Analysis on Silence: Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton is possibly the most notorious silent comedian, known best for his incredible, life-threatening stunts and being one of the first deadpan film comics (earning him the title of "stone-face"). As a stunt man, having a background in circus acrobatics, he always relied on real danger to make the jokes authentic. His athleticity would always allow him to really chew the scenery, and it was always really funny and well-timed when he would get out of really tight situations very intricately and in a fast paced manner. The level of exagerration in his performance tends to vary, even during his stunts; an example of that is his most famous stunt in Steamboat Bill Jr. in which part of a building collapses around him, with him just standing casually in the spot where a gap would be.

Fun fact: you can actually see his arm getting hit by the window frame.

It's very a iconic stunt for a number of reasons. Firstly, how the shot is composited leads the viewer to think that the wall will land directly onto him, and they expect that to happen because of it. Secondly, the pacing of the shot is done so that the audience feels a very sudden bit of tension to surprise. The wall's slow start up up to its eventual hit to the ground has that very subtle bit of tension that makes final moment that much more surprising. Furthermore, since that's a real wall collapsing, it adds to the authenticity, and the tension more real because of it. The humour part of it comes from the overall surrealism of it, that a seemingly well-constructed house would have a wall that breaks off so neatly like a slice of bread is such a mix of surrealism and misfortune for the lead that it maintains a comedic atomosphere. If the building had collapsed into a pile of bricks behind for instance then it would not have been nearly as humourous, and if it was a fake wall with not as much weight to it then there would be no tension. Most significant of all is Buster Keaton's performance here, which he plays very calmly, not even flinching or showing any kind of concern for what is happening around him (which is very daring even for a professional stuntman), until after he survives his near death experience, where he would then respond to it. Overall, this one moment is a spectacle of a performance, and represents pretty much everything that goes into a Buster Keaton stunt. It looks surreal and plays with our expectations.

It actually parallels this common gag, and many other slapstick moments from Looney Tunes. A combination of surrealism and misfortune that plays with audience's expectations. The audience expects the character to fall off the cliff as soon as they are far off the edge, but instead they hover in the air first and assess the situation only to finally fall to the ground. Much like a Buster Keaton stunt, the gag varies, where sometimes a character will actually manage to save themselves or they'll hold the pose in the air for a longer time. There may not be a direct influence here but the jokes are very similar in nature, and the way Keaton performs his stunts could be seen as just as "toony".

Analysis on Silence: Harold Lloyd

Harold Lloyd isn't as well known, nowadays, to the general public as the likes of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, however he is groundbreaking, both for his stunts but also for his groundbreaking approach towards slapstick humour. The look that is most synonymous with Harold Lloyd is his hat and glasses. His youthful look and natural ability to express very exaggerated facial expressions, as well as his very energetic and flexible body movements, all contribute to his acting style. His films would also incorporate romance and love interests into his stories, often leading to comedic antics that involve him acting awkward around women, one of the first of this kind of storytelling and done more effectively then than ever more. His stunts were very influential, inspiring famous stunt men Vic Armstrong and Jackie Chan. They were often life-threatening, especially due to his thumb and forefinger on his right hand being severed, and needing to disguise the wound with a prosthetic glove, due to an accident on set in which a real bomb was mixed up with some fake ones.

He is best known for his performance in Safety Last!, in which he scales a tall building and hangs from a clock, one of the famous images in film history. It was a well-coordinated sequence that used strong tension as the basis for its humour, in which several circumstances lead to him nearly falling. It was also very ingeniously built up throughout the film, as it happens due to him the idea to his boss that a stuntman he knows will climb the building, and draw in a mass audience to his shop. He does this because it mean getting paid a fortune, thus not disappointing his girlfriend who visits unexpectedly and expected him to be successful after moving into the bug city. This idea backfires when Lloyd's stuntman has a run in with a police officer who has a grudge against him because of an earlier scene in the film. They decide the best idea would be for Lloyd to climb the building himself then once the stuntman loses the cop they swap clothes and the stuntman climb the rest of the way to the top; a lot of circumstances lead to Lloyd having to climb to the top of the building. This scene works because even if we know Harold Lloyd is skilled at climbing buildings and being a stuntman, the character he plays is just a dorky guy that is a constant victim of circumstance and bad luck within the context of the film, and Harold Lloyd does such a great job at portraying this character that the audience relates to his struggle climbing the building, and therefore sees the humour behind it.

Analysis on Silence: Charlie Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin was known well for his wacky style and satirical humour. He was unique in appearance, known for usually dressing up in a top hat, with a grimy suit, big boots, and typically held a cane, as well as had that distinctive mustache. The way looked added a lot to his performance. He has a famous backwards kick, and a very particular walk cycle, in which he would sort of wobble his upper body whilst kicking his legs forward and swinging his cane. It's a very unique motion that some would say adds to the charm of his movie persona. He, as well as many other actors in that era, would wear black and white make-up in a manner that fits their characters, and Chaplin was told to resemble an older man, so he ingeniously wore a lot of make-up, giving him a younger appearance, but wore a fake mustache so that he fits the appearance he was told to have only his facial expressions are clear.

Chaplin's performance has a very positive influence on animation, for its emphasis on character and emotion, establishing each trait using exaggerated body movement. This is a very important principle of animation and is what mainly goes towards animated performance and acting. The appeal of Chaplin is his heavy focus on this, seeing himself more as a mime than other actors, and as such, the public had very rarely, if ever, even heard his voice. Modern Times, was his last silent film and was made in 1936, well into the talkie era. The only voices in that film were heard on a device, such as a radio or TV screen, even then the dialogue was very functional, just being there to move the story along, rather than trying to be funny. However, there was one sequence in the end of the film where, as mentioned before, Chaplin sings, and it is the first time his voice was ever heard on film. He sings gibberish, though, because he believed it was better than singing actual lyrics and still relying on non-verbal communication. There is actually a reliance on sound in Modern Times but never spoken dialogue.

His background in theatrical performance, and his image of himself as a mime artist as well as an actor/storyteller contributed to his acting style, and it comes off very well in his films.

Analysis on Silence: Silent Comedians

The most iconic actors of the silent era are the silent comedians. They are normally the first people anyone thinks of when silent films are brought up, and filmmakers nowadays pay homage to them a lot. They have been a huge influence on comedians and filmmakers throughout the 20th century, and even movies today; the director of Wall-E, showed the staff, during their lunch breaks for a year, every single Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin film he could find, no doubt because he wanted the Wall-E character to be influenced by those actors. Jackie Chan is also known for taking inspiration from the likes of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, for their insane stunts. Those are two examples of how these actors have managed to capture the hearts of, and as well as influence many, famous people.

What makes silent comedy so appealing is that back then there were no high brow/low brow comedy films. Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd films were all very wacky comedies and their style was very standard back then. You could not make, what top critics would consider, a sophisticated comedy because the humour could only be portrayed by extreme emotions, actions, and situations, so slapstick and random comedy was the best way to portray the comedy genre back then. Sure, you couldn't exactly quote them, since there was no spoken dialogue in those films, but nonetheless the visual style of these films, and the unique acting style of Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd, are one of the most iconic and memorable elements of film around.

Analysis on Silence: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

This movie is well-regarded by critics everywhere for its fascinating visual style, and groundbreaking structure, being one of the earliest examples of a non-linear narrative, and the unreliable narrator trope/twist ending. The sets and matte paintings (and even the film poster) are all built to resemble German Expressionism, which has many purposes. The first of which is more functional for the narrative, that it hints at the twist ending, in which the narrator is actually an evicted madman, and the whole film was in this character's head all along. The distorted images represent the nonsensical, unconscious world he has created in his head. The visuals also give the film appeal, and that's a very important thing to consider when creating a film with a unique visual style. The audience is meant to accept that the film has this visual style in order to appreciate it, and the film succeeds at making the visuals very well-crafted and impressive looking. Lastly, the visuals give the film a very disturbing atmosphere.

This shot for instance shows Caligari (right) and Cesare (left) in a room alone together, and Caligari is feeding Cesare. What you are seeing creates an unnatural vibe, that is empasised much more by the set and how it is painted. It is unlike anything you've seen before, especially considering the context, and as such it creates a particular kind of fear that is particular to nightmares and nightmare-like films. This is a type of fear that can only be conveyed through visuals.

Analysis on Silence

In terms of silent cinema, much the story, due to the lack of story, had to have been told through mainly the camera. That meant having to limit the dialogue to title cards, that usually showed either character dialogue, narration, and passing time. Character dialogue is the most significant of those three title card uses, because this was done due to technological limitations. Characters could not talk, so they had to do some exagerrated motion to draw the audience's attention towards them, and then the card shows up, and this is how the audience would have to know who is talking. It's effective, but this cannot be overdone, as it would get very tedious if the whole movie was to use this throughout the whole thing. So to comepensate for the inability to talk, films had to rely on visuals throughout. This was not easy, because films back also didn't have colour, or a crisp enough quality to see everything all that well. This was the charm of films back then, though. Filmmakers back then had to work around the limitations and this lead to some spectaculous visual styles to make the audience appreciate the story more. Since film was going through a transitional period at the 1900s - 1920s era, filmmakers and studios wanted to innivate with the technology, which, at the time, was seen as a novelty that would eventually wear off.

Initial Ideas for Dissertation

My dissertation will take a look at the important elements of visual storytelling in animation and how exactly they positively affect cinema. I will research into the exaggerated performance methods of the silent era in relation to the animated films of that era as well, using examples of visually appealing films, like The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Modern Times, and The General. I’ll also analyse the famous mime artist, Marcel Marceau, whose performances are so absurd and whimsical, while still portraying situations very effectively, that they are very become eye-catching, making him a very influential performer for animators. This will be the beginning of a chapter all about silent animation, which will talk about how silent shorts establish characterisation and narrative, using Koko the Clown, Felix the Cat, and Adventures of Prince Achmed, and other Lotte Reiniger films as examples. This will be difficult, as a lot of the behind-the-scenes material from those days haven’t really been recorded or well-documented, so I’ll have to look at mainly use critical analysis of those films for reference.

For the next chapter, I will research how much performance matters in animation, both by the animators and the voice actors, as well as how characteristics and personalities are defined through character design, using examples such as Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Pixar Shorts, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2. Looney Tunes both because of the character animation but also the clever writing and the voice acting of Mel Blanc. Tom and Jerry are examples of taking a natural everyday thing, cats chasing mice, and making them into relatable, fully characterised, and funny shorts, without relying too much on dialogue, but more on the comedic timing. Roger Rabbit is a demonstration of animated acting working well, because the acting of the characters (both the live action and animated ones) is so well done that the audience is engaged with this idea that cartoons are really living in this world, and can even specifically represent typical film noir archetypes, while still maintaining that they are in fact cartoon characters. Luxo Jr works brilliantly well because of the performances of mere objects, the two lamps, establish the two characters and their relationships, all in the way they move. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs is an example of a film where the performances of each character are so vibrant and unique to each other, especially the villain, that their personalities can be defined by their performances alone (the same can be said for Inside Out so I could talk about that instead).

I will also talk about cinematography and sound in animation. Betty Boop as an example of silent animation’s transition into the talkie era very smoothly. Tom and Jerry is, again, an example that fits into this dissertation very well in the sense that sound, despite the characters being silent the whole time (apart from a couple well-timed brief dialogues), I might do a case study on Tom and Jerry, but there is still the problem with finding reference material for it, which is strangely hard to come by. Belleville Rendez-vous is an example of a film which tells its story effectively through cinematography, intricate sound design, character design, and of course the acting.