I’ve read quite a few Very Short Introductions, but this one struck me as particularly good. Donna Kornhaber knows how to write for non-specialists, and she knows how to single out what’s interesting in the vast collective known as Silent Film. As is the series trademark, this book is very brief, but it covers the essentials. Kornhaber divides the silent film era, roughly 1895 to 1927, into three periods: early cinema, the transitional period, and the classic era. During each of these, new developments demonstrated the sophistication of the industry and groundwork was laid for cinema as we know it today. I learned quite a lot from this short treatment—so much that it’s difficult to know how to summarize it here. Of course, it’s short so you can read it for yourself if you’d like to learn more.
Perhaps what stood out to me the most was the correction of a misperception that, I hope, is not unique to me alone. I’ve always thought of silent films as being grainy, poorly exposed, and choppy when showing people’s movements. Kornhaber explains that most movies were of sound quality in their day, when projected properly. Early film stock deteriorates, however, and not all stock was properly preserved. This accounts for the graininess and the sometimes “overexposed” look of such films. Even modern projectionists don’t use the proper speed and that leads to choppy motion. In their own day, and with film handled by people who knew their business, early movie goers would have experienced realistic, well-rendered images. These issues are our issues, not those of the original footage.
Another feature of the book is its focus on diversity in filmmaking. Early silent film was dominated by France and the United States, but several other nations contributed to what we now think of as standard elements of cinema. And the fact is that until sound was introduced many women played important roles in the development of what we expect from films. Women directed. Became business-savvy. Ran their own studios. Once the industry established itself as particularly lucrative, men began to edge women out. The majority of early films—Kornhaber suggests around 80%—were lost as studios saw no reason to preserve them once “talkies” were the way to make money. Consequently we’ve lost a good part of that early history. We pretty much take movies for granted. We can stream them any time, and we know what to expect (roughly, anyway). What we don’t often consider is how much we owe to those who established what the movie-going experience should be, and did so before sound was added to the mix.
