Film is, without a doubt, one of the largest contributors to modern culture, but when did it all begin? Though they started it all, silent films have been largely lost to time, especially with modern technological advancements overshadowing the legacy left behind. When exploring the beginning of film, it turns out many inventors across the world played a hand in the invention of film, so, rather than select an exact moment, let’s start with the oldest surviving film to date: The Roundhay Garden Scene.
On Oct.14, 1888, inventor Louis Le Prince shot this scene, now coined as the oldest ever documented film, on his new Single-lens Cine Camera in Leeds, England. These few frames, only about 2.1 seconds of footage, simply feature a few friends in a garden walking around. While it may not seem very consequential, this marks a pivotal point in the history of art.
In the following years, there were more inventors experimenting and trying to advance this technology, one of the most famous being Thomas Edison. Most historians deem 1894 as the true commercial start of the silent era. With his Kinetoscope Parlors, which were essentially the first movie theaters, Edison brought the first paying viewers of recorded film.
As people began to see the potential of film, more and more artists found ways to innovate and push the boundaries of this new field of art. One of the most famous of said artists is Charlie Chaplin, who, whilst he had been performing for much of his childhood, began his film career in 1914 with the film “Making a Living.” When most people think of silent films, they think of Chaplin’s movies. He was a true innovator, and his movies, especially once he started directing his own, were groundbreaking in the film industry. Chaplin’s art was revolutionary in that he was able to use his incredible physical acting abilities to blend his slapstick comedy with deep and emotional storytelling. His movies paved the way for film to go from a simple novelty to a genuine art form that is capable of exploring and discussing the human condition. There were many other stars such as Buster Keaton, Lon Chaney, Lillian Gish and Maria Falconetti, but Charlie Chaplin is the most well-known example. Many actors and actresses were crucial in the development of film as a truly unique, impactful art form.
The silent era first faltered in 1927 at the release of The Jazz Singer, the first “talkie.” Many historians consider 1931 to be the “end” of the silent era, as that was when the last of Hollywood’s silent features were released. There have, however, been independent directors creating silent films of their own after Hollywood moved on. Tragically, as the world moved on from silent film, about 80% of all films made in the silent era were lost forever. Some were lost to the fire that destroyed almost the entirety of Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century-Fox’s silent film copies in 1933. Some were lost when Universal-International destroyed its remaining copies of silent films in 1948, and countless others were lost just because of poor storage conditions, as they were deemed no longer of use due to the film advancements at the time.
With the archived films that are left from this era, it’s important to take a moment to look through these windows into the past. Many people think of silent films as archaic or that they don’t have any relevance to modern times, but those who look back at these films often find a strong resemblance to modern topics and the lives of people today. Actors can learn an incredible amount from the wordless storytelling these films were capable of, and incorporate that into their powerful scenes that lack dialogue. In the creation of modern films, so many aspects of their production stem from the very foundations that were established during the early decades of film. The silent era has never truly ended; the core features still live on in modern film as we know it.
