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The Silent Film Thread — Page 4

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I doubt Dom chose to watch it twice. I had to watch Triumph of the Will for a class, and in the coming weeks I will watch it again, for another class.

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 (Edited)

How many classes require these films? Granted, I only took one cinema class, but I never had to watch those.

The Person in Question

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moviefreakedmind said:

Why’d you watch it twice?

Watched it once on my own. Then I had to watch it in class. Wouldn’t have watched it the first time if I knew I’d have no choice but to watch it the second time.

Isn’t it pioneering in its filmmaking?

Yeah, but… it’s still awful.

Also I’d argue that the strives it made were inevitable.

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History seldom remembers the second person to innovate though.

The segment I saw of it back in college was slow and plodding.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

History seldom remembers the second person to innovate though.

The segment I saw of it back in college was slow and plodding.

Yup. I much prefer Introlerance, which is still problematic, but far more watchable.

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I’m curious to see it, but it’s too long and I dread it. As someone who loves film and film history though, I feel compelled to see it. As for strives being inevitable, you could say that about anything. “Someone else would’ve done it eventually.” Maybe, but we don’t live in that timeline.

The Person in Question

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moviefreakedmind said:

I’m curious to see it, but it’s too long and I dread it. As someone who loves film and film history though, I feel compelled to see it. As for strives being inevitable, you could say that about anything. “Someone else would’ve done it eventually.” Maybe, but we don’t live in that timeline.

I’m not saying we should ignore the film entirely and rewrite history without it. Just saying in this particular case, when it comes to my enjoyment of the film, I don’t care. The movie sucks. Many of the things it revolutionized were in regards to methods of storytelling that had already long existed in other mediums, which is what makes them in my mind inevitable. I can appreciate its place in history without appreciating the film itself.

If you’re really curious because of its stature, I’m not going to stop you (why do you think I watched it in the first place?). But I’ll just warn you your dread is well placed.

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We’ll see. I might watch it when I get the time and I’ll report back and tell everyone how I feel even though no one cares what my opinion on it is.

The Person in Question

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I watched my first Chaplin film today, being The Gold Rush. It was charming, and I quite enjoyed it.

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I watched two silent films, one masterpiece and one wretched bore of a film. Nosferatu, which was wonderful and I can’t wait to see it again, and Birth of a Nation, which was, as we all know, full of racism and revisionist history, but was also astoundingly boring. I get that it’s the first big war movie epic, and I suppose it was pretty impressive in that sense, but overall I wasn’t impressed. I will say that the assassination of Lincoln was a really well-done and eery scene. That was probably the only scene I found moving, but it was primarily just because of how creepy it was to see that on screen in such a racist film. Nosferatu was great, though.

The Person in Question

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I did. I had low expectations and it was worse than I thought it’d be.

The Person in Question

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I’m probably gonna remove Birth of a Nation from my watchlist, then. Racist propaganda is terrible at the best of times; I don’t need boredom added to the mixture.

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I can’t overstate how boring the film was. And I’m not some guy who thinks any movie slower than Die Hard is too boring, either, but this was just painfully boring.

The Person in Question

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i’ve seen both Nosferatu and birth of a nation once, for nosferatu, all I can say is dullsville, with birth of a nation, well the battle scenes were done well for the time, as for the rest of the movie, pretty ridiculous and impossible to believe.

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timemeddler said:

i’ve seen both Nosferatu and birth of a nation once, for nosferatu, all I can say is dullsville, with birth of a nation, well the battle scenes were done well for the time, as for the rest of the movie, pretty ridiculous and impossible to believe.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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timemeddler said:

for nosferatu, all I can say is dullsville

This leaves me with so little faith in humanity that I feel like committing suicide by sunlight.

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How long would you have to actually be in the sun for that?

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Possessed said:

How long would you have to actually be in the sun for that?

Depends on proximity. Have you seen the documentary Solaris?

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 (Edited)

Yes.

Although in re-reading your post, I must tell you that any amount of time spent in the sun is fatal.

Sunlight can be fatal depending on proximity and duration.

In fact, based on current research, every instance of sun exposure has been eventually followed by death.

Now, I’m no scientist, but you gotta see how obviously there is a direct connection.