What are your favourite image based films without dialogue; pertaining to entertainment, moving image, cinema, art film, animation, documentary, combined forms, interactivity etc?
Dear Alison:
There's a lot of films, but between my favourites are The Kid and Modern Times by Chaplin. In documentary Nanook I think is the best.
Thanks Hasan. Do you have a specific documentary film, animation or short in mind that prioritizes the image over dialogue? Could you explain why?
Hello Sonia,
Thanks for telling me your preferences. Why did you pick those films?
There are two films titled The Kid, that I know of - The Kid (2000) with Bruce Willis and the Chaplin film of the same name, made in 1921.
The comic theatricality and choreography of the 1921 silent film, make the visual narrative of the film easy to read and pleasurable, but of course Chaplin was a master of humour and satire.
The film starring Bruce Willis, associates confined spaces and regular patterns with an oppressive conformity, and bright colours and open spaces with freedom. This helps to show the conflict between Willis’ inner child and adult self.
I think that I prefer the silent film because its nostalgic and archetypal charm is timeless.
Nanook, was choreographed and staged, but I do love the sense of wild nature that it still managed to emulate in its visual style.
Hello Alison:
I didn't watch The Kid with Bruce Willis. I think that The Kid (1921) has a good rhythm, for all that kind of emotions that makes to feel to the spectator. Modern Times is another film that with good images, close-ups (specially the scene with the machine that gives the food to Chaplin) and long shots to show the machinery, contribute to think about the industrial era, the "robotization" of human beeing.
Nanook, on the other hand, is a fabulous documentary, that precisely starts the way to communicate with the point of view of the director. It has a good rhythm too and it's a good recreation of Flaherty's imagination about the life of Eskimo family. The images are aesthetically beautiful and significant.
All those films work masterly with the emotions and that's the key of the cuts made in the editing process. It's my point of view.
Thanks Sonia, you have a keen eye and appreciation for black and white films. The image of Chaplin caught in the turning cogs of the machine is almost mythic in Modern Times. Thanks for your salient comments on editing, emotion and rhythm.
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