| Movies |
| [Catweazle], [Floris], [Star trek], [Thunderbirds], [Corelli adaptions on screen], [Creations of Gerry Anderson] |
Old things yeah! Even
when he looks at movies he
prefers to see old ones. His favourite movies are made quite some time ago, many
date back to the silent expressionistic film period. It is funny to realize
that people are quite prejudiced where it concerns such movies. First it is a
different technique, one has to express in a different way as you have no access to speech.
Secondly few people have been able to see really good silent movies.
They hardly ever show something on television and when they show something,
well......usually it is a very bad choice or it is an inferior and/or incomplete copy.
Yes, there is definitely the problem of finding a good and complete
copy, many of the old films have been clipped into pieces. And sometimes incompetent
people have put them together. An example could be 1924 'Greed' by Erich
von Stroheim, at one time it was about 9 hours long, now we have a little more than 2
hours left. this example is extreme, but it gives some impression.
It is nice to know that many people are actually involved with restoring these old movies.
What we have left are mostly black and white versions, however at the time when shown colour screens may have been used. For example for scenery outside
you may want to 
use blue screens, inside somewhere light brown or something and in a garden you may use a green screen.
Many movies are being restored now as they where once shown. Recently with the
celebration of 100 year of movie making, television both in Holland and Sweden have shown
the movie 1927 'Napoleon' by Abel Gance. This movie was restored in 1988
with colour screens and all, and was 5 hours long, however why was the version shown
only.... 3 3/4 hours long? The expressionistic style you may say is the art of
creating an atmosphere through different camera angles, mixing of pictures and the play of
shadow and light. It is usually very experimental (mostly during the early 20's).
| Copyright © 1998 Michel
Snoeck. All rights reserved. This page revised: 12 April, 2010 |