My local theater is showing Nosferatu tomorrow night with live music by Not So Silent Cinema. Should be a great time! https://www.princetongardentheatre.org/films/nosferatu

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I watched the new Silents Synced version of Nosferatu featuring the music of Radiohead. The basic concept here is to take silent films, build new soundtracks out of existing alt rock & show them in independent cinemas. There have been similar efforts in the past, most notably Moroder's Metropolis, but this is a new ongoing effort with proper licensing & distribution.

I love this concept, but also have a lot of criticisms. Like all attempts to pair existing music with silents, it can only going for a general mood of scenes, not a score that really reacts to what's on the screen and Nosferatu has some really big moments in it, but this is some of the greatest rock albums of all time with a weird, experimental feel that really does fit the movie.

Instead of tinting, this version has gone with color effects like a kaleidoscope that attach to particular objects & people. I think this is a great modernization of the general concept & it mostly works, except Nosferatu is a movie that depends heavily on tint to establish day & night and this is very plot important. The whole climax rests on the idea that Orlok dies in the sun, yet he spends act 4 running around in broad daylight with his coffin and just a red outline around his body. This really needed more processing work where they thought about these sort of issues. Probably some amount of combining tints & the new color effects was in order, or maybe darkening the whole scene & using effects to fix the visibility issues that would create.

I can't find anything definitive about which version of Nosferatu this used. The Silents Synced coverage is all from people who don't seem to be aware there are 5 versions out there & the specialist silent sites don't seem to have covered this release yet. Judging by the runtime, the lack of tints & certain distinctive shots, I'm pretty sure this is based on the MoMA print, where all the public domain versions come from & probably an old SD scan at that. I know there are way more detailed versions out there & the contrast issues with this print lead to some effects that are supposed to outline a character, but actually lose parts of them because the algorithm couldn't tell their head & the sky apart, for instance.

I do really recommend this. Nosferatu basically made the horror genre into a thing for movies. It's a masterpiece of fairly minimal storytelling & design. This is a great new version despite all the technical quibbles. In a few months, we will get Sherlock Jr synced with REM. There are yet to be announced movies with They Might Be Giants, Pearl Jam and the Pixies. I'm hoping for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari X Rob Zombie at some point. I'm also hoping these become available for home viewing.

Anyone have any recommendations for silent horror, thrillers, fantasy, suspense, &c appropriate for Halloween (or even just "Spooky Season") viewing? Here are my top picks, roughly in order of enjoyment:

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (Nosferatu – Eine Symphonie des Grauens, 1922)

A Page of Madness (狂った一頁, 1926)

Häxan (1922)

Metropolis (1927)

Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Sir Arne's Treasure (Herr Arnes pengar, 1919)

Warning Shadows (Schatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination, 1923)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, 1920)

L'Inferno (1911)

Pandora's Box (Die Büchse der Pandora, 1929)

Aelita (Аэли́та, 1924)

The Golem (Der Golem, 1915)

Destiny (Der müde Tod: ein deutsches Volkslied in sechs Versen, 1921)

Faust – A German Folktale (Faust – Eine deutsche Volkssage, 1926)

Les Vampires (1915-1916)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)

The Student of Prague (Der Student von Prag, 1913)

The Man Who Laughs (1928)

The Phantom (1922)

This is by far my favorite movie of all time. Can anyone recommend any other good silent horror films?

I am putting together a fundraiser for Christmas and have access to a ballroom with a screen and projector as well a full organ and organist. I had the idea to do Christmas silent film accompanied by the organ. However I have no idea about how to source the movies and if there are pre planned music for them? Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.

I recall watching a silent film on TCM where a young boy hid/lived in a manor or castle, and was looked after by a character who reminded me of S.Z. Sakall. I thought it was called "The Waif", but the movies that return in a search aren't correct. Any ideas? I've been searching for years, mostly for a scene wherein the valet/butler character takes a swig from a liquor bottle and the line card pops up "just to keep the inflammation down" or something to that effect.

Can anyone recommend an online archive or resource for shorts from the silent era? I am especially interested in first-wave experimental shorts, as represented by Bruce Posner's Unseen Cinema collection.

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look, i SWEAR its real. a few years ago i watched this silent film about this man and woman who run away together and live in an apartment (hotel, maybe?). i think that they might've met at some inn and then ran off in a carriage. their landlord was also a character who had a reoccurring appearance. i think at some point in the movie, the girl's family finds her and forces her to write a note to the man that she is leaving him or faking her death or something. i really don't remember it all that well because i watched it so long ago, but i remember that it was hard to find online and that i found a clip of it on social media a few years ago. i never was able to finish the movie and its been weighing on my conscience for YEARS!! please please please i need to find out what the ending is.

EDIT: NVM I FOUND IT YAYYY!! it was “When a Man Loves (1927)”

I don't remember the title of the film, I think it was called The Picnic. I had a VHS tape of Gumby in the 80s and there was a silent film in it before a Gumby episode where a man and woman enjoy a picnic on a field and then a lawnmower shows up and starts chasing the man around and mowing over their meal. That's all I can recall. It was a favorite of mine to watch as a little kid. Does anyone know more about this than I do?

On Wednesday, October 9, at 8 PM Eastern time, I'll do a livestream presentation of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with live, improvised accompaniment. To be more exact, there's a certain bit of classical music which works well with this movie and I'll be using it, but the rest is improvised. I hope some of you will come to watch it and perhaps join in the chat.

Does anyone know if they ever recorded that song aside from the small short they did for Vitaphone in 1926?

I like that version they do, but I can't find anything on them and it seems some furniture company uses the name now.

Hello everyone, I'm doing some research and I need to identify this person and hopefully the movie as well. If anyone has any information regarding this, it would be much appreciated :)

I was able to see Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) in theaters today!

This will most likely be the oldest film I ever get to see in theaters - at least, full length, for I doubt Birth of a Nation will ever receive the same treatment..

It was an incredible showing. I'd seen it before, but marvelous on the big screen. Only thing that sucked was the absolute terrible accompaniment. It was basically synthpop the entire time. Nothing emoted what was on the screen, there were some pickup moments but it really really detracted from the film and that sucked.

Went to an amazing screening of Speedy last night with live music accompaniment. Bruce Goldstein was also there to talk about the film and show his short documentary about its making. Looks like the doc is also available online https://youtu.be/HzbAa3Bt4I4?si=RSwmRuagUvLM3bpf