Silent Film

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate November 2001

download word file, 7 pages 3.0

Every form of life and art has its beginning, what starts off crude and immature, with time will grow and change. Today multi-plex movie theaters present the public with blockbuster movies with million dollar budgets that star actors making $20-40 million a picture. Compare the growth of film production to the development of different types of art. Hundreds of years ago Classicism was a popular type of art that featured simple portraits and landscapes. Now, in the 21st century, modern art dominates our culture with its spontaneity and divergence from the mainstream. The ideas are always changing. Art reflects our culture, as we change so does our entertainment. The roots of film are sometimes looked at with the wrong attitude, most likely a result of a lacking exposure and understanding. The silent era had its stars, blockbusters and directors just like today, however in the early 1900s there were no high salaries and what made the silent film era, no sound.

Jim Carey and Adam Sandler are two of today's big names in comedy. There movies are usually financially successful bringing in billion dollar profits in tickets and endorsements. They dominate most of today's most popular movies. They are the big in Hollywood, but as any star knows, there were always the ones before who had there glory and eventual fall. The silent era had two huge stars in Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. They both acted and directed in numerous silent films. They were experts of the acting technique called pantomime. This consists of using exaggerated expressions and actions to tell a story. Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton were two giants of the silent screen. They were ahead of their time and individually defined silent film comedy in there own way.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was born...