History Main / SilentMovie

*** ''Film/TheGeneral''

The UsefulNotes/RiseOfTheTalkies came more or less out of nowhere. The first film to have a synchronized soundtrack was 1926 film ''Don Juan'', but that consisted only of a musical score. 1927 film ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' upped the ante, by putting all of Creator/AlJolson's songs on the soundtrack, as well as a single four-minute dialogue scene. (The rest of the movie was a conventional silent.). The film created a sensation. 1928 saw the release of ''Film/LightsOfNewYork'', the first all-talking film. By 1929 silent film production had ended in Hollywood; the last silent produced by one of the major studios was MGM's ''Film/{{The Kiss|1929}}'' in November 1929.

A bit of trivia: Did you know that the first four UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s for Best Cinematography all went to silent films? Because of the cumbersome sound-synchronization cameras and recording equipment of the early talkie era, they were rarely shot on location, giving silent film cinematographers a distinct advantage. Those first four winners were

* UsefulNotes/TheSilentAgeOfAnimation

*** ''Film/TheScarecrow''

[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin A film with no spoken dialogue]]. Until the late 1920s, this was a technological limitation, though filmmakers certainly [[SerendipityWritesThePlot made the most of it]]. Almost from the beginning of the medium, people attempted to combine moving pictures with prerecorded audio, but none of these technologies achieved commercial acceptance and success until Creator/WarnerBros/Creator/FirstNationalPictures introduced its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system in 1926. After the mid-1930s, it was as much an [[SilenceIsGolden artistic decision]] as DeliberatelyMonochrome became after the introduction of color.

* ''Film/{{Sunrise}}'' (1927/28) -- Charles Rosher and Karl Struss

*** ''Film/{{Napoleon}}''

* ''Film/{{Limite}}'' -- experimental Brazilian film

* ''Film/{{Moebius}}'' (2013) -- Korean film about a wife who takes violent revenge on her cheating husband, told without any dialogue or written words.

* ''Film/SilentMovie'' (1976) -- Creator/MelBrooks makes a tribute to silent slapstick; marketed as "the first silent movie in 40 years" (i.e. since ''Modern Times'')

The UsefulNotes/RiseOfTheTalkies came more or less out of nowhere. The first film to have a synchronized soundtrack was 1926 film ''Don Juan'', but that consisted only of a musical score. 1927 film ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' upped the ante, by putting all of Creator/AlJolson's songs on the soundtrack, as well as a single four-minute dialogue scene. (The rest of the movie was a conventional silent.). The film created a sensation. 1928 saw the release of ''Film/TheLightsOfNewYork'', the first all-talking film. By 1929 silent film production had ended in Hollywood; the last silent produced by one of the major studios was MGM's ''Film/{{The Kiss|1929}}'' in November 1929.