The Modern Silent

Silent London’s Pamela Hutchinson looks back at the origins of silent cinema and contemplates the striking similarities to what we’re watching now on our phones and on the big screen…

A woman looks forlorn A woman looks forlorn

Still from 'Little Old New York' (1923)

Still from 'Little Old New York' (1923)

If you visit the pretty coastal town of La Ciotat in the south of France, make sure to leave by rail. If you walk a few paces down the platform before your train arrives, you can take in a view that is pivotal in film history.

In 1895, the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, shot a film here of a train pulling into la Ciotat station and passengers boarding. It was not even a minute long, but it is one of the most famous, in fact notorious, movies ever made. They shot their film with their new invention, the Cinématographe, an ingenious machine that could both record and project moving images.

'L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat'

'L'arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat'

Today, you probably have something like a Cinématographe in your pocket. If you take out your smartphone at the station, you can shoot your own homage to this early classic, without even needing to crank a handle.

We now know that L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat was not shown at the Lumières’ first public film screening in December 1895. It premiered early in 1896 though, and true or not, the story persists that the audience were so unnerved by the sight of the train rushing forwards towards the camera, that they screamed and fled. If that really happened, no doubt the Lumières would have been delighted.

'One of the most famous, in fact notorious, movies ever made...'

A train approaches a platform A train approaches a platform

Sill from 'L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat' © Ronald Grant Archive

Sill from 'L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat' © Ronald Grant Archive

The Cinématographe name, coined by another inventor, Léon Bouly, was derived from a Greek phrase meaning ‘writing in movement’.

With a single camera, in one position, the Lumiéres wrote as much movement as they could into each of their short experimental films. Here it’s the onward rush of the train, the bustle of the passengers on the platform.

The film-makers who followed the Lumiéres continued to write with movement on reels of nitrate, turning their cameras towards crashing waves or toddling children; rowdy slapstick or cowboys on horses; the squalor and violence of a terrifying war; a plate thrown in anger that provokes a violent mutiny, or John Gilbert lighting Greta Garbo’s cigarette, to illuminate her enigmatic face. The magic is that the movement in the image moves the audience too.

'The magic is that the movement in the image moves the audience too...'

An illustrated poster showing an audience watching a film An illustrated poster showing an audience watching a film

The poster by Marcellin Auzolle advertising the Lumière brothers cinematographe, showing a famous comedy (L'Arroseur Arrosé, 1895) Source: Wikimedia Commons

The poster by Marcellin Auzolle advertising the Lumière brothers cinematographe, showing a famous comedy (L'Arroseur Arrosé, 1895) Source: Wikimedia Commons

Until the coming of sound, cinema was pure movement: the action of bodies, faces and objects caught in action in the projector’s beam of light. If sound films are known as ‘the talkies’, then the first four decades of cinema must be ‘the movies’. It follows that the best silent cinema has an unparalleled capacity to arouse our emotions of fear, desire, humour, passion, anger or sorrow. All this seems to fly in the face of Louis Lumière’s contention that ‘the cinema is an invention without a future’.

Perhaps he was right, though.

Perhaps the immediacy of silent cinema ensures that it is always in the present tense – alive before our eyes, not mediated by narration or dialogue. Cinema works via an optical illusion called the ‘persistence of vision’ in which images linger in the mind after we have seen them. Sound can break that spell, if only because it allows us to succumb to distraction and flick our eyes away from the screen for second. The moving image endures, and when we watch those old silent movies today, the images are as fresh and compelling as ever. Cinemas fill up for revivals of classic silent films from the iconic antics of Charlie Chaplin to arthouse blockbusters such as Abel Gance’s 1927 epic Napoléon.

'The moving image endures, and when we watch those old silent movies today, the images are as fresh and compelling as ever...'

A man standing on a cliff A man standing on a cliff

Still from 'Napoleon' (1927)

Still from 'Napoleon' (1927)

Silent cinema is live cinema, not least because the tradition of musical accompaniment means each screening is a one-off event: not just a film, but a ciné-concert. Today, if you choose to watch a silent film in a cinema or concert hall, you can expect your entertainment to be accompanied by a specialist musician improvising with great skill to the on-screen action. Or perhaps a lavish orchestra, playing a specially written piece of music, or one of the rare film scores that have been handed down from the silent era.

The popularity of, and growing respect for, silent cinema means that some of the most exciting musical talents in the world have accepted the challenge to write fresh music for silent films. It is always illuminating, and often invigorating, to see the same film with new music – even the classics can transform before our eyes.

Whether shown in crisp digital restorations or carefully projected 35mm prints, silent films retain the power to surprise, revealing the inventiveness of performers and directors who were working generations ago, but whose achievements look cutting-edge.

From the painterly stylisation of German Expressionism, to the rollercoaster action sequences of Hollywood to the avant-garde photography of many early European films and the famed frenetic editing of Soviet cinema, silent cinema is astonishingly creative. Far from being primitive, the films made in the first decades of cinema are characterized by the experimentation and adventurousness of directors exploring a fledgling medium. Silent cinema is only old on paper. In action, it is eternally young.

Silent cinema is only old on paper. In action, it is eternally young.

A woman sits on a man's knee A woman sits on a man's knee

Still from 'Call of the Sea' (1930)

Still from 'Call of the Sea' (1930)

A year or so after the Lumières shot that train in La Ciotat, films had begun to tell stories, and to use camera tricks, creating magic shows that could be endlessly repeated. There were experiments with colour, and even sound.

'If it exists in the cinema, the chances are that it was invented in the silent era'

Film-makers soon began to edit together shots to make longer narrative works of increasingly complexity and good-old-fashioned excitement. Cranking the handle of the camera slower or faster manipulated time to turn a simple chase into a ballet. The close-up gave us a better idea of what the actors were thinking and feeling. The creation of film stars made audiences feel as if they knew them intimately. Moving cameras found a new way to write in movement – sweeping crane shots and pans showed us new worlds, and travelling shots thrust the audience into the heart of the action, or into the consciousness of another person. If it exists in the cinema, the chances are that it was invented in the silent era.

Perhaps that’s why contemporary film-makers are so keen to return to the techniques of the silent era. Esteemed film-makers from Guy Maddin to Pedro Almodóvar have dabbled in silent cinema style and sequences and Todd Haynes’s new film Wonderstruck is half-silent half-sound. It’s not only arthouse auteurs who look back to the early years, Christopher Nolan drew on the modes of silent cinema when making his all-action, immersive war film Dunkirk, and George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road was so evocative of a silent chase movie like The General that fans clamoured for a black-and-white, dialogue-free cut.

Contemporary film-makers are keen to return to the techniques of the silent era...

Two people smiling at the camera from The Artist Two people smiling at the camera from The Artist

Still from 'The Artist' (2011)

Still from 'The Artist' (2011)

In 2012, modern silent film The Artist walked away with the best film award at the Oscars. More recently, animated film The Red Turtle and JC Chandor’s All is Lost, have mostly eschewed dialogue in favour of absorbing visual storytelling. The fact that their storylines involve men stranded in the ocean facilitates the absence of dialogue, but it’s a bold, and refreshing, choice to avoid intrusive voiceovers and expository chatter that seeks to over-explain every moment on screen.

Even existing films that are defiantly dialogue-heavy are muscling in on the presentational flair of silent cinema. Specially sound-mixed versions of popular blockbusters are screened in concert halls with the recorded music replaced by the bombast of a live orchestra.

'Our social media feeds have adapted to adjust to our silent scrolling on
public transport'

A man and woman sit on the stairs with a big shadow behind them A man and woman sit on the stairs with a big shadow behind them

Still from 'Underground' (1928)

Still from 'Underground' (1928)

It’s not just our big-screen culture that is looking back to the early film era. The short, square, punchy videos on our social media feeds have adapted to adjust to our silent scrolling on public transport.

The most popular viral clips are verité slapstick gags that don’t need sound to raise a laugh, from the trials of trapping a spider on a ceiling to endlessly humiliating ways to fall over in public, preferably while carrying food. And now news outlets provide video packages plastered with captions so we can digest the headlines without turning up the volume. Recipe videos print the measurements on the screen, so you can now plan your evening meal at your desk without alerting your colleagues. All these formats are reminiscent of the earliest films and newsreels that did everything they could to stand out in a mixed bill of other movies and variety acts.

The Sick Kitten (1901)

The Sick Kitten (1901)

Just as in the silent era, the antics of animals and babies are perennially popular.

From 1901’s The Sick Kitten to Buzzfeed compilations of kittens being bathed or meeting dogs for the first time; from the Lumières’ Repas de bébé (1895) to an infectious clip of an infant laughing hysterically at torn paper that has amassed more than 94 million views on YouTube.

The ‘cinema of attractions’ that characterised the early days of the form is back, on a superficially smaller scale, but nevertheless reaching audiences of millions.

'The antics of animals and babies are perennially popular...'

A baby laughing with his parents A baby laughing with his parents

Scene from 'Repas de Bebe' (1845)

Scene from 'Repas de Bebe' (1845)

All this is to say that silent cinema is still relevant. The immediacy and power of ‘writing with movement’ continues to captivate audiences. While it’s refreshing to see the old ideas brought back into new films at the multiplex, this is also a wonderful time to revisit the classics, and the more obscure titles, of the silent era. There is more to explore than the fuzzy, sped-up images that familiar from TV clip shows. In fact there are four decades of cinematic innovation and eccentricity to walk around in – surrealist films that shock and excite, Hollywood movies that play on our heart strings, scenes from countries torn apart by war or reinvented by revolution, images of living history, and the fantasies of our forefathers.

Mary Pickford, who knew a thing or two about making movies, felt that the early film was in fact a distillation of all the cinema could achieve, stripped of the distractions of sound. ‘It would have been more logical,’ she once said, ‘if silent pictures had grown out of the talkies instead of the other way around.’

Silent Cinema at the Barbican

If you’re interested in silent film, we run a regular programme of silent film and live music throughout the year, featuring classics such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, through to modern silent like Alex Barrett’s London Symphony.

Upcoming Screenings

Little Old New York#
+ live accompaniment on harp, harmonica and piano by Morgan Cooke
Sun 18 Mar, Cinema 1
Book tickets

In partnership with the Irish Film Institute

The Call of the Sea 15*
+ live musical accompaniment by Submotion Orchestra
Thu 29 March, Cinema 1
Book tickets

Part of Kinoteka Film Festival

The Suffragette PG*
+ Make More Noise! Shorts PG + live musical accompaniment by Wendy Hiscocks and an introduction by Naomi Paxton
Sun 22 April, Cinema 1
Book tickets

Part of Nevertheless, She Persisted: Suffrage, cinema and beyond

Underground PG
+ live musical accompaniment by Neil Brand
Sun 13 May, Cinema 1
Book tickets

Part of London Nights season

The Phantom of the Opera U
+ live electronic music accompaniments by composers and musicians of the Guildhall's Electronic Music Studio
Sun 17 Jun, Cinema 1
Book tickets

About Pamela Hutchinson

Pamela Hutchinson is a journalist, film historian and silent film enthusiast. She is the founder and editor of Silent London and regularly writes about silent cinema for a range of publications including Sight & Sound and the Guardian.