That’s one I’ve been meaning to watch for years - I’ll have to move it up my mental queue. I hear RDJ is excellent in it.
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He is. His performance is the reason to watch the film, and the period-correct details are also pretty great. It suffers from cramming a complicated life’s story into a feature-length film, but still quite worthwhile, IMO.
ETA:
Speaking of Chaplin, Kevin Kline played Chaplin’s great friend and United Artist’s co-founder Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Getting back to the topic of silent films, his Thief of Baghdad was an excellent silent film that I think suffers much less of the alien quality many have identified. I kinda like silent films anyway, but TToB is not like most of them. It has giant, lavish sets more like what you would see in the 50’s technicolor biblical epics than your ordinary silent set. Also, all the scenes were tinted a color to suit the mood or setting (orange/pink in sunlight, green or blue for interiors, etc.) But chiefly, the shots are all incredibly dynamic, the action flows across the screen. The Adonis-like Fairbanks is rightly described as nearly dancing through the scenes, quite adeptly expressing himself physically rather than vocally.
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His movie sets were very precisely designed to accommodate his stunts. The designers knew exactly how far he could leap and bound with ease, and arranged the sets accordingly, so that everything seemed effortless.
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A little late to this but yes you should find it. It is a feast of glorious art deco sets, camp, killing by contraption, and just a whole lot of fun.
There are uploads to youtube so enjoy.
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You are missing out. You will realize how much Chaplin was an influence on all cinema to this day. Directors still copy his scenes. Also I dare any one here who is a parent to not cry your eyes out at the end of The Kid.
Also if you can, go see it on the big screen and if possible with live music. Seriously. Maybe I am lucky to be in Seattle where we get regular showings with a restored Wurlitzer. And it doesn’t even have to be an organ, I went to a showing of L’Inferno that had an experimental electronic group making trippy music and sounds for the film and it was great stuff.
Late night when you are tired is probably not the best but you are missing out on some great stuff. I will happily watch Doug Fairbanks or Buster Keaton repeatedly.
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Ugh. 4:3?
Apparently, they did a bluray of this little gem, and the colors do pop. Which might be a nice change, as my DVD looks like it was mastered for VHS.
https://diaboliquemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Theater_of_Blood_09.png
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-ray_reviews_61/theatre_of_blood_blu-ray.htm
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That one is on my mental list now too. I knew of it but your description is really enticing.
@TobinL I know I’m missing out. That’s the worst part. I do know about the lasting influence; like, I’ve seen many of the iconic moments, but out of context. I can watch practically any old sound movie and enjoy it (even if it’s objectively bad) so I feel kind of dumb that I have trouble watching these.
I have, actually, seen a few on film on the big screen with live music - some of which were the aforementioned Ozu films, though, which keep my attention anyway.
I do love a well-played Wurlitzer. Just last week I saw the new 70mm print of 2001 at the Castro Theater, and before the show the organist played several pieces, ending with the two iconic classical pieces from the movie, with really fun organ arrangements.
Near me in Niles, CA is actually a silent film museum. Chaplin worked for the film studio that was there for a year starting in 1914; he left the following year (to make more money elsewhere) and the studio folded a year later; according to the museum’s website it was also in part because of the broader shift to feature-length narrative films made in the new studios in Hollywood because the studio in Niles was built around producing one-reel shorts.
But the museum is an original nickelodeon theater, built in 1913, and they have silent films (on film) weekly (including programs of multiple shorts). I have been to the town and seen the theater, but didn’t have time to go in. I live close enough though that I should just go when I have a chance.
I actually have two one-reel Bronco (or Broncho) Billy shorts, which, I just discovered after looking at the museum website, were produced at the studio that was in Niles, which means they are from 1916 or earlier (I don’t know if the prints are actually that old). I acquired them because they were in the office of the movie club I was in the leadership of in college (we played second-run 35mm films in a big lecture hall on campus with vintage projectors every weekend) and when we had to clean out the office nobody knew where they came from or what to do with them. My dad has 16mm and 8mm projectors so I took them to see what they were. I never did try to project them, which is probably a good thing, and they are in a climate-controlled room at my parents’ house, but I should figure out something to do with those…
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You have to be careful. Often silent movie showings attract oh-so smart people who come only to laugh at them. These kind of people ruined some viewings of “Wings” and “Sunrise” among others that I have attended.
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Well that sucks. I haven’t encountered that at the Seattle showings happily. I really need to see Sunrise and Wings and more drama in general. Though one of my happy memories was seeing Murnau’s Faust and since it had German intertitles they had a celebrity interpreter. I have seen Teller speak on stage.
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“Sunrise” is magnificent. Any frame of that movie could stand alone as a work of art.
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I have seen bits of it when I was busy with other things the day the wife was watching it so I know how beautiful it is.
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Yes yes you should. Also a lot is on archive.org. You can start with the lesser known but very funny Charley Chase who did go on to make sound films as well.
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I forgot to mention that I have seen The Great Dictator, which I loved. The way he utilized the filmmaking style of Triumph of the Will, culminating in his still-stirring speech at the end, was genius.
Triumph of the Will gives you an astounding sense of impending doom, even today. I don’t know what Germans thought about it at the time but knowing what we do now about what the Nazis were doing and would do makes it especially powerful, even distressing.
In The Great Dictator (which apparently Chaplin said he would not have made if he had known what the Nazis were actually doing) he uses similar filmmaking and editing techniques to lampoon the nazis, but also to rouse the audience against them. It’s optimistic but certainly not uplifting; it’s a call to arms. Watching it today and knowing what would happen over the few years after its release, and that millions would die, the ending gives you almost the same sense of dread that Triumph of the Will does, which gives it a lot of staying power.
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Finally got around to seeing Rogue One, and it was pretty great. It was cool to see Darth Vader, and the CG Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia wasn’t too distracting. Very dark and gritty for a star wars film, and clearly they were trying to go for a Vietnam vibe in parts like the rebels who went with them to get the plans, wearing helmets that look just like US military helmets worn during Vietnam.
Might be my favorite of the disney era Star Wars so far.
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better than Solo?
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speaking of solo, I foolishly saw the 3d version-- which did not impress. It seemed really quite dim, as though all the sets were dusty.
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Solo?
They should have called it Trio!
Am I right?
Is this mic on?
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It would probably have been my favorite, had they waited to start shooting until they actually had a finished, coherent shooting script. I loved the vibe, and the seat-of-the-pants, barely-getting-away-with-it sense of the heist, but I felt the seat-of-the-pants, barely-getting-away-with-it approach to filmmaking hurt the final product.
And I thought the film was overcrowded with heroes, to the detriment of their meaningful contribution. Chirrut and Baze were amazing and stole every scene they were in. Cassian was more important to the actual plot, but a whole lot less interesting. Saw was kind of a waste of Whitaker’s talents. Of those four we could have lost two and had a tighter, more coherent narrative.
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I’d say yeah. I enjoyed Solo, but I liked Rogue one better.
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