87 years ago...
Blackmail (1929)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Country: United Kingdom
Length: 84 minutes
Type: Silent, Courtroom-Drama, Religous?
'Blackmail' is the first
Alfred Hitchcock movie in the book, the first "proper" sound film listed (It was maybe the 3rd or 4th ever
full talkie) and the first
British film entry. Although the earliest moving pictures were developed in Britain, the decades between those and this are not represented in the book. I plan on watching a few other 1929 British silents but I'd be interested to see what came before.
'Blackmail' began as a silent movie before Hitchcock switched mid-production to sound, re-filming many scenes. As the star
Anny Ondra was
Czech, this meant that her lines were live "dubbed" by an English actress (
Joan Barry). I'm not sure why, because she could speak English well enough, with a light accent and the mis-matched lip movement caused by the dubbing is very distracting. A short clip of Ondra doing a sound test survives, featuring Hitchcock's usual risque humour...
The first 8-minutes are silent, when suddenly a window shatters, beginning the sound and it continues for the rest of the film. I think it was Hitchcock's little joke and perhaps an early "jump scare". Unlike with
'The Jazz Singer', there are no intertitles and sound isn't used as a gimmick but as a story telling device. Like in this scene...
I was surprised that this early entry in Hitchcock's filmography already had his formula set. Murder, secrets, sex, mystery and a chase across a famous landmark (In this case,
The British Museum). It's all shot with his familiar brand of macabre humour and his trademark camera moves. A painting appears to laugh at death and the character's misfortunes and a lady speculates aloud about the best ways to commit murder (see clip above). He was probably pushing what were the boundaries of sex and violence on screen at the time. Something that he would continue pushing for the rest of his career.
Back to the world of silence with the next entry, another Soviet film. Fingers crossed!
88 years ago...
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Director: Dziga Vertov
Country: Russia
Length: 67 minutes
Type: Silent, Montage, Experimental, Documentary
I was sort of familiar with
'Man with a Movie Camera' because I watched a live performance of
Michael Nyman's incredible dreamlike and romantic orchestral score 7-years ago at London's Barbican Theatre. However, for the visuals we were treated to what was called
'NYman with a Movie Camera'. His shot-for-shot remake using footage from his own film archive. So I knew what the experience entailed but had never actually watched the 1929 original. Naturally I choose to watch it now, with the beautiful Nyman score.
'Man with a Movie Camera' has no set story, or conventional characters and is instead an experimental piece of art about the nature of film itself. A dizzying montage of shots, inviting the viewer to see the connections, or draw their own. Blinking eyes, window shutters, a camera iris, an eyeball, a camera lens. Trams pass back and forth across the screen, until we start to see the windows as film cells/strips. Film speeds up, stops, and goes super slowmo, making us aware of it's illusion of movement. A childbirth is intercut with a funeral. The cameraman of the title hops all over the city with his massive tripod camera like a Freerunner with a GoPro. Balanced on moving cars, atop bridges, hanging from wires, clutching to the side of a moving train. We see him filming us, as an audience watches him, as we watch them.
You can't take it all in on one viewing but at least I've finally found a Soviet silent movie I can love.
The first entry in the book by G.W. Pabst is next.