Ask GEM: Are silent films really silent?

With the return of Silent Tuesdays to the Dryden Theatre this September, we are exploring the experience - and a bit of the history - of seeing silent movies on the big screen. Here, Jared Case, curator of film exhibitions, gives us some background:

"Silent film" is a bit of a misnomer. Because although the films were produced without sound, they were (and are!) almost never exhibited silently.

The technology to capture and record sound on film along with the images was not mastered until the mid-1920s, and it wasn't in common use until later in that decade. That means that for most of the first 35 years of motion pictures, theaters had to provide their own accompaniment with the films.

Most often, the films were accompanied by someone playing a piano or an organ as the film was projected on the screen, although other instruments were used as well. As the motion picture industry became more organized, some of the bigger films had entire scores written for them, to be performed individually or by a large orchestra if they were available. More often, a music cue sheet was provided. These cue sheets indicated intertitles or action in the film, along with moods for particular scenes and a piece of popular music that could be used to accompany the images.

Today, there are musicians who specialize in accompanying silent films by extemporaneously composing music using information such as the year of release, the country the film was produced in, and the production company responsible for the film.

Here at the Dryden Theatre, we are lucky to have just such an individual in Dr. Philip C. Carli. His extensive knowledge of film history and music of all types informs his accompaniment as he sits at the piano. Familiar with many of the titles we show, Carli has a sense of what the film is about, its style, and the music that would best enhance the emotions of the images on the screen. He uses no sheet music, only a deep understanding of the history of the filmmakers and music of the era that he's retained from years of research. As his fingers stroke the keys, Carli keeps his eyes on the screen, making slight adjustments on the fly as the action and the tone of the film change.

Like many of the positions in an archival cinema, silent film accompaniment requires a rare individual to make the presentation seamless. But that is the mission of the Dryden Theatre: to re-create the cinematic experience as it was originally intended, from the film and projectionist in the booth all the way down to the man behind the piano.

[TraverseTownX]

Carli is amazing. He is so skilled, you'd never guess that his performances involve improvisation, everything feels totally deliberate and always matches what's on-screen nearly perfectly.