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Kim Battaglin Drama 150 Tu 6:35 ??? 9:40 PM Silent movies vs. the invention of sound Throughout time human have had the necessity to express their emotions as a form of art. The world stopped when they first watched on screen people and objects in movement, but since time changes, so do our minds, interests and traditions. When people thought nothing better than silent films could arrive, the unexpected happened, the first talkie came out. Their movie stars for the first time had a voice and so the public started to be more demanding.
They started to pay attention to the screenplay, acting and the production instead of only paying attention to the art that us being expressed. The art in silent movies was determinate by the actor’s abilities, such as dance, the exaggeration of movements and the emotions expressed to the audience. The majority of the actors back then came from the theatre. When they first started acting, they brought a touch of art and passion to the screen without having to use dialogues. It was all about the art expression.
However with the arrival of sound that went away on an instant because artist just new one thing “perform” and express ideas through their body movements and they only had the experience from the theatre and movies with sound would require realism. When comparing silent films to “talkies” in terms of their intellectual affect you would think that it would be easier to understand a talkie because of the use of dialogues. However the expression in silent movies is so strong, that the audience does not have to listen to a single word to understand the message.
For example on the movie Metropolis the director show us the social crisis between workers and owners and Capitalism and not one word was necessary to perceive the intensity and message of the movie. When comparing in term of the emotional affect I believe that “talkies” evoke a greater emotional response from the audience because with the arrival of sound, movies required deeper content, a good screenplay that would keep public entertained, a better acting skill and preparation than silent movies. For example on the movie “Snow White” along with dialogues and the use of sound ffects the director introduced the audience many new textures and shapes enhancing the intensity in the movie. As I mentioned before silent films were surrounded by an atmosphere of art expression however we must recognized that sound brought new challenges and new ways to express new ideas and art to a society that is always changing and making progresses. But is important to say that in order to express art it is not necessary to have specific elements like dialogues, special effects or sound effects. It just needs to be expressed to the society and people will capture it in their own unique way.