Silent Cinema: An Introduction: Revised and Expanded Edition

by Paolo Cherchi Usai

This revised guide to silent film studies contains two new chapters that present an analysis of color technology and aesthetics. They look at how silent films are saved, restored and made accessible via archives. Aided by new material, this book is a survey of the first 30 years in the history of film.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In, History

232 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Paolo Cherchi Usai is Senior Curator of the Motion Picture Department and director of the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, USA, and founder of the annual Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Reviews

[Stephen Gillespie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A misleading title. This is more a handbook on the preservation, restoration, study and projection of silent film. Don’t go in expecting a general and introductory text on the form.

With adjusted expectations, this is a work of real worth. The prioritisation of film as the medium for film study can get overly precious, perhaps puritanical, but the writer is very self-aware. This poses questions more than gives answers, very importantly so, and raises really important thinking points — while giving a wealth of context to detail to support your inquiry.

Think of this book as fertiliser for the mind wanting to study silent cinema, specifically in its physical form. It is also a fabulous piece of reference material, full of accessible and wide-ranging advice.

[Monica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite being published by the British Film Institute, the title "Silent Cinema: An Introduction" and cover art this book was a disappointment because, for someone like me looking for a regular film history, this book is extremely technical, discusses dupe films, source materials, lost prints and is too tedious. The title is completely incorrect. It is NOT an introduction.

[Lada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough history of analog film materality and how it developed.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A revised and updated of the author's Burning Passions (Una passione infiammabile). A great introduction to the archival side of silent films, discussing identifying silent film, color techniques, preservation ethics, how to do research in an archive (wish i'd read this a long time ago), etc. Written in a charmingly old-fashioned style. Contains appendices on edge codes, Melies' trademarks, and a reprint of an Eastman Kodak 1924 guide to the care and projection of film (Film mutilation and how to prevent it).