First Silent Movie

 

Cinema is part and parcel of my life. It is much more than a distant, three hours distraction, it is a vicarious lifestyle. The silver screen provides an alternative, or helps me to elude from the day-to-day realities. I'm pretty sure that my first exposure to silent movies was a Charlie Chaplin comedy. But after watching "Metropolis" I was kind of surprised. It was more joyful and glamorous than I expected. It really makes the images more powerful when you are not concentrating on what they are saying. In addition, understanding the content requires careful attention, and awareness. Especially "Metropolis" due to the issues that it talks about regarding the disparities between the wealthy and the working class as well as the issues regarding robots and machines. Where I believe this film is precursor to the science fiction films which really attracted and entertained me considering that the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures while actors emphasized body language and facial expression and thus helped me understand what the actor was feeling and portraying on screen. Moreover, the idea of combining motion pictures with live music performances was a masterpiece that shines with a mixture of different feelings I encountered between the scenes. In fact, the importance of music in creating a mood was already known - music was effectively used to the same purpose in plays and dramas. But getting music into a mute film was like trying to make a blind man see a picture! Not to mention, that this movie used Intertitles that were interspersed between the visuals. That helped me carry the story from one point in the plot to another. All of this looking back into the history of motion pictures has given me a profound sense of appreciation for the early films, and for those film makers who made their creations soar, even without the use of sound.