirmation of his birth and childhood in Tartu. In addition, Kirsanoff’s substantial contribution to silent cinema and his significance in the context of French avant-garde impressionism are discussed. Kirsanoff’s most acclaimed film Ménilmontant (France, 1926) was released 90 years ago. It is still frequently screened all over the world, due to its experimental montage techniques, the early use of handheld cameras, its innovative use of actual locations and the actors’ performances that still resonate with contemporary audiences. Ménilmontant is also influential because of its elliptical narrative style. However, with the advent of sound film, Kirsanoff’s career declined because the reorganisation of the film industry limited the creative freedom he enjoyed in the 1920s. This article attempts to contribute to a wider acknowledgement of Dimitri Kirsanoff’s Estonian origins, his films and his important place in the world cinema.

scholarly journals Carnival forms of suggestion in Ukrainian information space in the context of aconsciousness war

2019 ◽  
pp. 77-93
Author(s):  
Olena Snytko
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Dissonance ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Public Life ◽  
Self Organization ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Information Protection ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Close Study ◽  
Characteristic Features

The article examines the carnival forms of suggestion – a widely observed phenomenon on the Internet in Ukraine – in the context of the consciousness war. The carnivalization of consciousness and human existence are considered characteristic features of modern culture, which is also defined by transitivity. Carnivalization is found in various forms of modern culture, in particular, in elite (postmodern), mass and in (youth) counterculture, as well as in all spheres of public life. A systematic, consistent use of the so-called carnival forms of suggestive influence appears a popular phenomenon of the Ukrainian culture of the last several decades. The main carnival mechanism is laughter. This tool plays an important role in self-organization of social life and facilitates the perception of truth. A close study into the countersuggestion means actively used on the Internet in Ukraine during the violent informational and psychological confrontation in 2014-2018 has proven a high effectiveness of the so-called carnival forms. These forms of suggestion, which emerged spontaneously on the Internet during the most difficult months and years of the Russian aggression, played a key role in information protection ensuring and information countermeasures in Ukraine. Having the creolized character and all the signs of a suggestion, these texts have had and continue having a stabilizing effect on the consciousness of individuals improving their emotional intelligence. The carnival forms actualizing these therapeutic countersuggestive texts are organic and effective in the era of crucial worldview changes taking place in the present-day Ukraine. Moreover, the laughter is claimed an effective tool exposing the current political situation, relieving from fear, approving new thoughts and ideas and debunking negative narratives. Furthermore, the suggestive nature of verbal texts organically interacts with audiovisual means of influence and is supported by micro-rhythms of all levels, primarily by lexical, grammatical, and phonetic repetitions, which help to consolidate the primary meanings. Finally, the methods of randomizing ideas, breaking patterns, and creating cognitive dissonance are widely used in the creolized political texts.

scholarly journals "So oft to the movies they've been": British fan writing and female audiences in the silent cinema

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Rose Stead
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Film Culture ◽  
Female Representation ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Silent Era

This article aims to address the ways in which working-class and lower-middle-class British women used silent-era fan magazines as a space for articulating their role within the development of a female film culture. The article focuses on letter pages that formed a key site for female contribution to British fan magazines across the silent era. In contributing to these pages, women found a space to debate and discuss the appeal and significance of particular female representations within film culture. Using detailed archival research tracing the content of a specific magazine, Picturegoer, across a 15-year period (1913–28), the article will show the dominance of particular types of female representation in both fan and "official" magazine discourses, analyzing the ways in which British women used these images to work through national tensions regarding modern femininity and traditional ideas of female propriety and restraint.

Organ accompaniment in silent films, part 1 – the process of cinematic art creation

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (14) ◽  
pp. 59-72
Author(s):  
Filip Presseisen
Keyword(s):  
Initial Phase ◽  
Data Flow ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Pipe Organ ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
Doctoral Thesis ◽  
Place Of Origin ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Lumiere Brothers

The idea to write music for silent films, both in a form of written-down scores and composed live has experienced its renaissance for more than ten years. Thanks to a quite decent number of preserved theatre instruments and also due to the globalisation and wide data flow options connected with it, the knowledge and interest in Anglo-Saxon tradition of organ accompaniment in cinema were able to spread away from its place of origin. The article is the first part of four attempts to present the phenomenon of combination of the art of organ improvisation with cinematography and it was based on the fragments of the doctoral thesis entitled “Current methods of organ improvisation as performance means in the accompaniment for silent films based on the selected musical and visual work”. The dissertation was written under the supervision of prof. dr hab. Elżbieta Karolak and was defended at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznań in 2020. The article touches on the initial phase of the development of silent cinema from 1895 to 1909. Having differentiated the terms of typical organ improvisation and the art of improvisation for silent films, the article describes the development of cinema art. From the praxinoscope invented by Émile Reynaud, through the cinematograph and the Kinetoscope (Dickson), Vitascope (Jenkins and Armat) and Bioscop (Skladanowsky brothers), it finally discusses the process how the Lumière brothers invented the cinematograph. It its further part, it presents the development of cinematography based on the improvements in theatre introduced by Méliès. The whole text serves as a basis for more parts of the article touching on the issues of the sound added to silent films and the creation of the theatre type of the pipe organ.

Harry Langdon

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriella Oldham ◽  
Mabel Langdon
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
American Film ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
Charlie Chaplin ◽  
American Film Industry

Harry Langdon (1884–1944) was a silent comedian in the early days of the American film industry. Although he is often compared with other silent comedians of the era, including Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, Langdon’s career is underappreciated. Following a series of disastrous professional and personal missteps, Langdon faced demotion from his place as a king of silent comedy. The advent of talkies did not bode well for him, as his greatest strengths were rendered irrelevant. He was largely forgotten until audiences in the 1970s became reacquainted with his work nearly three decades after his death. In Harry Langdon: King of Silent Comedy, author Gabriella Oldham claims that Langdon’s catalog of work merits an equal rank alongside his great contemporaries. This biography seeks not only to redeem Langdon’s position in the pantheon of silent comedians but also to accurately portray his life story. The narrative of Langdon’s life explores his early work on the stage at the turn of the twentieth century, his iconic routines and persona in silent films, and his checkered career in the early sound period. This invaluable biography of Langdon relies on film screenings, files, and interviews with those who were closest to him to capture his true genius during the time when comedy was king.

The Translation of Films, 1900-1950

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Language Transfer ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
International History ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
International Distribution ◽  
History Of ◽  
Audiovisual Translation ◽  
Transition To Sound

This rich collection of essays by film historians, translation scholars, archivists, and curators presents film translation history as an exciting and timely area of research. It builds on the last 20 years of research into the history of dubbing and subtitling, but goes further, by showing how subtitling, dubbing, and other forms of audiovisual translation developed over the first 50 years of the 20th century. This is the first book-length study, in any language, of the international history of audiovisual translation to include silent cinema. Its scope covers national contexts both within Europe and beyond. It shows how audiovisual translation practices were closely tied to their commercial, technological, and industrial contexts. The Translation of Films, 1900–1950 draws extensively on archival sources and expertise, and revisits and challenges some of the established narratives around film languages and the coming of sound. For instance, the volume shows how silent films, far from being straightforward to translate, went through a complex process of editing for international distribution. It also closely tracks the ferment of experiments in film translation during the transition to sound from 1927 to 1934 and later, as markets adjusted to the demands of synchronised film. The Translation of Films, 1900–1950 argues for a broader understanding of film translation: far from being limited to language transfer, it encompasses editing, localisation, censorship, paratextual framing, and other factors. It advocates for film translation to be considered as a crucial contribution not only to the worldwide circulation of films, but also to the art of cinema.

scholarly journals Voiceless Screams: Pictorialism as Narrative Strategy in Horror Silent Cinema

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-76
Author(s):  
Delia Enyedi
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Short Length ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
Narrative Strategy ◽  
Fictional Narratives ◽  
Visual Pleasure ◽  
The Witch ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Transitional Era

Abstract As a complementary condition to narrative, the notion of pictorialism in film is rooted in the first decades of the medium. In their quest to demonstrate the capturing and restoring of images with various devices, early filmmakers selected views with pictorial qualities in the long-standing tradition of painting, transferring them on film in the form of non-narrative shots. The evolution of fictional narratives in silent cinema displaced the source of inspiration in theatre, assimilating its nineteenth-century tradition of pictorialism. Thus, the film audiences’ appeal for visual pleasure was elevated with balanced elements of composition, framing and acting that resulted in pictorially represented moments actively engaged in the narrative system. The paper explores the notion of “pictorial spirit” (Valkola 2016) in relation to that of “monstration” (Gaudreault 2009) aiming to describe the narrative mechanism of provoking fear by means of pictorially constructed cinematic images in a selection of short-length horror silent films belonging to the transitional era, consisting in The Haunted House/The Witch House (La Maison ensorcelée/La casa encantada, Segundo de Chomón, 1908), Frankenstein (J. Searle Dawley, 1910) and the surviving fragments of The Portrait (Портрет, Vladislav Starevich, 1915).1

scholarly journals Napisy na ekranach kin II Rzeczypospolitej

2020 ◽  
pp. 214-253
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Plewa
Keyword(s):  
Initial Phase ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Silent Cinema ◽  
Silent Films ◽  
Technical Aspects ◽  
Archival Study

Polish Subtitling in the 1930s This article presents the results of an archival study on Polish subtitling of pre-WWII films (until 1939). The main focus will be on the technical aspects of subtitling in Poland in the 1930s, such as the number of lines, number of characters per line, and subtitle display times. We will show the development of Polish film translation in its initial phase. In our article, we will present previously unpublished pictures of early film subtitles, which come from original archival research. Contrary to some previous claims, film translation did not start with the introduction of sound in films – which occurred in Poland in the 1929/30 cinema season. Prior to that, in the silent cinema period, intertitles were a tested way of delivering content to the viewer. And these silent movies’ intertitles were translated. Copies of various foreign films have even been preserved with Polish intertitle translation rather than the original intertitles. Imitating intertitles in silent films, subtitles began to appear in films with sound and dialogue. These were “inserted subtitles” – between scene edits. Only later were subtitles burnt into the image, which began modern film subtitling.

scholarly journals Characteristic features of the life-meaning and value orientations of sales department employees during the transformation of professional activity

2020 ◽  
Vol 210 ◽  
pp. 20002
Author(s):  
Liudmila Kruteleva ◽  
Zhanna Kara
Keyword(s):  
Work Motivation ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
General Level ◽  
Ambiguity Tolerance ◽  
Life Meaning ◽  
Career Anchors ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Online Format

The current threat of the COVID-19 pandemic has crucially changed the familiar life and caused the shift in all spheres including the professional one. Ambiguity of the nearest future and anxiety about oneself health have shifted the sphere of trade into online format. The purpose of the research was to study correlations between life-meaning and value orientations and professional motivation, and ambiguity tolerance of sales department employees. The theoretical grounds of the research are the concepts of meaning-value sphere and life-meaning orientations (Abakumova I.V., Baumeister R.F., Kruteleva L.J., Leontiev D.A., Rokeach M., Yanitskiy M.S., Seryy A.V., Schwartz S.H., etc.); professional motivation (Abakumova I.V., Barabanshchikova V.V., Ivanova S.A., Klimova O.A., etc.) and ambiguity tolerance (Asmolov A.G., Shekter E.D., Chernorizov A.M., etc.). The sample comprised 49 sales department employees aged 22 to 49 with the professional experience from 1 to 9 years. The empirical research includes the following techniques (adapted into Russian): Purpose-in-Life Test, Rokeach Value Survey, Career Anchors, Work Motivation Inventory, and Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance Scale-I. The results indicate the life-meaning orientations and the general level of life meaningfulness do not correlate to ambiguity tolerance. Values of private life help to cope with the changing circumstances. The forced transformation of the professional activity frustrates respondents to achieve professional self-realization, facilitates the sales department employees to promote new products and services.

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