Evgeni Bauer Short Films

Throughout all of these silent films, I felt not only some urges to tune out, but an astonished feeling as well. It is absolutely crazy how much the actors, directors, along with everyone else involved in these movies knew about film. The acting seemed somewhat amateur at times, giving a little more expression that we would deem necessary in our society today, but it all worked. It makes sense, how else were the actors/actresses in the early 20th century supposed to do their job? It was also quite significant to me that the direction of the film was obviously led well. There is an obvious plot line in every film, yet each has its own twists and turns. These are somewhat complicated story lines as well, and I could not imagine having to act it out myself. Although silent films prove to be understandable and quality, I still believe that overall, films with sound make more sense. There are some certain advantages that were taken advantage of, such as dramatic acting. It makes these films more interesting because we need to FOCUS on the actors/actresses, we cannot just tune out. This can be a challenge for the viewer as well, because tuning out for any reason could lead to confusion for the rest of the film. These films are as good as you make them, as I would say.

As for the three movies we watched last class, I would have to say "The Dying Swan" was by far the most intricate and creepy. Gizella's character was acted out well, especially because she had to portray a mute in the movie. Glinsky's motives were clear, that he was obviously obsessed with death, yet his motives for having Gizella model for him were unclear to me until the end. I like that the silent films in this time period were also dabbling in the scary genre. I found that Gizella and Glinsky's actions were well executed, yet the story got a bit hazy at the end.

"A Child of the Big City" was not my favorite, yet I though it had potential. As I have read on other blogs, I agree that Mary did not seem all that bad. Yes, she was acting very impolite at the splendid dinner she attended with Viktor, yet I wish that Evgeni Bauer would have shown more interest in exploiting her doing other wrong things, such as spending all of Viktors' money, etc. It was a good story, yet I thought it could have been a little more detailed.

Last but not least, I thought that "The 1002nd Ruse" was a bit odd. This one I thought was a bit slow, and could have expanded the funny cheating scene a bit more. The creepy old man was a good actor, he made me feel creeped out and sufficiently showed his feelings for his wife.