Falling in love with Silent Cinema

My addiction to silent films started last spring. I was home sick and nothing, as is usually the case, was on TV. So, I get this crazy idea that I should watch “The Sheik” with Rudolph Valentino on Netflix (if you have Netflix know that they have a ton of silent movies available for online playing). I’d always wondered, what’s the big deal with this guy? I knew he was supposed to be the original movie heartthrob and that his career was ruined by the advent of talkies, but I’d never actually watched him. (Side-note: you may remember a commercial for a pizza store – don’t remember which – in the early ‘90s making fun of his high pitched voice. I’m pretty sure I was the only middle school student who understood why it was funny, you can credit THAT to my addiction to AMC, which was still actual Classic movies in the early ‘90s. Come to think of it, my knowledge of Valentino was probably from some AMC show like Mysteries and Scandals or Legends of the Silver Screen.) And so on a rainy day in February, I’m assuming it was rainy because every day in February is rainy in Portland, I watched my first Rudolph Valentino film…

Well, let’s just say I now “get what the big deal is.” Brad Pitt has nothing on that man! He was beautiful and intense; that odd combination of a man who is rugged and brooding yet underneath is hidden a deep and abiding gentleness…he was, for lack of a better word, dreamy! But aside from the dreaminess of the leading character, “The Sheik” was also just a really great film. Half-way through, I’m sick in bed, clutching my pillow in desperation to find out how it will end, and I think to myself “how can I be this stressed out by a movie that doesn’t even have sound!” But it was fantastic. It was suspenseful; it was a classic love-story; it was epic. Ok, so sure, it has a hint of early 20th century “white-man’s burden” in it, but remember, it was made in the 1920s AND she does overcome her horror of his being a barbarian and falls in love. It just goes to prove that all you need to overcome racism is a dreamy man!

What is so great about silent films, is that they’re more than a film. Without the “talking” everything is heightened. The emotions are deeper because the actors had to act on a level beyond sound. And, there are elements of all the performing arts wrapped up into this beautiful piece of celluloid; it’s magical. And so I’ve been getting a little addicted to silent movies; I’ve also been missing blogging so sort of as a joke I said I would start a blog on silent movies and people said they’d read it. And by people, I mean three of my friends! But hey, I always wanted to be a film critic, so here’s my amateur chance.

I’m going to continue watching silent movies (and maybe some talkies, but only classics…and real classics, not the stuff they show on AMC nowadays!) and I’m going to tell all of you, even if it’s only three of you, my utterly profound, and probably not so profound thoughts on them. I just watched “Beyond the Rocks” tonight, so that shall be my next blog…