Wednesday, April 29, 2015

The Silents!

     My suggestion yesterday that the "Lankies" were well-suited to stop-motion and a silent film might be taken remiss by some readers.  But not every pre-talkie was an over-acted two-reeler in the manner of Perils of Pauline; they became their own art form, as capable of depth and drama as any other.  There's at least one modern example, which I have reviewed: The ArtistCall of Cthulhu is another more-or-less recent silent, filmed in period style on a tiny budget but a successful dramatization of the Lovecraft story.

     It's a kind of crazy-lost corner of film -- but there are gems there, from Buster Keaton to the elder Fairbanks.  And in the theater of my mind, herky-jerky alien beings lurching across a Brutalist urban landscape fit right in.

2 comments:

John in Philly said...

Agree, my wife and I watched both silent films produced by the Lovecraft Historical Society. Both very well done and captured the silent film atmosphere.

My wife and I were out and about a while ago and when another driver got our attention, he pointed to his Miskatonic University sticker. Big smiles all around.

The only stickers on our cars are a small Miskatonic U sticker, and a small Weyland Yutani sticker. All the gun stickers are on my shooting box.

John in Philly

Kristophr said...

The Great War of the Worlds:

https://youtu.be/s0927nFwuhM