Decade Wrap-Up: What I Learned in the 1910s

I already covered my top ten and some other thoughts on specific films.  Here are some general things I took away from the decade:

Women Rule - Mary Pickford.  Lillian Gish.  Theda Bara.  The biggest stars in the world (with the exception of Charlie Chaplin) were all women.  Almost every film seemed to revolve around a woman in the lead.  Pickford was at one point the highest paid actor or actress and head of her own production company.  One hundred years later it seems like we are so much further behind.

Special Effects in 1910?  Hell yeah! - Was I completely naive?  Apparently.  The monster's creation in Frankenstein was amongst the first scenes I viewed in my project.  And it turned every assumption I had going in on its head.  That theme continued and peaked with Intolerance, The Blue Bird and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Title Cards Are Cooler Than I Expected... - One of my concerns going into 100 Years was that the silent movies would be man talking, then title card with dialogue, then woman talking, then title card with dialogue, repeat.  It's the way every silent movie parody works, right.  Happily, title cards are used mainly for scene transitions or to let the viewer know time has past or to relay key dialogue.  In other words, there are not very many of them. 

...Unless They Are Not - I did run into two title card issues.  First, in films like L'Inferno and King Lear, the cards only telegraph what is about to happen on screen.  Very tiresome.  Second, in films later in the decade, filmmakers became more flowery and poetic in their prose.  And frankly they only succeeded in sounding pretentious.

Silent Era Actors May Be Better Than Today's Actors - Imagine Al Pacino, or Robert DeNiro or Julia Roberts acting without their voice.  You always know what is going on in Mary Pickford's head by her expressions and movements.  You see Lillian Gish's mouth moving and you know what she is conveying through her eyes and the reactions of those around her.  Making a silent film is a great exercise for any aspiring filmmaker or actor.  In fact, I'm guessing most programs already do it.

Final thoughts - I went into this with two ideas.  First, to calibrate my brain to the times that the movies were made.  I figured immersing myself in films from an era would more easily allow me to compare them.  I still have my modern perspective, but I am definitely learning to appreciate each movie as a product of its time.

Second, I wanted to fill in the gaps in my film knowledge.  This decade, I feel like I've been majoring in D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chapling with a minor in Mary Pickford and Buster Keaton. Mission accomplished.

Onto the 1920s!