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monolith94
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New England
Jan 1970
time: 00:37
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I adore films. All of those art rumbles set me to thinking, what would be a good time period which would have two distinctive country-movements that you could set against eachother? Perhaps you could set italian neo-realism against hollywood cinema at the same time, but that'd be kind of weird.
However, germany versus russia in the silent age is pretty much perfect.
In germany, you have the advancing art of melodrama, in the early stages sexploitation flicks, then epic large fantasies and expressionism and all sorts of wonderfully, decadently large films because of the incredibly depressed deutschmark. And this is right from 1920.
In the USSR, on the other hand, film production didn't start until around 23 or 24, but when it did, boy howdy!
So I'm going to advance two artists from the period - on the russian side we have lev kuleshov, who was instrumental in editing theory. I have seen two of his films: by the law and the extraordinary adventures of mr. west in the land of the bolsheviks, both of them brilliant.
On the other hand, let us consider the case of mr. G.W. Pabst, who produced the incredibly moving The Love Of Jeanne Ney, and the similarly well-executed (yet ultimately less satisfying) Pandora's Box.
Although both are worthy of doffing one's hat to, and certainly far superior to any rubbish we have nowadays, who's technique reigns supreme? And what about the other silent masters? Personally I'll take Kuleshov over Pabst, but just barely (I find By the Law to be one of the finest silent dramas ever, right up there with the Passion of Joan of Arc).
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monolith94
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New England
Jan 1970
time: 00:37
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cabinet of dr. caligari is grossly overrated. other than the sets, there really isn't that much. I found the camera to be stiflingly theatrical.
metropolis is great, that much I'll admit, but great enough to topple battleship potemkin? it's a close call.
plus, then you have pudovkin, dhovzenko, kozintzev and trauberg and boris barnet! admittedly dhovzenko's Earth isn't part of the discussion, because that was out in 1930, but you still have is Arsenal, which is quite an acheivement in and of itself.
but then, you've got germany, and you've got ernest lubitsch doing some cool stuff, and murnau. however, they only made some movies in germany before moving to america. I'll admit that if Sunrise had been made in germany, this battle would be much closer for me.
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11-09-2005 08:21
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