Silent Films

Of the three silent films we watched the one that caught my interest was The Dying Swan. The film may be silent but the main character, Giselle, is a mute, which is made obvious throughout the film. Giselle is with a man, Viktor, until she catches him with another woman. When she sees this, she asks her father to take her away and so she can make a career out of dancing. While performing, Valeri, a painter is transfixed by her dance as the dying swan as he has been trying to capture death in his paintings. He asks Giselle to sit for him for a painting. Later, Viktor finds Giselle and apologizes to her and they marry. Because of her excitement Giselle struggles to capture death and Valeri ends up murdering her. For a film that seemed to be on its way to a happy ending that the ending through me off. Silent films contain advantages over sound in how you are forced to watch the film intently to understand what’s going on. You have to watch the character’s body language to get a sense of what’s going on. Overall it makes you pay attention to detail. The challenge a director faces is conveying a message or story without using words; simply the actions and the scenery have to tell the story. From a viewers standpoint, it’s a challenge because you have to pay more attention visually then you normally would with a film with sound. My viewing strategy is to pay attention through my sight as much as possibly. During a “talkie” you can tune out visually because the sound is there to help you out.