Silent Movies

In the late twenties and early thirties, Yasujiro Ozu was working steadily for Shochiku studios, honing his craft on dozens of silent films in various genres, from romantic melodramas to college comedies to gangster pictures—and, of course, movies about families. In these three droll domestic films—Tokyo Chorus, I Was Born, But … , and Passing Fancy, presented here with all-new scores by renowned silent-film composer Donald Sosin—Ozu movingly and humorously depicts middle-class struggles and the resentments between children and parents, establishing the emotional and aesthetic delicacy with which he would transform the landscape of cinema.

Music For The Movies: Bernard Herrmann (58') [1992]:

From Citizen Kane to Taxi Driver, Bernard Herrmann composed over 50 film scores. He is, however, best known for his fruitful collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock. Illustrated by film scenes and interviews with his friends and collaborators, this portrait helps us to better understand Bernard Herrmann's immense contribution to cinema.

Interviews of Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, Martin Scorsese, Claude Chabrol, David Raskin…
Extracts of Citizen Kane, Psycho, North by Northwest, Torn Curtain, La mariée était en noir, Sisters.

The Hollywood Sound (85') [1995]:

The 2 main schools of Hollywood composers: The Europeans (Max Steiner and Franz Waxman) who drew heavily on Romanticism and their American counterparts (David Raskin, Jerome Moross and Alex North) influenced by jazz and folk music, illustrated by scenes from "Gone With the Wind', "Rebecca", "Big Country" and "A Streetcar Named Desire".

Bonus: Biography of Bernard Herrmann - Discography of Bernard Hermann

The first part of this short is a "Metrophony" newsreel. It contains actual newsreel footage with humorous commentary (e.g., a flotilla of gondolas is parodied as being the Harvard/Yale regatta). The second part parodies silent movies with a film called "Minnie the Pretzel Twister" starring 'Cynthia Goosefeather.'

Hosts Christy Block and Don "Dinosaur" Glut present Dinosaurs in films, from silent movies to the present day.

Buster Keaton doing comedy routines and improvising on TV.

Where the art of filmmaking all began. An exciting visual presentation of the European silent film era, "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood" commemorates the birth of an art that would transform the 20th century. This stylish and historical documentary focuses on the early days of the movie industry and the enormous contribution made by Europe. Included is rarely seen footage from early movies and interviews with some of the film industry's pioneers.

Mikio Naruse was one of the most popular directors in Japan, a crafter of exquisite melodramas, mostly about women confined by their social and domestic circumstances. Though often compared with Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi for his style and treatment of characters, Naruse was a unique artist, making heartrending, brilliantly photographed and edited films about the impossible pursuit of happiness. From the outset of his career, with his silent films of the early thirties, Naruse zeroed in on the lives of the kinds of people - geisha, housewives, waitresses - who would continue to fascinate him for the next three decades. Though he made two dozen silent films, only five remain in existence; these works - poignant, dazzlingly made dramas all - are collected here, newly restored and on DVD for the first time, and featuring optional new scores by noted musicians Robin Holcomb and Wayne Horvitz.

Owning The Origins of Film three disc box set from Image is like having your own private museum of film history. Boasting hours of quality programming from the silent era as compiled and preserved by the Library of Congress Video Collection, this set celebrates some of the art form’s earliest and most significant movies, from the earliest films by both African American and female directors to a treasure trove of animation’s earliest days. Author Kevin Brownlow has called the silent era the richest period of cinema history, and one need look no further than The Origins of Film to confirm the validity of that statement. Before there was Spike Lee, there was Oscar Micheaux. Before there were Jane Campion or even Ida Lupino, there were Alice Guy-Blache and Lois Weber. And before there were Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse, there were Krazy Kat and the Katzenjammer Kids.