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Movies Silently

@moviessilently.bsky.social

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Silent films and the silent era, same as the birdsite

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Just got run off my cucumber bed by a hummingbird. They are HIS cucumber flowers, he grew them, the nectar is his, all his. Will try to get a pic but named him Kirby.

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You heard of "cleans up good?" Sills dirties up good. He's at his best when he's kind of about to go for someone's throat, like how he goes from Elizabethan to piratical in THE SEA HAWK

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I just hope the public domain train keeps on chugging along for 1930 because I want a chance to see THE SEA WOLF (1930). It was Milton Sills' last film and he's supposed to be absolutely feral in it. I need more feral Sills.

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My tiny Uralskiy has set fruit. It’s supposed to grow bing bang boom, quick and be good for short seasons. Let’s see! 🌱

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The whole decade of the 1910s was called "the Titanic era" for YEARS after 1997, for heaven's sake, because as we know, nothing else important happened in that space of time. I would love to believe that movies are just entertainment and we're all informed viewers but that is not the case.

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Thanks!

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I used to love that kind of thing as a tiny little movie nerd and I appreciate the effort that goes into the criticism. Conflating proper academic research with clickbaity vlogging is a bad faith argument and I see why you are annoyed.

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But Sills is, unfortunately, not super well-known outside the silent fandom, so if you know a modern actor I can use as comparison... I want to keep my reviews friendly to newcomers, you see, and a modern equivalent is helpful.

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I need talkie help! There's a review quote that I want to use in a review that hinges on a reference to Milton Sills. Sills does not appear in the film I am reviewing. Which modern actor should I compare him to? He did intense action films with more realistic violence and manly, brawny stuff.

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A lot of it is basically used to paint earlier times as primitive and ignorant, like believing that medieval people covered spoiled meat with spices or that they never bathed. Clothing is all part of that. Ask someone for medieval clothing and you'll get a suit of armor and a pointy hat.

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Very very much so. I remember a local planning committee member was talking about taking our downtown back to the 50s-- and wanted to get rid of an authentic 50s sign because it was ugly neon. Turns out, the planner wanted Back to the Future 50s. Mentioned the film by name.

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(pops head up) WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT EXOTIFICATION IN SLAVIC NOVELLAS??????????

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Even when the inaccuracies were conscious and fulfilled a real narrative need, it's still helpful to hear from experts in the field. And people do tend to believe what they see in films, even if they don't want to admit it.

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Even before Twitter went to hell, there was this movement toward "never criticize inaccuracies ever, inauthenticity is harmless" which is just oversimplification. I love it when informed costume scholars point out the differences between movieland and real historical fashion.

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"THE FAMILY OF THE VOURDALAK BY ALEKSEY TOLSTOY AND THE COSSACKS BY LEO TOLSTOY ESSENTIALLY FOLLOW THE SAME THEME OF A NOBLEMAN ABROAD WHO FINDS BOTH SEX AND MYSTERY IN EXOTIC FOREIGN WOMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES BUT FAILS TO UNDERSTAND THE CULTURAL DIVIDE, WHICH ULTIMATELY LEADS TO..."

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Yes, that was a job for me and my siblings when I was younger. Maybe I should see if I can hire a friend's kid for worm duty

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We shall destroy destroy destroy

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Fair enough, I want a Cthulhu-themed curtain, and Big Drapery refuses to indulge me

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Would it be worth a seamstress or a willing friend who barters? It’s literally a ten minute job to hem them and add a channel for the rod. Anyway, that’s what I am going to do for myself because the curtain shortage is real.

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Yes, the casting is interesting and works in both cases

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I have a similar issue. I have a sewing machine but if you don’t, it might be worth exploring double sided fabric tape and making them. I can’t find anything cute pre-made

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Reposted by Movies Silently

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I'll be digging into the stage play that both films were based upon, how each film took a slightly different approach to the material, how Clara Bow's vocal skills were as versatile as her gestures and marvel at seeing the famously snarly Evelyn Brent play the good girl.

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Stay tuned, Silents vs Talkies will be back this Sunday with a double review of a silent film and its talkie remake. Shopgirl dramedy LOVE 'EM AND LEAVE 'EM (1926) with Evelyn Brent as the good sister and Louise Brooks as the bad sister. VS The 1929 talkie remake with Clara Bow and Jean Arthur!

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July's theme is Wanna Bet?

I will be covering ill-advised wagers in silent movies, from losing money on the ponies to agreeing to spend the night in a haunted mansion.

Bet you'll have fun!

moviessilently.com/2024/07/05/t...

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These are my four favorite fountain pen inks so far. I don’t go in too much for sheening or shimmer and prefer stealth colors that look respectable on the surface but are secretly fun. I also quite like scented inks.

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I got a sample of Sailor Manyo Haha. It’s pretty as a splotch but too pale for everyday writing without a massive nib, so I won’t get a bottle. I like their ink generally, even though it’s a bit less viscous than I generally prefer. Tasteful colors, nice shading, good greens and pinks.

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The internet is very internetty today. I theorize that between hot dog overconsumption in the US and a surfeit of political coverage in the UK, the Anglosphere is off its gourd today and I am relying on the Kiwis to restore balance to the timeline. Don’t let us down!

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I don’t care what you think, random reply guy who I have never interacted with before in my life.

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I worked at a bookstore with a coffee bar. Vanilla was selling so-so, so we renamed it Vanilla Crème and we couldn’t keep it in stock. Ditto Milk Chocolate once it became Creamy Milk Chocolate

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Yeah, it wasn’t anything to be angry about and people liked the concept

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PSA Bajoran Workers While Gul Dukat could claim his former title of Legate and is the de facto leader of this glorious collaboration with the Dominion, he prefers to be referred to as Gul Dukat or Dukat but never simply Gul.

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Very much so, that's why modern viewers have such a hard time with silent era hokum. Nobody was expected to take it seriously but it's fun to boo and hiss at the villain and cheer the hero, so they went along with it and we would do well to copy them.

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I had to stop and blink the first time I heard someone say they were going to eat "tape-ass"

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I don't recall any article covering general early cinemagoing but that may be for the best because it varied so wildly. Early fan magazines and trade magazines are another important source since people were extremely pointed in their criticism.

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I don't know if it's what you're looking for but I quite enjoyed Cinema in the Colonial City: Early Film Audiences in Calcutta by Ranita Chatterjee. The Internet Archive also has a British film and censorship report for India. These taken together are extremely enlightening.

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Yes, it's such a trap because they were simultaneously very different but they also had very similar responses to us. We tend to infantilize the past and make our forebears out to be naive goofs. I mean, some were but every era has them. I love reading vintage audience responses, they were smart.

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Boo! That's so rude! That's like telling people not to play along at a Rocky Horror screening. It's literally the point (and another great marketing angle since everyone will be curious about the movie making people scream like that)

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It covers not just this myth in particular but the general issue with placing our perceptions of old-timey people onto their viewing experience and creating responses out of whole cloth that we simply cannot support based on the evidence.

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There's actually not that much in mainstream book form (though I always recommend Before the Nickelodeon) but academic writing is a treasure trove. LUMIÈRE'S "ARRIVAL OF THE TRAIN": Cinema's Founding Myth by Martin Loiperdinger in The Moving Image is invaluable.

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Right? I can't think of a more classic example of "you had to have been there"

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For example, do I believe the Tingler is loose in the theater? I do not. Would I shriek my head off at a screening because it sounds incredibly fun? Sure thing!

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But it's much more fun to point back to a simpler time when jump scares worked, gimmicks were believed en masse and trains were a source of panic. Also, there are always cases of people going along with the gimmick because it's fun.

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I went to see SIGNS in the theater many years ago. The film teased its aliens and then outright showed them during news broadcast scene. One woman in the audience SHRIEKED when she saw it. Some people have stronger reactions. That doesn't mean audiences of the era screamed in terror at SIGNS.

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