Stupid movie

Stupid movie

A silent film (Flanders) is a film in which only the image signal occurs. Only in 1927 did it become possible with the introduction of the sound film to play sound and image synchronously.

To compensate for the lack of sound, texts were made in a silent film that clarified the situation on screen or reflected the dialogue that was conducted. Subtitling was also not yet possible, so the film images were alternated with screen-filling signs on which the text was written; the intermediate titles.

Sometimes an explicit person was used, someone who said what was said and who made accompanying sounds. Such a more explicit was an artist in itself. For example, if someone in the film started an engine, then the illustrator turned with a ratchet. If something happened, the illustrator would hit a slapstick on the table, the slapstick, which gave its name to this genre of film. A good clarifier knew the film precisely so that he had the tools to make sounds on time. Furthermore, the film was often accompanied by music by a pianist or a (small) orchestra that sat in an orchestra pit, so low that the audience did not see them, but they could still see the screen themselves or just next to the screen. A completely silent film has therefore in fact never really been the case.

Many greats of the silent film saw their film career come to an end after the introduction of the sound film; the acting style of the silent film was largely unsuitable for a sound film. Actors with a long career in silent films often had difficulty switching. People kept on sticking to the old acting style, emphasized by body language and facial expressions. In other cases, people compensated too much, which resulted in a 'stiff' result, or they had difficulty with the timing, which prevented conversations from going smoothly. Many veterans returned to the theate, And it was mainly the new acting talent that quickly felt at home in the sound film.

Sound films turned out to be less easy to sell to other countries due to the language barrier. With silent films, it was only a question of replacing the intermediate titles, with the sound film this was more problematic. Sometimes people chose to record a film in two or more languages at the same time, for example, Der Blaue Engel (1930), which was shot in German and English.